AWS Cloud Architect (contract)

Hilton; McLean (VA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 105,000; Part time

Job summary

Hilton seeks an experienced Cloud Architect to design a next-gen cloud data lake and platform powering procurement analytics and AI-enabled capabilities. You will collaborate across stakeholders to deliver scalable, secure cloud data solutions in a hybrid McLean, VA or Memphis, TN setting.

You will lead migrations, design patterns, and automation, building dashboards to monitor health, cost, and performance while ensuring governance and security compliance across the data ecosystem.

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience as a cloud architect or senior database architect with a focus on AWS cloud environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading cloud migration projects, including legacy database modernization and platform transitions.
• Experience developing architecture documentation, standards, and operational best practices in an enterprise environment.
• Background working cross-functionally with business stakeholders, engineering teams, security teams, and external vendors.
• Experience building and monitoring operational dashboards and performance metrics for cloud data platforms.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or equivalent AWS certification strongly preferred.
• AWS Certified Database Specialty certification is a plus.
• Additional cloud or data platform certifications relevant to the role are welcomed.

Responsibilities

• Design and document AWS cloud database architectures that support performance, scalability, availability, security, governance, and cost optimization requirements.
• Lead the modernization and migration of legacy on-premises databases and data platforms to AWS cloud services.
• Architect and optimize data solutions using AWS services such as Amazon RDS, Aurora, Redshift, DynamoDB, S3, Glue, Athena, DMS, and related monitoring and security services.
• Define database patterns for transactional, analytical, integration, and reporting workloads, including OLTP, OLAP, and data lake architectures.
• Develop architecture standards, reference patterns, design decision records, runbooks, deployment playbooks, and operational best practices.
• Ensure high availability, disaster recovery, security, governance, resiliency, and compliance requirements are met across all data solutions.
• Develop migration plans, proof-of-concepts, cutover strategies, rollback plans, validation approaches, and post-migration optimization activities.
• Partner with security and governance teams to implement encryption, IAM, network isolation, auditing, logging, data retention, access controls, and compliance requirements.
• Drive performance tuning and optimization through data modeling, indexing, partitioning, query tuning, workload management, capacity planning, and observability practices.
• Implement and promote automation, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, schema migration practices, and repeatable deployment patterns for database-backed solutions.
• Develop dashboards and operational metrics for database health, cost, usage, SLAs, reliability, and platform performance.
• Collaborate with application, integration, analytics, and reporting teams to translate business requirements into practical database and data platform solutions.
• Review and provide recommendations on cloud architecture designs developed by vendors and solution partners.
• Evaluate and recommend new technologies to support cloud data platform modernization and AI-enabled business initiatives.

Skills

AWS cloud services

Data modeling

CI/CD pipelines

Security & governance

High availability & DR

Cross-functional collaboration

AI/ML data platforms

Education

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

AWS Certified Database Specialty

Tools

CI/CD tools

Job description

Please note that this is a contract role providing services to Hilton through Talent Solutions. If you are selected for this role, you will be employed by Talent Solutions and will not be an employee of Hilton. Contract workers are not employees of Hilton or any of its subsidiaries, nor will they be eligible for Hilton benefits.

• Hybrid role in our McLean, VA or Memphis, TN office working onsite 3 days/week***

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced cloud architect to join our HSM Digital Solutions team. In this role, you will play a pivotal part in designing and building a next-generation cloud data lake and modern data platform that powers procurement analytics, digital products, and AI-driven capabilities. Reporting to the Senior Manager of HSM Digital Solutions, you will collaborate closely with business stakeholders, technology teams, data engineering professionals, and external vendors to deliver scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud data solutions. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of a sophisticated data ecosystem within a globally recognized hospitality organization, driving meaningful impact through innovation and technical excellence.

Responsibilities

• Design and document AWS cloud database architectures that support performance, scalability, availability, security, governance, and cost optimization requirements.


• Lead the modernization and migration of legacy on-premises databases and data platforms to AWS cloud services.


• Architect and optimize data solutions using AWS services such as Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3, AWS Glue, Amazon Athena, AWS Database Migration Service, and related monitoring and security services.


• Define database patterns for transactional, analytical, integration, and reporting workloads, including OLTP, OLAP, and data lake architectures.


• Develop architecture standards, reference patterns, design decision records, runbooks, deployment playbooks, and operational best practices.


• Ensure high availability, disaster recovery, security, governance, resiliency, and compliance requirements are met across all data solutions.


• Develop migration plans, proof-of-concepts, cutover strategies, rollback plans, validation approaches, and post-migration optimization activities.


• Partner with security and governance teams to implement encryption, IAM, network isolation, auditing, logging, data retention, access controls, and compliance requirements.


• Drive performance tuning and optimization through data modeling, indexing, partitioning, query tuning, workload management, capacity planning, and observability practices.


• Implement and promote automation, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, schema migration practices, and repeatable deployment patterns for database-backed solutions.


• Develop dashboards and operational metrics for database health, cost, usage, SLAs, reliability, and platform performance.


• Collaborate with application, integration, analytics, and reporting teams to translate business requirements into practical database and data platform solutions.


• Review and provide recommendations on cloud architecture designs developed by vendors and solution partners.


• Evaluate and recommend new technologies to support cloud data platform modernization and AI-enabled business initiatives.

Skills

• Deep expertise in AWS cloud database and data platform services, including Amazon RDS, Aurora, Redshift, DynamoDB, S3, Glue, Athena, and AWS Database Migration Service.


• Strong knowledge of database architecture patterns for OLTP, OLAP, and data lake workloads.


• Proficiency in infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployment practices.


• Experience with data modeling, indexing strategies, query optimization, and workload management.


• Solid understanding of cloud security principles, including IAM, encryption, network isolation, auditing, and compliance frameworks.


• Ability to design and implement high availability, disaster recovery, and resiliency strategies.


• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate complex business requirements into scalable technical solutions.


• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.


• Experience reviewing vendor and partner architecture designs and providing actionable recommendations.


• Familiarity with AI and machine learning-enabled data platform capabilities and emerging cloud technologies.

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience as a cloud architect or senior database architect with a focus on AWS cloud environments.


• Demonstrated experience leading cloud migration projects, including legacy database modernization and platform transitions.


• Experience developing architecture documentation, standards, and operational best practices in an enterprise environment.


• Background working cross-functionally with business stakeholders, engineering teams, security teams, and external vendors.


• Experience building and monitoring operational dashboards and performance metrics for cloud data platforms.


• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or equivalent AWS certification strongly preferred.


• AWS Certified Database Specialty certification is a plus.


• Additional cloud or data platform certifications relevant to the role are welcomed.

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to make a lasting impact on the digital transformation of a world-class hospitality organization. You will be at the forefront of building a modern, AI-ready data platform that drives strategic decision-making and innovation across the business. If you are passionate about cloud architecture, data engineering, and delivering solutions at scale, this role offers the challenge, visibility, and collaborative environment to help you do your best work.

Pay Rate Range

65 - 76 USD hourly