Cloud Architect - Senior Cloud Migration Architect

Job DescriptionJob DescriptionWe are seeking a Senior Cloud Migration Architect to embed with our development team and lead the AWS platform configuration and CI/CD automation for a large-scale enterprise cloud migration program. The program covers 30+ applications across migration approaches such as Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon EKS, EC2/Cloud VM - to be delivered across multiple sprints.

The contractor will own the technical configuration of AWS services for each migration pattern, design and build Azure DevOps (ADO) pipelines that integrate with ArgoCD or Flux for GitOps-driven deployments to EKS, and partner closely with application teams, the AWS Infrastructure Team, and the DBA team to deliver production-ready environments sprint by sprint.

This is a hands-on, deeply technical role for someone who can move fast, write production-grade IaC, debug across the stack, and mentor application developers and administrators on cloud-native patterns

Job Duties

AWS Platform Configuration

Configure and tune AWS Elastic Beanstalk environments for applications across Dev, Test, and Prod, including platform versions, scaling policies, environment variables, and rolling deployment configuration

Stand up and operate Amazon EKS clusters across Dev/Test/Prod for containerized workloads, including node groups, cluster autoscaling, ingress controllers, and namespace strategy

Provision and harden EC2/Cloud VM environments, including AMI selection, instance sizing, OS-level configuration, and patching strategy

Partner with the DBA team on Amazon RDS setup for SQL Server and PostgreSQL including parameter groups, subnet groups, backup policies, and Multi-AZ configuration

Design VPC networking, security groups, IAM roles/policies, KMS keys, and Secrets Manager integration following least-privilege principles

Build infrastructure-as-code (Terraform preferred; CloudFormation acceptable) so every environment is reproducible and auditable

CI/CD & GitOps

Design and build Azure DevOps build and release pipelines tailored to each migration pattern: EB pattern: source build → artifact → eb deploy to environment per stage, EKS pattern: Docker build → ECR push → manifest/Helm chart update → GitOps sync via ArgoCD or Flux, EC2 pattern: build → AMI bake or aws-deploy → blue/green or rolling release, In-place upgrade pattern: validation, packaging, and controlled deployment to existing servers

Implement GitOps using ArgoCD or Flux for EKS workloads - pull-based deployments, automated drift detection, app-of-apps or kustomize/helm patterns, multi-cluster or multi-namespace promotion

Establish promotion strategy across Dev to Test to Prod with appropriate gates, approvals, and rollback mechanisms

Standardize pipeline templates (YAML) so application teams can self-onboardnew services consistently

Integrate static analysis, container scanning (Trivy/ECR scan), SAST/DAST hooks, and artifact provenance into the pipeline

Observability & Reliability

Configure CloudWatch logs, metrics, alarms, and dashboards for each workload

Define SLOs, alerting thresholds, and incident response runbooks for production cutover events

Documentation & Hand-off

Produce architecture decision records (ADRs), runbooks, and operational procedures so workloads can be supported by the long-term operations team

Maintain a clean, versioned IaC repository as the source of truth for all environments

Collaboration

Work daily with application development teams, AWS Infrastructure Team, DBA Team, and Tech Leads

Pair with developers to debug cloud-specific issues (cold starts, container OOMs, RDS connectivity, IAM denials)

Requirements5–6+ year:

Hands-on experience building and operating production workloads on AWS, with deep knowledge of Elastic Beanstalk, EKS, EC2, RDS, VPC, IAM, S3, CloudWatch, and Secrets Manager

3+ years:

Hands-on with Kubernetes - production EKS preferred, including Helm, kubectl, ingress (ALB/NGINX), HPA, and troubleshooting

pods/services/networking

Production experience with ArgoCD or Flux - designed app-of-apps structure, managed multi-environment promotion, and resolved GitOps drift in real workloads. This is non-negotiable.

Strong Azure DevOps Pipelines (YAML) experience - build pipelines, multi-stage release pipelines, variable groups, service connections, and self-hosted/Microsoft-hosted agents. Equivalent strong experience in another major CI/CD tool (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) is acceptable if Azure DevOps can be picked up quickly

Solid Docker skills - multi-stage builds, image hardening, ECR

Infrastructure-as-Code in production: Terraform (preferred) or CloudFormation/CDK

Database familiarity - comfortable working with DBA teams on RDS (SQL Server and PostgreSQL), connection strings, secrets rotation, and migration cutover

Linux administration (RHEL/Amazon Linux/Ubuntu) and shell scripting (bash)

Source control with Git - branching strategies, pull requests, code review discipline

Strong written communication - must produce clear runbooks, architecture diagrams, and PR descriptions

Desired Skills

AWS certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or DevOps Engineer - Professional

CKA / CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Administrator/Developer)

Experience migrating .NET and Java applications from on-premises to AWS

Experience operating COTS products in containerized or cloud environments

Experience with service mesh (Istio, App Mesh) or API gateways

Exposure to HashiCorp Vault, secrets rotation, and certificate management

Familiarity with DataDog, New Relic, or Splunk in addition to native AWS observability

Experience with blue/green and canary deployment patterns

Minimum Education

Bachelor's Degree

Location

Local candidates (strongly preferred) or non-local (must be willing to relocate at their own expense from acceptance with no delays & follow the hybrid schedule)

Position is a hybrid schedule with need to be onsite from day 1, two days a week. NO REMOTE ONLY OPTION

Working hours Monday-Friday, approximately 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Additional Requirements

Must be authorized to work in the United States; We are unable to offer sponsorships at this time

Must undergo a background check and drug screening for employment.

Employment Terms

This is a W2 position

40 hrs per week

HYBRID schedule - will need to be onsite from day 1, two days a week. NO REMOTE ONLY OPTION

About Zenfreed

At Zenfreed, we are more than an IT company. We bridge the gap between people wanting to do the work they were meant to do and organizations needing the right talent.

We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

BenefitsWe understand a comprehensive benefits package is crucial to employment satisfaction. We offer medical, dental and vision coverage options for all employees.