Cloud Solutions Architect

Participate in the development and ongoing management of enterprise architecture governance structure based on business and IT strategies
Lead and facilitate the creation of governing principles to guide infrastructure decision-making
Manage the budget for the teams that you are responsible for and the related infrastructure & services
Supervise day to day operations. Guiding team to provide internal and external customers with excellent customer service while striving to provide world-class service
Effectively communicate current status of all projects, problems, and issues to the IT senior management team
Must have high attention to detail, be well organized and be a self-starter
Must be able to work with limited direct supervision
Regularly communicate project health and identifies risks to project and program stakeholders, sponsors, and management
Resolve most conflicts between timeline, budget, and scope independently but intuitively escalate complex or consequential issues to management
Identify and direct changes through appropriate review and approval mechanisms
Define cloud standards, DevOps, Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) tool chain and Standard Operating Environment (SOE)
Define, implement and enforce the cloud standard operating environment, cloud standards, and associated tools/platforms/frameworks for the GMF application portfolio, in coordination with IT-wide efforts and Technology Architecture and Planning
Drive Proof-of-Concepts and implementation, with hands-on involvement as SME, for new SOE items: build deployment automation pipelines, build automated next gen CI/CD pipelines partnering with development teams, build and integrate new technologies like containers enabling multi-cloud and preventing cloud provider lock-in
Contribute to, and influence IT-wide definition and enhancements of Azure and other public cloud platforms customization, standards and best practices for GM Financial
Represent GM Financial externally in conferences and summits. Build partnerships and network with other external vendors to understand tool offerings, how we can integrate and benefits to GM Financial
Understand and build on emerging industry trends and how they work with GM Financial
Define and execute the IT application portfolio strategy for public and private cloud migrations, data center consolidation and on-premises evolution, in alignment with overall IT strategy and directions
Plan and drive public cloud migration: Total cost of ownership including projections and budgets, application assessment, security concerns and resolution, network concerns and resolution, review checklists with application owners, operations teams, development and testing, DBA's, appropriate migration paths, etc.
Define and enforce Cloud architecture best practices: availability; redundancy schemes, performance, Disaster Recovery, DB and Interfacing Systems, etc.
Educate teams about Cloud standards, migrations and SOE
Drive training sessions, curriculum and code labs in our Cloud Dojo with dev teams
Be SME and expert across the business for all Cloud technical hands-on questions, with an initial focus on Azure and Cloud Native, 12 Factor Software development
This list is not exhaustive; you will be expected to carry out any other duties that are deemed reasonable in relation to your position

RESPONSIBILITIES

Deep understanding of cloud computing technologies, business drivers and emerging computing trends
Knowledge and understanding of industry trends and new technologies and ability to apply trends to architectural needs
Knowledge of enterprise platforms and operating systems as well as knowledge of key business functions and processes
Working knowledge of Agile development, Scrum and Application Lifecycle ManagementDemonstrated ability to provide leadership, management, and mentoring to team members
Demonstrable experience leading software developers, systems or process analysts
Demonstrated excellent communication (verbal and writing), influencing and negotiation skills
Ability to interact with and provide architectural design guidance to project teams made up of employee and/or supplier resources
Ability to effectively communicate with other senior leaders of IT on program strategies and plans and negotiate quality solutions
Ability to break down complex topics into simple to digest information and data points, adjusted to audiences at various levels
Ability to create system and process flow diagrams, data flow diagrams, sequence and UML diagrams, inter and intra system dependencies within the functional domain and across them
Ability to facilitate group meetings/discussions
Ability to broker solutions for issues between functional domains, senior leaders
Willingness to instruct and coach in a cloud training program as needed
Demonstrated strong analytic and problem-solving abilities

QUALIFICATIONS

Normal office environment
There may be a requirement to occasionally work a flexible schedule with the possibility of working long hours
Work Experience
5-7 years of systems design experience with at least three or more years of experience with cloud like technologies such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Pref
Deep technical experience in one or more of the following areas: software design or development, application design, systems operations/management, database architecture, virtualization, IP networking, storage, IT security and Linux system administration Pref
Experience with the following: Azure Eventhub, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Kubernetes Service, Blob Storage, Azure DNS, Virtual Networks, Redis Cache and Azure App Service, Containers Pref
Experience in articulating the business drives and architectural approach/trade-offs during discussions for solution buy-in at various levels and gain consensus Pref
Experience in driving new infrastructure technologies from proof-of-concepts to full production implementation Pref
Experience in driving cloud migration and strategy initiatives Pref
Education
High School Diploma
Associate Degree
Bachelor's Degree in related field or equivalent work or military experience Preferred
Master's Degree