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Senior Cloud Architect Category: Architecture
Main location: United States, Louisiana, Lafayette
Position ID:J1026-1958
Employment Type: Full Time
Position Description: We CGI looking for a highly motivated Senior Cloud Architect leads the design of cloud architecture and automation foundations for a large state-owned public power utility (the client) across Azure, AWS and GCP: a cloud operating model for the client's cloud architecture team, a cloud strategy, a catalogue of cloud policies and standards, and validated documentation of the client's current state cloud processes and architecture.
The role spans strategy, governance, and automation design. The architect leads the automation discussions with the client's platform and DevSecOps engineers (infrastructure as code, CI/CD, policy as code guardrails, account vending, drift detection) and sets the automation standards and reference patterns, as well as writing, facilitating and reviewing the governance and architecture content. Building and deploying automation in the client's environment stays with the client's engineers, the client approves, publishes, and enforces.
This position is located on-site in Lafayette, LA (Preferred), Cary, NC, Hartford, CT in a Hybrid working Model.
Your future duties and responsibilities: The architect owns the technical content of every deliverable and is the primary counterpart to the client's Enterprise Architecture, Cyber Security, and cloud team leaders.
. Cloud operating model:
Analyze the client's current cloud organization and its draft cloud operating model. Lead the operating model options workshop (centralized, federated, hub and spoke). Define governance bodies and charter, decision rights, roles and RACI, service catalogue, engagement model, operating KPIs and a transition roadmap, within the client's HR constraints.
. Cloud strategy:
Review existing strategy inputs and the client's cloud first standard (2026). Run leadership interviews and the principles workshop. Write the vision, guiding principles, strategic pillars with outcome KPIs, workload placement decision framework (SaaS > PaaS > IaaS), architecture direction and reference patterns, adoption patterns, and phased roadmap. Present for executive endorsement.
. Cloud automation:
Lead automation working sessions with platform, security, and DevSecOps engineers. Define the target automation model: infrastructure as code as the default provisioning path, module structure and versioning, pipeline security gates, policy as code guardrail baseline and enforcement modes for Azure Policy, AWS SCPs and GCP Organization Policy, automated account and subscription vending, drift detection and console change detection. Provide reference patterns and sample definitions as guidance and review automation approaches on the client's active projects.
. Cloud policies and standards:
Inventory existing policies, design the policy framework and hierarchy, and author or review up to 19 cloud policies, standards and guidelines in the client's IT Governance format across identity, landing zones, tagging, keys and secrets, guardrails, network, connectivity, data protection, resilience, logging, hardening, IaC and CI/CD, FinOps, placement, containers, compliance mapping, asset lifecycle and ADRs. Produce the guardrail control crosswalk to native cloud policy controls.
. Current state processes:
Scope the process inventory and lead discovery sessions with process owners. Document provisioning and vending, decommissioning, architecture review, service activation, exceptions, change, incident, monitoring, backup and DR, vulnerability management, identity lifecycle, privileged access, secrets rotation, cost and tagging, with an improvement register linked to assessment findings.
. Current state cloud architecture:
Reuse assessment evidence and the client's architecture repository (LeanIX) to produce validated current state architecture for Azure, AWS and GCP: resource hierarchy and landing zones, hybrid and inter cloud network, identity constructs, security and monitoring tooling, and up to 20 priority applications with their integrations. Define the notation standard and run validation workshops.
. Engagement and knowledge transfer:
Run the weekly co development session with the client's cloud team, write maintainer guides for each workstream, deliver recorded KT sessions, and supervise reverse KT so the client can evolve the frameworks independently.
Required qualifications to be successful in this role: At least 15 years of experience in IT architecture, with at least 5 years designing and governing enterprise cloud environments on two or more of Azure, AWS, and GCP.
. Current professional level cloud architecture certification on Azure or AWS: Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional.
. Hands on experience with infrastructure as code and policy as code (Terraform, Bicep or CloudFormation, Azure Policy, AWS SCPs, GCP Organization Policy) and CI/CD pipelines, enough to lead automation design discussions with platform engineers and to write credible automation standards.
. Delivered at least two cloud operating models, Cloud Center of Excellence or cloud governance engagements, including governance bodies, decision rights, and RACI design.
. Authored cloud policies and standards for an enterprise or public sector client, including identity and access, landing zones, tagging, guardrails, network segmentation, data protection, logging and IaC, formatted to a formal IT governance process.
. Working knowledge of native guardrail tooling: Azure Policy and management groups, AWS Organizations, Control Tower, and SCPs, GCP Organization Policy and resource hierarchy.
. Experience producing current state architecture documentation (landing zones, hybrid connectivity, identity, application integration) from configuration evidence and aligning it to an architecture repository such as LeanIX.
. Facilitation experience: leadership interviews, principles workshops, process discovery sessions, and validation workshops with technical and business stakeholders.
. Familiarity with NIST CSF and SP 800 53, CIS Benchmarks, and FinOps practices, and the ability to map standards to those frameworks.
Desired qualifications/non-essential skills required:
. Electric utility, energy, or state public sector experience, including awareness of NERC CIP applicability and state IT security policies.
. Experience designing automated accounts or subscription vending and landing zone pipelines at enterprise scale, including drift detection and remediation.
. Experience building maintainer guides and running structured knowledge transfer, including reverse KT.
. Additional certifications: Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, a second cloud architecture certification (AWS or Azure), CISSP or CCSP, TOGAF or equivalent, FinOps Certified Practitioner.
Competencies and working style.
. Scope discipline: keeps the work at design and standards level and leads the automation design and provides reference patterns, but routes requests to build or deploy automation in the client's environments, per application disposition, or workload migration through change control.
. Structured writer: produces documents in the client's template, with one review and one rework cycle, and keeps policy documents consistent in voice and hierarchy.
. Facilitator: runs sessions with Enterprise Architecture, Cyber Security, Network, Finance, platform engineering and application teams and lands decisions in a decision log.
Education: Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field.
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CGI is required by law in some jurisdictions to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. The determination of this range includes various factors not limited to skill set, level, experience, relevant training, and licensure and certifications. To support the ability to reward for merit-based performance, CGI typically does not hire individuals at or near the top of the range for their role. Compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range for this role in the U.S. is $93,000.00 $205,900.00.
CGI's benefits are offered to eligible professionals on their first day of employment to include:
. Competitive compensation
. Comprehensive insurance options
. Matching contributions through the 401(k) plan and the share purchase plan
. Paid time off for vacation, holidays, and sick time
. Paid parental leave
. Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
. Wellness and Well-being programs
Skills: - Agile
- Cloud architecture
- Coaching Mindset
- Leadership
- Learning Agility
- TeamPlayer
- Amazon Web Services Cloud
- Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
