FinOps/Cloud Architect

Job Title:

FinOps/Cloud Architect

Location:

Block 23

What youll do:

As the Cloud Architect youll be a member of the Enterprise Architecture team and will define and lead architectural priorities that advance the business and technology strategy of the organization in a specific domain. Youll participate in the Architecture Standards Board (ASB) and Technology Review Board (TRB) governance forums as well as manage the business capability inventory for their specific domain. Youll develop applicable standards and patterns for the domain and bring forward to ASB for review and approval. Additionally as the Architect III youll be accountable for the design and documentation of solution architecture relating to applications and capabilities within a specific domain. Youll work with the business product and IT teams to ensure the designs are safe secure compliant and reliable while also meeting the needs of the business. Youll also responsible to review the solution architecture design in TRB and ensure the design aligns to approved standards and patterns.

This role will be a go to person for Cloud platform spend optimization expertise and an integral part of Enterprise Architecture organization within Western Alliance bank. The bank is on a Digital Transformation journey and is migrating workloads from onprem data centers to Azure Cloud platform in addition to deploying solutions utilizing Cloud native services and technologies. As a Cloud Architect you will be responsible for working with cross functional teams and coming up with design development and deployment strategies for highly available scalable secure and costeffective solutions in the cloud platform. As a FinOps Architect you will craft and execute cloud cost optimization strategies analyze cloud spend identify potential cost savings define followup activities & lead cost optimization program across Azure AWS and various SaaS products and services. This role requires the candidate to demonstrate strong strategic & critical thinking skills as well as have an ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with multiple delivery teams business partners and IT leadership to ensure efficient cloud spending and drive financial accountability within the organization.

• Act as a advocate & evangelist of architecture principles standards and patterns across the organization helping the business and delivery leaders understand the business value realized through standardization reuse and modularity inherent in a robust enterprise architecture. Become a trusted strategic partner for your delivery organizations leader and senior engineers.
• Identify propose & lead opportunities to advance & make more effective capabilities for the domain through use of new technology reuse of existing products services or platforms while helping incorporate those opportunities in to application and platform roadmaps. Facilitate proof of concepts and pilots on new/emerging technology to gauge value and assess implementation complexity.
• Utilize a broad understanding of Application Infrastructure or Security capabilities and/or solutions to represent to Architecture peers in discussions with other IT and Business leaders. Develop a point of view based on problems or opportunities in the domain to clearly articulate options and recommendations.
• Develop and implement cost optimization strategies for Azure AWS and SaaS products.
• Create and maintain dashboards and reports to track cloud costs and usage.
• Collaborate with cross functional teams within the IT organization Business Product Network Security Development DevOps and Operations team.
• Collaborate with Engineering Managers Application teams Operations team Finance team to maintain cloud spend and environment stability through data analysis consulting accurate documentation and creative problemsolving lens.
• Analyze optimize and implement cost optimization actions over different cloud services by creating value added financial and usage dashboards to drive tangible cost saving results.
• Work with the financial teams on budget forecast tagging and related FinOps centric KPIs and SLA analytics and reporting requirements.
• Work closely with our finance and legal departments to negotiate cost terms and contracts with Cloud vendors.
• Lead a small team of FinOps inhouse or managed service professionals.
• Drive decision making. Identify alternatives pros and cons and make recommendations.
• Analyzes new and emerging trends in Cloud Architecture to ensure standards remain current and relevant.
• Identifies the organizational impact (for example on skills processes structures or culture) and financial impact of solution designs.
• Design and deploy highly available secure and scalable hybrid cloud solutions utilizing Cloud native and onprem services under industry best practices realm and with Cloud First mentality.
• Design effective monitoring logging and auditing of production systems to satisfy IT governance and risk mandated compliance policies.
• Applies methodology and governance as directed to minimize business and technical risks and adhere to quality assurance while contributing to design and/or delivery of solutions (e.g. WellArchitected Framework Enterprise Scale Landing Zone Cloud Adoption Framework).
• Establish relationships with strategic public and hybrid cloud vendors to acquire knowledge develop partnerships and collaborate on potential architectural solutions and technology acquisitions.
• Communicates architectural solutions to IT senior leaders and other critical stakeholders throughout the architecture planning and design process.

What youll need:

• 10 years of related experience with 5 years in a Cloud architecture design and Cloud cost optimization role.
• Bachelors degree in related field required.
• Previous leadership experience preferred.
• Intermediate knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Intermediate knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations rules and regulations industry standards and practices.
• Advanced experience working in an architecture function with knowledge & experience developing reference architectures & patterns and supporting governance functions related to: Application Development Cloud Compute Storage and Networking technologies. IaaS PaaS SaaS Serverless Containers Automation Security.
• Advanced understanding of product management agile principles and development methodologies and capability of supporting agile and DevOps teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities impact and risks taking account of technical and architectural debt.
• Proven experience in cloud cost management and optimization specifically in Azure and AWS.
• Experience working in an architecture function with knowledge & experience developing reference architectures & patterns and supporting governance functions related to: Cloud Compute Storage and Networking technologies. IaaS PaaS SaaS Serverless Containers Automation Azure Resource Manager Azure Entra ID Cloud Cost models
• Proficiency architecting implementing and supporting Microsoft Azure offerings.
• Experience with Azure networking technologies (Virtual Network DNS Load Balancers Firewalls Routing Proxies).
• Experience with identity and access management and security design patterns utilizing Azure Entra ID Azure Key Vault Azure Defender(s).
• Experience with Cloud Management utilizing RBAC Azure Blueprints and Policies Cost Management Monitor and alerting.
• Experience collaborating with cross functional teams to incorporate cost management best practices into cloud platforms via tagging alerting and configurations that supports financial monitoring of cloud platforms.
• Responsible for developing maintaining and supporting the cloud optimization practice and make recommendations on reserved capacity strategy utilization optimization opportunities product architectural recommendations to promote cost savings and discounts for optimization.
• Proficient in automation scripting utilizing Azure PowerShell and CLI modules.
• Deep understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends and the practical application of existing and emerging technologies to evolving business operating models.
• Significant experience developing architecture blueprints strategies and roadmaps.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and able to develop content for & communicate with Executive Level stakeholders as well as Engineering & Scrum teams.
• Ability to build trust and respect as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and development teams.
• Objective mindset & able to think enterprise first and remain unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor choice with decisions made based on data analysis & POC results.

Benefits youll love:
We offer all the important things youd want like competitive salaries an ownership stake in the company medical and dental insurance time off a great 401k matching program tuition assistance program an employee volunteer program and a wellness program. In addition youll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances giving you invaluable handson experience to help grow your career!

About the company:

Western Alliance Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Alliance Bank of Arizona Alliance Association Bank Bank of Nevada Bridge Bank First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank are divisions of Western Alliance Bank; Member FDIC. AmeriHome Mortgage is a Western Alliance Bank company.

Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to equal employment and will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race sex color religion age nation origin marital status disability protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or genetic information. Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process and/or need an alternative method of applying please email or call. When contacting us please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests that involve a reasonable accommodation in the application process.

Western Alliance Bancorporation