AWS Cloud Architect – Data Center Exit & Cloud Migration

Job Title: AWS Cloud Architect Data Center Exit & Cloud Migration.

Location: Chicago Illinois (Hybrid).

Duration: Long Term Contract.

Role Overview:

The AWS Cloud Architect will lead the design planning and execution of the Data Center Exit (DC Exit) program. This role focuses on migrating on-premises infrastructure applications and services to AWS Cloud while ensuring performance scalability cost efficiency and compliance with enterprise standards. The architect will collaborate with cross-functional teams-including application owners infrastructure engineers and security teams-to define and deliver the end-state cloud architecture.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Assessment & Planning

• Conduct Migration Portfolio Assessment (MPA) and Migration Readiness Assessment (CAF) covering business governance security and operations.
• Define 7R application dispositions build dependency maps and create migration wave plans with TCO and risk analysis.

2. Cloud Architecture & Design

• Design scalable secure and resilient AWS cloud solutions to replace on-premises data center infrastructure.
• Develop target-state architecture migration blueprints and reference architectures aligned with AWS best practices and the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
• Select appropriate AWS services (e.g. EC2 ECS EKS RDS S3 Lambda CloudFront CloudFormation IAM) for various workloads.

3. Migration & Execution

• Lead migration assessments application dependency mapping and wave planning.
• Collaborate with migration teams to execute lift-and-shift re-platforming or re-architecting strategies.
• Oversee workload migration validation performance tuning and post-migration optimization.

4. Governance & Security

• Implement cloud governance compliance and cost-management practices.
• Ensure security controls (IAM KMS VPC security GuardDuty etc.) meet enterprise and regulatory standards.
• Define tagging standards automation templates and operational guardrails.

5. Collaboration & Leadership

• Partner with application teams networking and operations to ensure a seamless transition from on-prem to AWS.
• Mentor teams on cloud-native practices automation and DevOps adoption.
• Provide executive reporting on progress risks and mitigation strategies for the DC Exit initiative.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 12 years of experience in infrastructure cloud or enterprise architecture.
• 8 years of hands-on AWS Cloud architecture experience including VPC design IAM EC2 RDS S3 CloudFormation/Terraform and monitoring tools (CloudWatch Config).
• Proven experience leading large-scale data center migration or exit programs.
• Strong understanding of networking security automation (CI/CD IaC) and hybrid cloud connectivity.
• Experience with migration tools (CloudEndure AWS Migration Hub Application Discovery Service).
• Strong knowledge of networking security and compliance frameworks.

Preferred Qualifications:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional (preferred) or Associate.
• Familiarity with multi-account strategy and AWS Control Tower.
• Experience in cost optimization and FinOps practices.
• Exposure to modernization (containers serverless microservices) and DevOps practices.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.