Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cloud Architect
A Cloud Architect is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining cloud-based applications. They Ensure that business requirements with respect to cloud security and scaling are met. In this blog post we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Cloud Architects.
Get market insights and compare skills for other jobs here.
Main Responsibilities of Cloud Architect
The following list describes the typical responsibilities of a Cloud Architect:
Achieve
Achieve weekly billable utilisation target.
Address
Address technical concerns, ideas and suggestions.
Advise
Advise on cloud disaster recovery guidelines that can provide continuity for critical applications.
Advise on best practices for improving operational processes.
Analyze
Analyze and evaluates client requirements against portfolio offerings and performs build vs.
Anticipate
Anticipate and prevent problems and roadblocks before they occur.
Architect
Architect and build highly scalable cloud-native applications.
Architect and support the build and release of new features and infrastructure (hands-on role).
Assist
Assist both internal and external customers with technical issues delivering cloud-based workloads.
Assist with developing strategies for automated client / server implementations.
Attend
Attend and present valuable information at Industry Events.
Author
Author technical documents, briefing documents and white papers.
Build
Build and maintains complex system architectures.
Build a stellar customer experience for internal and external end users.
Build relationships and become a trusted advisor for customers.
Collaborate
Collaborate in a team on rapid scrum based sprints.
Collaborate with other architecture resources within the organization and enterprise.
Collaborate with Product, Innovation & Architecture Teams to receive Product & Service Requirements.
Compile
Compile actual efforts into status reports.
Conduct
Conduct reviews to assess quality assurance practices, software products and information systems.
Conduct solutions testing and validation.
Consult
Consult and oversee test development.
Consult on technical feasibility studies.
Consult on technical requirements and proposed / planned solutions.
Consume
Consume and contribute content from and to Open Source communities.
Contribute to
Contribute ideas throughout the process from planning to execution.
Contribute to budget estimates.
Contribute to the proposal writing and SOW creation process.
Coordinate
Coordinate between onsite and offshore for regular development update.
Coordinate cloud operation.
Craft
Craft creative scalable cloud solutions to scale to millions of jobs and thousands of systems.
Create
Create and maintain technical documentation and architectural plans.
Create and manage solution related documentation.
Create cloud migration strategy as per the customer requirements.
Create, deploy, and support new systems and services that you help create.
Create thought leadership on Google solutions and hybrid clouds.
Debug
Debug production issues across services and levels of the stack.
Define
Define an enablement strategy for adoption.
Define / architect systems, solutions, configurations or testing strategies.
Define reference and implementation architectures.
Define the Cloud Architecture for both hybrid and non-hybrid cloud solution.
Design
Design and build highly reusable and scalable cloud-native data and AI ecosystems.
Design and develop innovative cloud and security architectures for clients.
Design and plan a cloud solution architecture.
Design architectures to meet technical, security, and business needs.
Design systems to support flow of data through the organization.
Determine
Determine how best to use resources to meet project schedules and objectives.
Develop
Develop and implement policies and procedures throughout the software development life cycle.
Develop and maintain technical documentation, network diagrams, runbooks, and procedures.
Develop and mentor others and invest in continuing your own professional education.
Develop and present end state Cloud Architectures based on the current state discovery.
Develop Chatbot and intelligent Assistant.
Develop long range plans with customer to adopt cloud best practices.
Develop methodologies and systems to automate and support application deployments.
Develop New Designs and Solutions - Develop architectural designs.
Develop technology roadmap.
Direct
Direct the activities of junior architects assigned to business development solution design.
Document
Document a plan for future scalability and innovation using cloud infrastructure.
Drive
Drive Identity and access and configuration management, and monitoring strategy for Azure.
Elevate
Elevate complex technical issues to IT experts, including architects and vendors.
Engage
Engage with technical stakeholders and third parties to understand the systems.
Engage with the customer and sales teams to agree on outcomes and targets.
Engineer
Engineer complex, rich applications using cloud-based services in a creative and innovative way.
Ensure
Ensure that business objectives with respect to cloud security and scaling are achieved.
Ensure that solutions created by the development team adhere to architectural standards.
Ensure the flawless delivery of Cloud Architecture Services for RBC.
Ensure the implementation of agreed architecture and infrastructure.
Establish
Establish an approximate level-of-effort and staffing requirements for complex development projects.
Establish and maintain a working knowledge of AWS products and capabilities.
Establish clear BCP and DRP procedures according to HIPAA / PIPEDA data guidelines.
Establish data pipelines for ICF internal use.
Establish working relationships with strategic and boutique technology providers.
Evaluate
Evaluate current technologies, concepts, designs and provide new recommendations.
Evaluate estimates against actual occurrences.
Evaluate the current organization's ability to successfully deliver and operate cloud solutions.
Facilitate
Facilitate the reuse of code, components, and proven patterns.
Give
Give feedback and inputs to the product management team to consider and improve the product line.
Help
Help to set and guide overall public cloud usage strategy for NCR Financial Service's business unit.
Identify
Identify critical issues with ease.
Identify opportunities for new or follow-on business and assists in creating change orders.
Identify potential solutions, including the cost / benefit of each option.
Identify and access management design and implementation (OIDC, OAuth2, AD, AAD, FIDO2).
Ignore
Ignore organizational boundaries and get stuff done.
Implement
Implement and improve core software infrastructure.
Implement cost optimized solutions.
Innovate
Innovate practical and sustainable development processes to develop a scalable engineering model.
Input
Input into our internal knowledge base helping us develop collateral and thought leadership.
Integrate
Integrate, Secure, and Operate lab enclaves across Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and on-premises vSphere.
Integrate the policy-based cloud native environments using Open Policy Agent.
