Cloud Solutions Architect

Overview

• will also be responsible for developing and driving the GMF Financial cloud computing strategy along with the introduction of new emerging technologies and public cloud services, cloud adoption plans, cloud application design, and cloud management and monitoring strategies.
• will work with development teams and other stakeholders to drive and enable the migration and refactoring of on-premises applications to cloud native design and deployment methodologies.
• will mentor and work with both senior and junior developers and architects to bring them up to speed on cloud architectures including modern programming languages, microservices and container based deployments.
• an energetic, dynamic and innovative mindset, with drive, attention to detail and excellent communication skills will be needed for success in this position.
• you must be able to translate complex ideas, technology, and programs into language senior management can relate to and be a key influencer on technical decisions that affect the business on a long-term basis.

• Manage the enterprise-wide cloud strategy, develop the architecture governance framework and define architecture foundations
• Serve as a trusted advisor to global technology leaders
• Stay abreast of new industry trends and provide subject matter expertise in cloud technologies, providing consultation to leadership
• Research, analyze, design, propose and support the delivery of solutions that are appropriate for business and technology strategies
• Understand, advocate and support IT enterprise strategies and act as a visionary to proactively assist in the direction for future strategies
• Recommend best-fit cloud solutions on the basis of need and risk appetite
• Lead the identification and analysis of enterprise business drivers to develop architecture requirements
• 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

• 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 Management

• Demonstrated 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

• Bachelor's Degree in related field or equivalent work or military experience preferred

• 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 (Google Cloud Platform) preferred
• 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 preferred
• 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 preferred
• Experience in articulating the business drives and architectural approach/trade-offs during discussions for solution buy-in at various levels and gain consensus preferred
• Experience in driving new infrastructure technologies from proof-of-concepts to full production implementation preferred
• Experience in driving cloud migration and strategy initiatives preferred