Senior Cloud Solutions Architect (PROJ-4642)

Job Details

ASD’s Cloud program aims to bring commercial hyper scale cloud capabilities to the NIC. It aims to improve agencies’ operating efficiency and effectiveness. It is an unprecedented program for the NIC and therefore provides a unique opportunity for all who are working on it.

ASD requires Cloud Solution Architecture services to deliver cloud technology architecture solutions across a series of technology transformation initiatives within ASD and the NIC.

The Cloud Solution Architect will be responsible for designing, developing, and implementing cloud-based solutions that meet the specific needs of the NIC and ASD. They will work closely with development teams and stakeholders to identify business requirements and functional specifications, assess technical feasibility, integrate any updated specifications and requirements into the architecture, and develop and deploy cloud based solutions that are scalable, reliable, and secure.

The role requires demonstrated experience in:

• making decisions regarding the most vital parts of the system that is being developed
• taking high level business requirements and industry best practice and translating into patterns, concepts, principles and working designs
• cloud computing technologies
• delivering successful cloud solutions
• excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain complex problems to management.

The Cloud Solution Architect will directly contribute to project planning, governance and approval processes, taking the lead on socialising designs and working with multiple teams to reach a successful outcome.

Key duties and responsibilities

The Cloud Solution Architect will perform the following duties and responsibilities:

• develop capability roadmaps, models and plans to drive forward the Cloud strategy, taking advantage of opportunities to improve business performance.
• manage the design, policies and standards, working proactively to maintain a stable, viable architecture and ensure consistency of design within the program, and gaining endorsement by the program and agency Design Authorities.
• identify system, infrastructure and project interdependencies and balance competing demands to ensure project deliverables are achieved.
• identify, document, and resolve issues and or problems that arise during the course of capability development cycle.
• inform various stakeholders about any problems with the current technical solutions being implemented.
• provide detailed specifications for proposed solutions and assess the business impact that certain technical choices have.
• monitor industry products to gain knowledge and understanding of currently emerging Cloud technologies.
• continually work with industry and research current and emerging technologies and propose changes where needed.

Technical skills

• Experience/Certifications with AWS and Microsoft Azure. Minimum 3 years experience working in a NIC agency Experience in IT cloud system design

Essential criteria

• Compliance Framework Expertise: Deep, hands-on experience with Commonwealth government frameworks like Essential 8 and AWS Conformance Packs. Must understand how to map technical controls to these requirements.
• Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) Mastery: must be able to design systems where no user or device is trusted by default, regardless of their location i.e. public-facing through ‘air-gapped’ design.
• Identity and Access Management (IAM) Rigor: Expertise in implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), Privilege Access Management (PAM), and the principle of least privilege.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Automation: To ensure auditability and repeatability, the architect must use tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Cross-Domain Solutions (CDS): Knowledge of how to move data securely between different security classifications.

Desirable criteria

• Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Strategy: Experience connecting legacy "on-prem" government data centres to secure cloud landing zones.