Cloud Architect Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

Cloud Architect Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides exhaustive information of the job description of a cloud architect, to help you understand the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that they commonly perform.

Please, continue reading to learn the roles that majorly make up the cloud architect work description in most organizations:

What Does a Cloud Architect Do?

A cloud architect is an information technology (IT) expert responsible for the general development and design of a robust, scalable, and cloud-based platform.

They serve as a CLOUD Subject Matter specialist for executing and overseeing cloud computing strategy in a firm.

Their job description requires them to be responsible for mapping cloud adoption plans, application design, and cloud management and monitoring.

They manage application architecture requirements and operation in cloud environments.

As a subject matter expert, they must also actively contribute their knowledge of modern software development techniques and the design of services that utilize recent technologies and architecture to produce services that meet customers’ needs.

To work as a cloud architect, they require at minimum a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/ Engineering, Information Technology, or in any other relevant field.

Most employers also prefer to hire people with 5 years of cognate experience, AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification, and exceptional understanding of cloud computing technologies and modern computing trends.

Cloud Architect Job Description Example/Sample/Template

As cloud technologies become increasingly complex, the services of cloud architects are essential to help an organization manage its cloud computing architecture.

The responsibility of the cloud architect may include managing front-end platforms, servers, storage, and delivery and networks required to manage cloud storage.

The basic tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a cloud architect are listed in the job description example below:

• Work directly with stakeholders to comprehend solution problems and identify opportunities
• Work together with a team of application developers, engineers, and designers to deliver innovative technology solutions using AWS public cloud services
• Responsible for collecting and defining technical requirements to enable business process and integrations
• Establish an approximate level-of-effort and staffing requirements for complex development projects
• Lead the team of engineers and IT specialists to design effective, efficient, scalable, and secure applications within the organization’s Cloud software platform
• Ensure that solutions created by the development team stick to technical architecture standards
• Responsible for writing and reviewing codes and also contributing to all technical discussions and architecture planning
• Note down and maintain clear documentation and standards for cloud operations in the organization
• Stay up-to-date on emerging technology trends and promote an environment of learning
• Responsible for monitoring the production environment and also advance the obtainable monitoring setup as needed
• Sustain performance and availability of production systems in the AWS public cloud infrastructure to achieve optimal uptime.

Cloud Architect Job Description for Resume

If you are creating a resume as someone with some work experience as a cloud architect, you can apply the above job description sample to make the professional experience part of the resume if the experience is related to the position being sought.

The professional or work experience part is necessary in a resume to show to the recruiter that you have the right experience for the position.

You can easily adopt the duties and responsibilities of a cloud architect shown above in making the professional experience section of your resume.

Cloud Architect Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

If you are seeking to work as a cloud architect, you will be expected to meet certain requirements by recruiters to qualify for hiring.

Shown below are major requirements you may be asked to fulfill to be considered for hiring by most recruiters:

• Education: Applicants for the cloud architect position are required to have a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Information Technology, or in a relevant field and at least 5 years relevant professional work experience designing, executing, and supporting IT Cloud solutions, or a Master’s degree in a relevant field
• Certifications: Cloud architects with AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification are often preferred
• Knowledge: Some employers may require cloud architects with knowledge of full software development lifecycle processes, enterprise application software installation and maintenance, integrating with third-party applications through API interfaces and other means
• Some employers may request for familiarity with mobile application development, ability to build applications using microservices architecture, and capacity to debug and optimize code and automate routine tasks
• Cloud architects also need significant technical knowledge of methodologies such as Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and DevOps; frontend such as Vue, React, Angular, AngularJS, and Meteor; backend such as Node, Express, Koa, Java; and Database: MongoDB, DynamoDB, MySQL, NoSQL, Oracle, SQL Server; performance monitoring such as AWS Cloudwatch, Datadog, New Relic; and Cloud Infrastructure, including AWS, Apache, NGINX, Chef, Puppet, Docker, GitHub, Jira; others: SSO, SAML, SFTP, PM2, load-balancing, auto-scaling, and automated testing
• It is also important that applicants for the cloud architect job have working knowledge of fundamental networking, security, and systems engineering concepts such as TCP/IP, BGP, DNS, Load Balancing, and SSL; understanding of scripting or programming languages such as shell script, Perl, Ruby or Python, practical knowledge of Infrastructure as Code solution such as Ansible, Puppet and Chef, hands-on experience in cloud provisioning tools such as CloudFormation, Terraform, and experience in Linux operating system
• Teamwork skills: The cloud architect works with a team of IT professionals in executing his/her duties, so it is essential that they can work closely with clients and internal teams to organize activities and drive technical development projects
• Interpersonal skills: Since cloud architect often work in a cross-functional team and stakeholders, it is important that they can establish rapport and manage the relationship with the people they have on their project team
• Communication skills: Cloud architects must also possess good written and verbal communication skills to effectively articulate complex cloud reports and technical concepts to users, clients, development teams, and management.

Salary for Cloud Architects

Information on ZipRecruiter reveals that the average annual pay for a cloud architect in the United States is $153,659 per annum. Depending on the location and hiring organization, some cloud architects earn as high as $225,000 and as low as $87,500 annually.

However, the majority of cloud architects’ salaries at present fall in the range of $124,500 (25th percentile) to $172,500 (75th percentile) across the United States.

Conclusion

To hire a cloud architect, recruiters need to publish the job description for interested individuals to respond to.

To write a good job description for the cloud architect role as a recruiter, you can adapt the sample copy shown above.

This post is also helpful to individuals interested in the cloud architect career to increase their knowledge of what the role does.