Cloud Architect SME – Cloud-Native Platforms & Data Systems | Req#4638

### Description **Summary** ActioNet is seeking a **Cloud Architect Subject Matter Expert** to lead the architecture, modernization, and cloud adoption of mission-critical enterprise systems supporting federal programs. This role serves as the technical authority for designing secure, scalable, and resilient cloud-native environments that integrate front-end applications, API-driven microservices, enterprise databases, queueing services, large-scale computation engines, and analytical platforms. The Cloud Architect SME partners with engineering, cybersecurity, and program stakeholders to define migration and modernization strategies, establish reference architectures, and guide implementation teams across the full system lifecycle. The position emphasizes AWS-based architectures, microservices, containerization, DevSecOps enablement, and data platform integration. **Location:** Hybrid/Remote. Candidates should be local to the DMV area. *Salary range for this position is up to $200,000, depending on qualifications, including relevant certifications, education, years of experience, and demonstrated experience supporting Federal Government programs within the field. Candidates with specialized expertise, industry-recognized certifications, and strong Federal contracting experience may be considered at the higher end of the range.* **Duties and Responsibilities** - Serve as the technical authority for enterprise and solution-level cloud architecture, guiding the design and modernization of complex application ecosystems - Assess legacy and on-premises environments and define cloud migration and modernization strategies including rehost, re-platform, refactor, and cloud-native redesign - Define target-state architectures that support front-end applications, API platforms, enterprise databases, queueing systems, scalable computation engines, and analytical services - Architect secure AWS-based environments leveraging services such as EC2, ECS, EMR, EKS, S3, RDS, Aurora, Lambda, Step Functions, EventBridge, and CloudWatch - Lead the architectural design of microservices-based platforms emphasizing API-first integration, loose coupling, stateless and stateful service separation, and elastic scalability - Establish containerization and orchestration standards using Docker and Kubernetes to support portability, resilience, and automated deployment - Architect data platforms integrating Oracle, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Aurora, and cloud-native object storage for large-scale transactional and analytical workloads - Define architectures for computation engines that execute Python-based analytical workloads and large-scale data processing - Design secure cloud-native environments incorporating identity and access management, encryption, secrets management, logging, monitoring, and compliance controls - Lead DevSecOps and CI/CD architecture integrating GitHub, Bitbucket, Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, CloudFormation, and automated testing and security scanning tools - Define infrastructure-as-code standards and reusable deployment patterns for cloud environments - Optimize cloud architectures for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency - Collaborate closely with cybersecurity teams to ensure architectures align with federal security requirements and cloud compliance frameworks - Produce and maintain cloud architecture artifacts including reference architectures, system diagrams, data flows, and migration roadmaps - Guide engineering teams during implementation, providing architectural oversight, design reviews, and technical risk management - Support planning and execution of phased migration efforts including validation, testing strategies, and rollback planning - Provide post-migration architectural support including performance tuning, resiliency improvements, and continuous optimization - Mentor technical teams and contribute to the development of cloud standards, best practices, and long-term modernization roadmaps **…