Principal Architect, Compute & Storage Infrastructure

Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd.; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Competitive compensation

Paid study days

Health benefits

Job summary

Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group seeks a Principal Architect to own the Compute & Storage platform domain, including on‑prem and hybrid environments. You will define architecture, standards, guardrails and drive scalable, secure, and cost‑efficient solutions for compute, virtualization, storage, backup, and AI/ML workloads.

You will collaborate with security, operations, and business teams to translate workload needs into platform capabilities and roadmaps, guiding vendors and delivering

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing, implementing, and operating enterprise compute, storage, and infrastructure platforms.
• Deep expertise in virtualization, compute, storage, backup/recovery, and hybrid infrastructure technologies.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, and modern workload hosting environments.

Responsibilities

• Own the Compute & Storage platform domain, including compute, virtualization, storage, backup/recovery, Kubernetes, and specialized AI/ML and GPU platforms.
• Define and evolve platform architecture, standards, guardrails, and service offerings to ensure scalability, resilience, security, and cost efficiency.
• Establish workload placement, hosting, performance, capacity, and lifecycle management strategies across on‑premises and hybrid environments.
• Develop storage, data lifecycle, backup, and disaster recovery strategies that balance performance, recoverability, compliance, and cost.
• Lead the design and evolution of platforms supporting large‑scale unstructured data, advanced analytics, AI/ML, and research workloads.
• Own GPU capacity planning, scheduling, and brokerage capabilities to support growing compute‑intensive demand.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies, including open‑weight LLMs, modern compute architectures, and future infrastructure models.
• Partner with business, engineering, and technology teams to translate workload needs into platform capabilities, roadmaps, and investment priorities.
• Collaborate with Security, Operations, Architecture, and other Platform Owners to ensure aligned, integrated platform solutions.
• Guide SMEs and vendors by setting technical direction, reviewing designs, and driving key platform decisions and outcomes.
• Manage platform health through capacity forecasting, performance optimization, availability, recovery readiness, and cost management.

Skills

8+ years experience

Virtualization

Compute platforms

Storage systems

Backup/Recovery

Kubernetes

Container platforms

AI/ML & GPU

Stakeholder management

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

Interested in joining one of Canada’s top performing asset managers? We are seeking a Principal Architect, Compute & Storage Infrastructure to own the Compute & Storage domain within the Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering organization. This includes compute infrastructure, virtualization platforms, enterprise storage, backup and recovery services, container platforms, and specialized compute environments that support modern application, data, and engineering workloads. This is not a pure management role. The focus is platform ownership: defining architecture, standards, and guardrails, and ensuring platforms are scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient. At the same time, strong delivery experience and hands-on technical depth are essential. You are expected to bring practicalexpertise, make sound technical decisions, and guide complex platform work with credibility. Our offices currently operate on a hybrid model with a combination of in-office and remote working days throughout the week.

What You Will Do

• Own the Compute & Storage platform domain, including compute, virtualization, storage, backup/recovery, Kubernetes, and specialized AI/ML and GPU platforms.
• Define and evolve platform architecture, standards, guardrails, and service offerings to ensure scalability, resilience, security, and cost efficiency.
• Establish workload placement, hosting, performance, capacity, and lifecycle management strategies across on-premises and hybrid environments.
• Develop storage, data lifecycle, backup, and disaster recovery strategies that balance performance, recoverability, compliance, and cost.
• Lead the design and evolution of platforms supporting large-scale unstructured data, advanced analytics, AI/ML, and research workloads.
• Own GPU capacity planning, scheduling, and brokerage capabilities to support growing compute-intensive demand.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies, including open-weight LLMs, modern compute architectures, and future infrastructure models.
• Partner with business, engineering, and technology teams to translate workload needs into platform capabilities, roadmaps, and investment priorities.
• Collaborate with Security, Operations, Architecture, and other Platform Owners to ensure aligned, integrated platform solutions.
• Guide SMEs and vendors by setting technical direction, reviewing designs, and driving key platform decisions and outcomes.
• Manage platform health through capacity forecasting, performance optimization, availability, recovery readiness, and cost management.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of experience designing, implementing, and operating enterprise compute, storage, and infrastructure platforms.
• Deep expertise in virtualization, compute, storage, backup/recovery, and hybrid infrastructure technologies.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, and modern workload hosting environments.
• Experience supporting high-performance, large-scale, or data-intensive environments, including AI/ML, GPU, grid, or research computing platforms.
• Demonstrated success designing storage and compute architectures for large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
• Strong understanding of datacenter technologies, including servers, storage, networking, rack infrastructure, power, and cooling considerations.
• Experience integrating on-premises and cloud platforms and driving long‑term infrastructure modernization strategies.
• Proven ability to define architecture standards, influence technical direction, and lead through expertise rather than direct authority.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business outcomes.
• Experience working with technology vendors on solution design, lifecycle management, and strategic roadmap planning.
• Builder mindset with the ability to balance standardization, innovation, and flexibility in rapidly evolving environments.
• Curiosity and interest in emerging infrastructure technologies, including GPU orchestration, open-weight AI models, and custom compute approaches.

The expected salary for this position is$140,000 - 150,000 CAD.The salary rangeprovidedreflects the base salary range for this position as required by legislation. In addition, there is an annual performance bonus which contributes to the total compensation for this position. Further questions may be directed to the HR team during the interview process.

#LI-hybrid #LI-SM1

What We Offer

At Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group, we’re “invested in our greatest asset, you”. Our shared goals reflect what matters most to our people:

• Your community: we foster belonging through collaboration, inclusion and flexibility. Enjoy social events, volunteering and a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. Our flexible work practices are designed to support work-life balance and provide employees with flexibility in where and how they work
• Your growth: we prioritize your development with meaningful work, continuous learning budgets, paid study days and support for professional designations.
• Recognizing you: your contributions are rewarded with competitive total compensation, retirement savings support, wellness credits, enhanced parental leave, and comprehensive health benefits.

For a closer look at how you can build your career with us, we invite you to explore cclgroup.com.

We are committed to providing an inclusive, accessible recruitment and selection process. We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruitment and selection process. Please contact [e-mail] if you require accommodation.

AI may be used to support certain stages of our screening & recruitment process. These tools support, but do not replace, human judgment and decision-making.