Interface with
Interfaces with the client's highest technical executives (e.g., at the CXO level).
Investigate
Investigate and plan the adoption of new technologies.
Keep
Keep up to date with individual Google Cloud product specialisations and certifications.
Keep up to date with market trends and competitive insights.
Lead
Lead cloud solution architectures for complex, highly visible business initiatives.
Lead data platform governance.
Lead design peer reviews and internal project reviews.
Lead feasibility assessments for proposed service implementations or changes.
Lead, mentor, and coach other architects and engineers.
Lead new design discussion and service catalog standards and instructions.
Lead strategic planning initiatives in a cloud engineering or solutions.
Lead technical teams and work cross functionally with other work streams.
Lead the implementation of best-in-class software development and dev-ops practices.
Lead the strategic shift from data centers to Azure IaaS to serverless Azure-native applications.
Learn
Learn from deep subject matter experts through mentoring and on the job coaching.
Listen
Listen and accommodate others' feedback and input positively.
Maintain
Maintain a long-term relationship with customer and drive add on sales in post-sale stages.
Maintain knowledge of technologies, industry trends, standards and design techniques.
Make
Make an impact at a global and dynamic investment organization.
Manage
Manage and maintains track of overall project progress and provides updates to project stakeholders.
Manage Stakeholders, track issues and communications.
Manage Updates, Patches, Subscriptions, Licenses and Framework upgrades.
Measure
Measure and communicate business value realized with the business partner on a periodic basis.
Mentor
Mentor and assists junior architects and developers, work with PM / PO to define architecture runway.
Mentor junior architects on advisory services delivery.
Migrate
Migrate complex, multi-tier applications on to Azure and / or AWS.
Note
Note down and maintain clear documentation and standards for cloud operations in the organization.
Nurture
Nurture Cloud computing expertise internally and externally to drive Cloud Adoption.
Offer
Offer guidance and expertise in the transfer of on premise applications to cloud based providers.
Own
Own design of observability platforms and integration with third party tools.
Participate
Participate in emergency-only after-hours on-call rotation.
Perform
Perform complex bug verification, release testing and beta support across multiple products.
Perform in both a people management capacity and a technical leadership capacity.
Perform other related work as assigned.
Plan
Plan, design, and configure networking into Cloud infrastructure.
Prepare
Prepare technical presentations or demonstrations to gain client commitment.
Present
Present technical solutions to both business and IT teams.
Produce
Produce and reviews detailed documentation and diagrams regarding the solution being integrated.
Produce architecture documents based on tenant custom requirements.
Propose
Propose improvements and track and provide updates about pertinent technology trends.
Provide
Provide high-level design choices and recommendations based on architecture alternative analysis.
Provide mentoring and team leadership to other engineers.
Provide project updates related to technical tasks.
Provide realistic task and cost estimates.
Provide technical cross-training / coaching of more junior colleagues.
Provide technical direction and oversight to cloud implementation teams.
Provide technical leadership to peers and team to aide in the growth of all individuals.
Remain
Remain current on emerging technology trends and promote an environment of learning.
Review
Review project artifacts and may provide an approval function for solution artifacts and plans.
Schedule
Schedule and lead cloud architecture reviews.
Support
Support business development team in the production of winning proposals.
Support estimation, planning and delivery as a Technical Leader.
Support management in implementing next generation network infrastructure leveraging Azure WAN.
Support our sales teams when engaging with new customers / projects.
Support the Aircraft Health Management System (AHMS) initiatives.
Support the Cloud Architecture Governance Processes.
Support the development of an evolutionary roadmap aligned with new strategic initiatives.
Take
Take accountability for product and application architecture.
Take the ownership of any complex issues and provide the resolution in a timely manner.
Translate
Translate data into insight by analysing consumer behaviour and data.
Translate marketing strategies and requirements into specifications for Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Triage
Triage technical issues between application owner and UK Central Cloud team.
Troubleshoot
Troubleshoot mis-specified architectures and rapidly correct them.
Use
Use advanced diagnostic analytical development capabilities.
Use of cloud services for the training of machine learning algorithms and for inference.
Utilize
Utilize expert ability to troubleshoot and resolves problems on a regular basis.
Work with
Work closely with IT security to monitor the company's cloud privacy.
Work on integration for service solutions dependent on cloud providers.
Work with a high performing and collaborative team of engineers.
Work with Cloud Architects and Engineers to implement reference architectures within the cloud.
Work with large teams and guide teams towards common target set cloud architectures.
Work with minimal direct guidance, self-motivated and proactive.
Work with multi-discipline teams in the creation of technical work products.
Work with product management areas to establish required cloud infrastructures and frameworks.
Work with some of the smartest individuals in the business.
Work with stakeholders to elicit architectural quality requirements and business drivers.
Work with technical teams and stakeholders to understand the current state and target state.
Work with the DevOps, MLE team to onboard and productionize Data Science models at scale.
Write
Write and maintain system documentation and operational procedures.
Most In-demand Hard Skills
The following list describes the most required technical skills of a Cloud Architect:
Security
Java
Chef
Networking
Devops
Architecture
Automation
Architecting
Infrastructure
Cloud Technologies
Deployment
Design
Puppet
Designing
Powershell
Storage
Ruby
Linux
Bash
Monitoring
SQL
Most In-demand Soft Skills
The following list describes the most required soft skills of a Cloud Architect:
Written and oral communication skills
Interpersonal skills
Leadership
Problem-solving attitude
Analytical ability
Collaborative
Attention to detail
Presentation
Balance conflicting demands on time and priorities
Clearly express complex thoughts
Naturally curious and challenging and process minded
Self organised
Team player
Adaptable to changes
Organizational capacity
Creative
Curious
Self-motivated
Influence others
