Cloud Architect

The gig is a short‑term Cloud Architect contract based in Austin, Texas. You’ll be the go‑to person for designing, migrating, and optimizing cloud workloads for a client that wants solid, production‑grade solutions without a permanent hire.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

You’ll spend most of your time mapping existing on‑prem services to a cloud provider (likely AWS or Azure), sketching out network topologies, and writing infrastructure‑as‑code templates. Expect to dive into cost‑analysis, security hardening, and performance tuning while juggling stakeholder meetings that want quick wins and a clear roadmap for long‑term scalability.

The Core Tech Stack

The role revolves around deep knowledge of cloud platforms—AWS (EC2, VPC, RDS, CloudFormation) or Azure (VMs, VNets, ARM templates). You’ll also need solid experience with IaC tools (Terraform is a must), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and a good grasp of CI/CD pipelines. The client is looking for someone who can not only spin up resources but also embed governance and cost‑control policies from day one.

Interview Expectations

1. “Walk me through how you’d design a multi‑region, highly available architecture for a SaaS app handling 10k RPS.” – They want to see you break down latency, data replication, failover, and cost trade‑offs, not just list services.
2. “Explain a situation where you had to refactor a monolithic app into microservices on the cloud. What were the biggest pitfalls?” – The hiring manager is probing your practical migration experience, especially around data consistency, network latency, and operational monitoring.

Application Advice

Tailor your resume to shout out “Cloud Architecture”, “AWS/Azure”, “Terraform”, “Kubernetes”, and “cost optimization”. Highlight any contracts where you delivered end‑to‑end cloud migrations within tight timelines—those keywords will get past the ATS. If you’ve worked on projects within the Austin metro area, surface that detail; the client explicitly wants local talent.