W2 ONLY - Need AWS architect - Lake Forest, CA (Onsite)

AWS architect

Location: Lake Forest, CA (Onsite)

Job Description:

Visionary and deeply technical Architect to drive the operational maturity of the platform. This is high-impact position that will work side-by-side with our COI, system test and execution teams to identify and address complex issues related to reliability/availability, performance, scale and cost. The problem space will span diverse topics such as deployment pipelines, system testing, feature flags, Kubernetes configuration, resource allocation/utilization, cost management, multi-tenancy architectures.

The successful candidate will be responsible for researching, defining, and validating the advanced architectural patterns and practices required to operate our system at scale.

Key Skills and Knowledge:

• Collaborative Leadership: Partner directly with COI and execution teams to identify challenges and opportunities for maturing our cloud capabilities. This is a role of influence, not authority.
• Research & Prototyping: Lead research into emerging technologies and architectural patterns. An example is Prototype and validate solutions that enhance our use of Kubernetes and AKS on Azure, focusing on:
  • Workload Balancing & Efficiency: Develop advanced strategies for intelligent workload scheduling, auto-scaling, and resource optimization.
  • Cost Management: Architect and prove out cost-control models that allow the platform to scale efficiently without compromising performance.
  • Reliability & High Availability: Design and validate architectural patterns that ensure system resilience, fault tolerance, and seamless disaster recovery.
• System-Level Validation: Work with system test teams to design and implement experiments that validate the interaction between major system components under stress. Your focus will be on creating scenarios that simulate real-world customer use cases to uncover systemic issues before they reach production.
• Knowledge Transfer and Enablement: Act as a catalyst for skill growth by demonstrating the "art of the possible." Through proofs-of-concept and close collaboration, you will provide the technical credibility and motivation necessary for teams to learn, grow, and adopt new operational paradigms.

Key Skills and Knowledge:

• Expert-Level Kubernetes: Deep, hands-on knowledge of Kubernetes architecture, including the control plane, scheduling, service mesh, network policies, and resource management.
• Azure - AKS Expertise / AWS – EKS Expertise: Proven expertise in designing and managing complex, scalable solutions on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and AWS EKS. Strong command of the broader Azure and AWS ecosystems.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Proficiency with tools like Terraform or Bicep for automating the provisioning and management of complex cloud topologies.
• CI/CD and GitOps: Strong background in building and optimizing CI/CD pipelines and implementing GitOps principles for automated and reliable application delivery.
• Observability: In-depth knowledge of modern observability stacks, including logging, metrics, and tracing (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, Open telemetry).
• Distributed Systems Architecture: A fundamental understanding of the principles and trade-offs involved in designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.