Senior AWS Solutions Architect

Position: Senior AWS Cloud Solutions Architect
Location: 100% REMOTE
Employment type: Contract position

Job Summary/Job Purpose

The Senior Cloud Solution Architect owns the design and technical direction of complex, cross-functional systems across the Client s cloud and on-prem environments. This role bridges business requirements and technical execution, translating strategic objectives into scalable, secure, and maintainable architectures. Success is demonstrated through sound architectural decisions, consistent technical standards, and solutions that balance cost, performance, security, and long-term maintainability. This position works closely with Engineering, Product, Operations, and Technology leadership to ensure new and existing systems align with organizational strategy and technical governance. Knowledge of training and compliance with LMS is a Big plus.

Job Duties / Essential Functions

Architecture Strategy and Technical Leadership

• Advise on the development and execution of Client's cloud and infrastructure architecture strategy in partnership with Engineering and organizational leadership.
• Serve as the key technical advisor and subject-matter expert for solution architecture across cloud and hybrid environments.
• Provide technical leadership for cross-functional discovery, design, and implementation efforts.
• Translate business challenges and requirements into practical technical architectures and roadmaps.
• Present architectural decisions, tradeoffs, and outcomes to leadership and stakeholders.
• Monitor developments in cloud platforms, architectural patterns, security practices, and vendor capabilities.

Solution Design and Delivery

• Lead the end-to-end architecture and technical design of applications, platforms, integrations, and infrastructure from concept through production.
• Establish reusable architectural patterns, reference designs, and technical standards across teams.
• Evaluate and recommend platforms, services, hosting models, and build-versus-buy options based on scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, and cost.
• Design and document data flows, system integrations, APIs, and service boundaries across distributed systems.
• Lead architecture reviews and provide design guidance throughout the development lifecycle.
• Own multi-cloud and hybrid architecture decisions, including workload placement, migration strategy, and cost optimization.

Governance, Standards, and Risk Management

• Define and maintain architectural governance standards, including security, compliance, scalability, and resiliency requirements.
• Evaluate the technical, security, and compliance risks of proposed architectures and integrations.
• Maintain architecture documentation, decision records, and reference diagrams for approved systems.
• Partner with security and compliance teams to ensure designs meet regulatory and organizational requirements.
• Identify architectural risk, technical debt, and single points of failure, and recommend remediation plans.

Collaboration and Enablement

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure implementations align with approved architecture and design standards.
• Mentor engineers and technical staff in architectural principles, cloud design patterns, and best practices.
• Lead technical discovery sessions with business stakeholders to scope new initiatives.
• Collaborate with vendors, strategic partners, and external consultants on technical requirements and implementation decisions.
• Promote shared ownership, effective documentation, and knowledge transfer across the technology organization.
• Communicate architectural decisions, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Additional Responsibilities

• Support cost optimization initiatives across cloud environments, including resource rightsizing and reserved capacity planning.
• Support incident response and root-cause analysis for architecture-level failures.
• Provide backup technical oversight for critical infrastructure and platform decisions.
• Assist with due diligence and technical assessment of new vendors, acquisitions, or third-party platforms.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Delivery Expectations:

• Deliver architecture designs and documentation that translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Lead technical discovery and proof-of-concept efforts for new initiatives.
• Present architectural findings and recommendations to stakeholders and decision-makers in clear business language.
• Deliver secure, scalable, and well-documented architectures.
• Define key architectural and operational metrics, and track performance against them.
• Use metrics and lessons learned to guide continuous improvement of architectural standards and practices.

What Success Looks Like:

• Establishes clear architectural direction and prioritizes high-value technical investments.
• Delivers secure, scalable, and cost-effective architectures with measurable business value.
• Maintains architectural governance while supporting delivery timelines.
• Leads initiatives from discovery through design, implementation, and adoption.
• Provides dependable technical guidance for critical systems and infrastructure decisions.
• Builds trusted partnerships across departments and with external vendors.
• Communicates technical concepts, risks, and recommendations in clear business terms.
• Improves architectural practices, system reliability, documentation, and shared technical knowledge.
• Operates effectively within Agile, security, compliance, and governance standards.

Qualifications:
Required:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, infrastructure, or systems architecture, including 5+ years in a dedicated architecture role.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering cloud-native or hybrid architectures at scale.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, security architecture, cost governance, and migration strategy.
• Experience communicating technical decisions to both engineering teams and business stakeholders.

Preferred:

• Experience with multi-cloud environments (AWS and Azure).
• Experience with DevOps and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, SST) and CI/CD pipeline design.
• Experience in SecOps around regulated industries (healthcare, finance, or similar) with HIPAA, GDPR, or SOC 2 considerations.
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS).
• Experience architecting applications with React and Next.js.
• Experience designing serverless architectures using AWS Lambda.