Director – Senior AWS Cloud Architect

About the Role

We are seeking a technically deep Director – Senior AWS Cloud Architect for our AWS Cloud & Infrastructure Transformation practice. Person should be a seasoned professional with 15+ years of experience driving large-scale cloud transformation engagements across enterprise clients. Should have played a role of a trusted advisor to CXOs, lead multi-disciplinary delivery teams and leading go-to-market initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

-Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Design and own end-to-end AWS cloud architectures for enterprise-grade, highly available, and secure environments spanning compute, storage, networking, databases, serverless, containers, AI/ML, analytics, and more.
• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives including replatforming, re-architecting, and migration of complex legacy workloads to AWS.
• Define and govern cloud architecture standards, patterns, reference architectures, and best practices across engagements.
• Provide technical oversight on OS-level configurations, network topology design (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Route 53, WAF, CloudFront), and hybrid/multi-cloud connectivity.

-Cloud Migration & Modernization

• Lead and oversee large-scale cloud migration programs (lift-and-shift, replatforming, refactoring) using frameworks such as AWS MAP (Migration Acceleration Program).
• Drive application and infrastructure modernization using containerization (EKS, ECS), serverless (Lambda, Fargate), and microservices architectures.
• Own migration wave planning, dependency mapping, cutover strategies, and hypercare support.

-DevOps & Platform Engineering

• Architect and oversee implementation of enterprise-grade CI/CD pipelines using AWS-native and third-party toolchains (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
• Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adoption using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and CDK.
• Champion DevSecOps practices including automated security scanning, policy-as-code, and compliance guardrails.

-FinOps & Cloud Economics

• Expertise in FinOps strategy and governance across client engagements — cost visibility, allocation, optimization, and accountability.
• Conduct and present cloud TCO and ROI analyses, savings plans, reserved instance strategies, right-sizing, and waste elimination frameworks.
• Partner with client finance and procurement teams to build cloud financial models and ongoing cost management frameworks.

-Estimations & Proposal Development

• Own technical estimation frameworks for cloud transformation programs — effort models, resourcing.
• Lead and contribute to RFP/RFI responses, technical proposals, SOWs, and client-facing presentations for pre-sales pursuits.
• Collaborate with the sales and alliances team to shape AWS partnership-led opportunities.

-Client & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the primary technical point of contact and trusted advisor for C-suite and VP-level client stakeholders.
• Lead executive workshops, cloud strategy roadmap sessions.
• Navigate complex client environments, manage escalations, and ensure alignment between business objectives and technical delivery.

-Team Leadership & People Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of cloud architects, engineers, and consultants across multiple concurrent engagements.
• Establish a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous learning within the team.
• Drive capability building — certifications, knowledge sharing, CoP (Community of Practice) participation, and internal IP development.
• Partner with HR and practice leadership on hiring, performance management, and career development.
• Pre-Sales & Business Development
• Play a hands-on role in pre-sales pursuits — from client discovery and solutioning to proposal defense and contract closure.
• Identify new business opportunities within existing client accounts and contribute to practice revenue targets.

Required Qualifications

Experience:

• 15+ years of overall IT experience with a minimum of 10+ years in AWS cloud architecture and delivery.
• Demonstrated track record of leading large-scale cloud transformation programs from strategy through execution.
• Prior experience in a Big 4, global SI, or top-tier technology consulting environment strongly preferred.
• Deep hands-on expertise across a broad spectrum of AWS services including (but not limited to):
• Compute: EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, Fargate, Batch
• Storage: S3, EBS, EFS, FSx, Storage Gateway
• Networking: VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Route 53, ALB/NLB, CloudFront, WAF
• Databases: RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift, ElastiCache
• Security: IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, Security Hub, GuardDuty, Config, Control Tower
• DevOps: CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation, CDK, Systems Manager
• Analytics & AI/ML: Glue, Athena, EMR, SageMaker, Kinesis, QuickSight
• Management: CloudWatch, Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, Organizations

Education:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.

Certifications (Required):

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional (or equivalent)

Certifications (Preferred / Advantageous):

• AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
• FinOps Certified Practitioner (FinOps Foundation)