Full Job Description
Lead Cloud Architect
Cooley is seeking a Lead Cloud Architect to join the Innovation team.
Position Summary: As a leading technology law firm, Cooley is determined to become a leader in the digital practice of law. The Lead Cloud Architect is responsible for owning the technical architecture and engineering standards for a greenfield SOC2-compliant SaaS platform built on AWS with hybrid connectivity to Azure and Databricks. This is a foundational leadership position that will have input into every infrastructure, security, and delivery decision. Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Position Responsibilities:
- Responsible for designing and maintaining Terraform modules, CI/CD golden path templates, and cloud infrastructure that enforce SOC 2-compliant patterns by default
- Owns the "paved road" used by product engineers for deployment
- Partners with the DevSecOps Engineer to validate security requirements in every template
- Maintains dotted-line governance reporting to Head of Information Security and compliance matters
- Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports
- Provides day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
- Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
- In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
- All other duties as assigned or required
Skills & Responsibilities
Required:
- After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications; demonstrated ability to learn and adopt new systems quickly
- Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
- Ability to travel, as required
- 7+ years direct applicable experience (e.g., cloud infrastructure or architecture roles)
- Extensive hands-on background with AWS (IAM, networking, Organizations) and Terraform at scale
- Experience with multi-cloud or hybrid architectures involving Azure connectivity
- Ability to set technical direction while remaining hands-on during the buildout phase
- Strong knowledge of infrastructure-as-code, zero-trust networking, and least-privilege access models
Preferred:
- Bachelor's degree
Competencies:
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving and project management skills
- Ability to balance best practices with business objectives
- Entrepreneurial by nature
- Excellent attention to detail
- Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems
- Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines
- Ability to drive projects to completion and achieve goals
- Strong judgment
- Team-player with collaborative spirit
- Unwavering ability to handle and maintain confidentiality regarding firm information, projects, client data
- High level of professionalism at all times
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and develop talent
- Proactive, analytical mindset
Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices.