Ascend Engineering Foundation (AEF) - Cloud Architect_Products & Platforms

Position Summary

The Team

Ascend Engineering Foundation (AEF) provides a common engineering foundation of reusable assets, common runtime services (CRS), platform capabilities and deployment frameworks that helps teams deliver client solutions consistently and efficiently. Supporting Zora's Product Plus and Ascend's Service+ strategies, AEF brings together cloud infrastructure, integration, AI and agentic capabilities, access controls and AppStore deployment patterns to simplify application modernization and client deployments. AEF's common runtime services provide shared capabilities that applications can reuse, reducing duplication and enabling consistent deployment and operation across supported environments.

Position Summary

As a Cloud Architect, you will build and deploy cloud solutions to support enterprise clients. This requires all dimensions of cloud architecture.

Recruiting for this role ends on 12/1/2026.

Work you'll do

As a Cloud Architect, you will architect, build, and operate enterprise cloud environments for our clients - from initial design through migration, onboarding, and day-to-day operations. Key responsibilities include:

Responsibilities

• Architecting application designs using Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), or any leading cloud-provider service.
• Building, migrating, and testing Cloud Service Provider (CSP) environments.
• Designing data security and end-to-end applications.
• Leading application migration projects, including optimizing technical reliability and improving application performance.
• Integrating with on-premises applications, cloud providers, or other platforms.
• Implementing cost-optimized solutions based on usage, business requirements, and budget.

• Develop client architecture, assuring it meets availability, disaster recovery (DR), and Well-Architected best practices.
• Design, implement, and test Disaster Recovery.
• Identify solution components via Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) review.
• Lead technical onboarding and integration with the OpenCloud Platform, including the OC Portal.
• Lead end-to-end implementation of design for new builds.
• Own technical sign-off and verification of the go/no-go checklist.

• Lead incident and change request (CR) escalation for timely resolution, ensuring the RCA/problem management process is executed.
• Lead all root cause analysis (RCA) and problem management efforts.
• Lead client and project team interaction for technical decisions.
• Conduct quarterly Well-Architected Reviews (WAR) and update architecture design documents in conjunction with cost optimization.
• Work directly with Affinity Groups to ensure automation (pipeline) for deployment, release, and operational activities is repeatable and follows best practices.
• Work with Shared Services team members, identifying repeatable efforts that can be automated.
• Work with the Service Delivery Manager to implement areas of improvement.
• Conduct monthly reviews of existing runbooks with the Pod/Architecture Team for alignment of automated processes.
• Review and own verification of monitoring, performance, and budget alerting to align with SLA requirements as a baseline to support SOWs.

• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Effective communication skills.

• Bachelor-level degree in engineering, IT, data communications, telecommunications, computer science, or equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications.
• 6+ years of relevant consulting, industry, or technology experience.
• Ability to architect enterprise applications using Azure, GCP, or AWS.
• Deep knowledge of Kubernetes architecture design and deployment.
• Cloud networking architecture skills and configuration.
• Working knowledge of cloud technologies such as computing, storage, network, managed SQL/NoSQL databases/data warehouses, and auto-scaling groups.
• Understanding of cloud security for identity and access management (IAM) to security groups.
• Deep knowledge of automation scripts and tools: Terraform, Bash, Ansible, Jenkins, and CloudFormation.
• Understanding of how to deploy multitier applications across a custom-defined virtual private cloud.
• Ability to set up multilevel network environments with any of the CSPs.
• Ability to design scalable, secure, dependable, and efficient technical cloud ecosystems to support enterprise applications.
• Experience with Application Programming Interface (API) and gateway functions: cloud function and API gateway (or equivalent).
• Ability to travel X-X%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

• AWS certification - Associate or Professional Solutions Architect.
• Experience with Linux and/or Windows-based OS, including virtual machines: Red Hat, SUSE, or Windows Server.
• Experience with cloud automation and container tools: Bash scripting and Ansible.
• Working knowledge of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and/or Agile methodologies.