Job Details

Cloud Architect
FTE/Perm Position
Columbus, OH

The Cloud Architect will support the design and architect a wide variety of business and technology projects. This position will report to the Chief Architect and will work in close concert with the DevOps team and Digital Product Group representatives on project activities. The Architect will create and document technical solutions required to support business infrastructure and project needs as well as build and maintain a consolidated product catalog of technology and services.

Critical Functions

• Support DevOps cloud based infrastructure design activities in support of business projects. Partner with the project managers and Solution Engineering team to define both business and technical requirements. Identify and work with the product teams to introduce repeatable and standards-based patterns to meet business trends and demand.
• Develop buildable and cost-effective solutions to meet business and project needs. Provide cost-effective solutions and continual efficiencies and improvement through the Solutions Design and Implementation process.
• Influence development teams on product lifecycle and standards adoption. Ensure solutions align to McGraw Hill Education product and usability standards. Provide input to product teams for reference architecture and implementation standards. Develop solution implementation, testing and operational support documentation. Support post production Warranty Support for all engineered solutions.
• Work across all of the technology teams to build and maintain a catalog of technologies and services for MHE's Global Technology Services within the Information Technology Service Management solution. Work with the DevOps and DPG team to ensure all required quality gate items are provide and accepted for new technology introduction.
• Staff and support technology committees within MHE to give guidance on technology gaps and solution proposals.
• Cross train staff and engineers on new technology and where it may be applied in given situations. Provide input in support of continual improvement to the DevOps Engineering and Implementation processes.
• Based on enterprise and product-specific usage and adoption, identify cost optimization and service improvement opportunities. Drive efforts to reduce product footprint across enterprise and improve consistency of utilization. Recommend efforts to correct inconsistent deployment.

• Designing implementing complex technical architectures in support of business needs (expert level knowledge). The Architect will capture, document and utilize business and technical requirements to support engineering projects from Initiate through production turnover.
• Amazon hosting and catalog of services
• Deployment, management and operating scalable, highly available fault tolerant solutions on AWS
• Global Content Distribution systems
• Continuous integration and deployment solutions
• Docker containerization solutions
• Kubernetes/K8s containerization management solutions
• Wintel based Application Hosting Products such as Apache and IIS
• Unix Based Application Hosting Products such as WebLogic, Tomcat, Apache
• High Availability Clustering Technologies
• Database technologies such as Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL, and NoSQL including database replication technologies
• Supporting networking architecture tools such as Local and Global Load Balancing
• Authentication Technologies, SamL, Oauth, Open ID, Okta, Active Directory. LDAP, eRights, Oracle Identity Management
• Linux, Windows, and Unix Hardware/Operating Systems
• Remote Server Management Technologies
• High Availability Solutions including Replication, Load Balancing, Disaster Recovery Tools
• Identifying opportunities for and implementing process automation to improve the efficiency and reliability
• Reporting and metric production and utilization to support strategic planning and decisions

• Significant expertise (5+ years) in defining, designing, and deploying global business application infrastructures both internally and externally customer focused.
• Strong understanding and experience in application development life-cycle and alternative SDLC methodologies such as Agile.
• Experience in architecting solutions for Public clouds such as Amazon AWS and Private Clouds such as Openstack, Cloudstack, or VCloud.
• Understanding of IT infrastructure and components in a managed IP environment (VLANS, firewalls, load balancers, routers, switches).
• Experience in proactive systems monitoring.
• Significant experience with solutions development, testing, prototyping proof of concept and migrations.
• Bachelor in computer-related field preferred or equivalent experience.

• SME level technology competencies include but not limited to AWS, Apache, WebLogic, IIS, Unix System Administration, Wintel System Administration, Cloud Hosting and related technologies.
• Possesses a good understanding of IT service management.
• Technology competencies include high availability and disaster recovery configurations, hardware and software driven load balancing, clustering.
• Architecture and design for business infrastructure technologies, with SME knowledge in one or more related technologies.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to communicate new concepts, and drive change in process and behaviors.
• Strong analytical focus, results-oriented and execution driven, with the ability to align technology developments with the generation of potential competitive business advantage.
• Strong problem-solving and analysis skills.
• Ability to learn and apply new technologies quickly.
• Ability to self-manage time, constraints, in a high pressure, rapidly changing technical environment.
• Interacts with and coordinates activities of cross-functional teams, including database administration, network engineering and project management staff.
• Strong analytical focus, results-oriented and execution driven, with the ability to align technology developments with the generation of potential competitive business advantage.
• Possesses a clear perspective on product technology integration, interconnectivity, and operability.
• Strong problem solving and root cause analysis skills, with the ability to identify learning opportunities, improve current processes.
• Bottom-line oriented with the ability to push self and team for results.
• Able to identify and elaborate enterprise-wide impact of major business and technology trends
• Acted within a matrix team providing an engineering focused role to research, develop and implement business infrastructure focused technology projects.
• Effective presentation delivery skills, especially to senior management on technology strategies and standards; able to create and maintain cross-segment relationships and foster collaboration, knowledge sharing and cooperation.