Cloud Architect, Staff

QUALCOMM, Inc.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm Incorporated's IT group seeks a Staff Cloud Architect to design, build, and govern the GitOps release process, CI/CD automation, and developer tooling for our internal platform built on EKS. This is a hands-on, high-autonomy role requiring full-time onsite work in San Diego, CA.

You will lead platform engineering for GitOps, Terraform modules, and multi-environment deployments, while driving adoption of standards across teams and mentoring engineers.

Qualifications

• 7+ years IT experience with a BS in CS, Applied Mathematics, or Engineering, or 10+ years without.
• Hands-on Kubernetes production experience with EKS and multi-environment operations.
• Proven ability to design and govern GitOps release processes, including branching strategies and multi-environment promotion.
• Advanced CI/CD expertise using GitHub Actions or similar to build pipelines with testing, DevSecOps, and Argo CD.
• Strong Terraform expertise including module development, state management, and multi-environment patterns.
• Strong AWS expertise across networking, IAM, and the EKS ecosystem.
• Track record of driving technical standards and adoption across teams without direct authority.
• Strong Linux and distributed systems troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes, networking, and AWS.
• Experience with Helm/Kustomize, Kubernetes networking fundamentals, and Cilium.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills across engineering and leadership audiences.
• Platform product thinking, treating developer experience as a product with measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and govern the GitOps release process using Argo CD across environments.
• Own platform CI/CD workflow definitions and pipelines using GitHub Actions; reduce release lead time and toil.
• Define and maintain platform branching strategy, version tagging, and repo automation with gitStream.
• Build self-service templates, tooling, and docs to improve developer experience and adoption.
• Support agile delivery practices; participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and reviews.
• Mentor engineers on GitOps, CI/CD, and delivery practices; participate in interview loops.
• Ensure reliability, observability, and security through Datadog, Prometheus, Kyverno, and Cilium.

Skills

Kubernetes in production

GitOps

CI/CD pipelines

GitHub Actions

Argo CD

Terraform

AWS EKS

Linux administration

Platform leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Argo CD

GitHub Actions

Terraform

Karpenter

Kyverno

Cilium

Datadog

Prometheus

gitStream

Job description

Company:

Qualcomm Incorporated

Job Area:

Information Technology Group > IT Cloud Architect

General Summary:

Qualcomm IT is seeking a Staff Cloud Architect to design, build, and govern the GitOps release process, CI/CD automation, and developer tooling for our internal developer platform built on EKS. Working as part of the broader Cloud Team, you will shape how platform changes are built, versioned, promoted, and released, and help drive the delivery practices that keep the platform team shipping predictably. This is a hands‑on, high‑autonomy role for an IT architect who pairs deep technical execution with the ability to define standards independently and drive their adoption across teams without direct authority.

This role requires full‑time onsite work in San Diego, CA (5 days per week).

This role is not eligible for Qualcomm immigration sponsorship.

What You Will Own:

• GitOps Release Process & Governance: Design, implement, and govern the platform GitOps release process using Argo CD; define multi‑environment promotion workflows, deployment guardrails, and release documentation; independently set GitOps standards and drive their adoption across platform and application teams.
• CI/CD Automation: Own platform infrastructure CI/CD workflow definitions and pipeline implementation using GitHub Actions; build pipelines that integrate building, linting, testing, DevSecOps scanning, and Argo CD delivery; continuously reduce release lead time and manual toil.
• Branching, Versioning & Repository Automation: Define and maintain the platform branching strategy and version tagging scheme; implement repository and pull request automation using gitStream to streamline code review, routing, and merge workflows.
• Developer Experience & Tooling: Treat the platform as a product; build self‑service "paved road" templates, tooling, and documentation that reduce friction for internal teams adopting the platform; gather user feedback and track adoption with measurable outcomes.
• Process & Ways of Working: Help drive the platform team's agile delivery practices, including sprint planning, sprint goal tracking, daily standups, backlog refinement, and retrospectives; create, prioritize, and delegate backlog work across the team; bring process formality that improves delivery predictability. Opportunity to serve as Scrum Master for candidates with that experience.
• Infrastructure as Code: Design and build Terraform modules, state management, and multi‑environment patterns; apply and extend the reference implementations and guardrails that let engineering teams deliver infrastructure consistently and safely.
• Kubernetes Platform Engineering (EKS): Contribute to cluster provisioning and lifecycle management in multi‑tenant environments, including autoscaling with Karpenter, add‑on lifecycle management, and cluster upgrades; make sure release processes support safe, repeatable rollout of cluster changes.
• Reliability, Observability & Security: Continuously evaluate and tune platform services to improve reliability, performance, and cost efficiency; apply observability standards using Datadog and Prometheus/Grafana to pipeline and release health; implement secure‑by‑default delivery patterns with Kyverno and Cilium in partnership with security stakeholders.
• Cross‑Team Influence & Communication: Communicate release plans, process changes, and delivery health to IT leadership and stakeholder teams; represent the platform in architecture and change reviews; author technical design docs and proposals, validate them with Cloud Team architects, and drive implementation through delivery; partner with Cloud Team architects and leadership to align CI/CD and GitOps capabilities with the multi‑year platform roadmap.
• Technical Talent Development: Mentor senior and mid‑level engineers on GitOps, CI/CD, and delivery practices; participate in interview loops and help uphold the hiring bar.
• Operational Excellence: Contribute to runbook standards and incident response practices; lead resolution of release and pipeline‑related incidents and drive corrective actions afterward. On‑call participation is required, including potential 24/7 coverage.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years of IT‑related experience with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Applied Mathematics, or Engineering OR 10+ years without, with demonstrated progression from technical execution to team‑level technical leadership
• 3+ years operating Kubernetes in production; hands‑on EKS experience including cluster lifecycle and multi‑environment operations
• Proven experience designing and governing GitOps release processes, including branching strategies, multi‑environment promotion, and release versioning/tagging
• Advanced CI/CD expertise using GitHub Actions or similar to build pipelines integrating building, linting, testing, DevSecOps, and Argo CD integration
• Strong Terraform expertise including module development, state management, and multi‑environment patterns
• Strong AWS expertise across networking, IAM, and the EKS ecosystem
• Track record of driving technical standards and adoption across teams without direct authority
• Strong Linux and distributed systems troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes, networking, and AWS
• Experience with Helm/Kustomize, Kubernetes networking fundamentals, and Cilium
• Clear written and verbal communication skills across engineering and leadership audiences
• Platform product thinking, treating developer experience as a product with measurable outcomes

Highly Desired:

• Kubernetes certifications (CKA/CKAD/CKS) and/or AWS DevOps Engineer Professional / Solutions Architect certification
• Experience leading agile/Scrum delivery for an engineering team as Scrum Master or equivalent; Scrum certification (CSM/PSM) a plus
• Experience with gitStream or similar repository automation, and automated release/versioning tools (e.g., semantic versioning, release‑please, semantic‑release)
• Experience with Karpenter, Kyverno policy‑as‑code, and Crossplane concepts
• Demonstrated success building self‑service "paved road" platform capabilities

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e-mail disability‑[e-mail] or call Qualcomm's toll‑free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).

EEO Employer: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or any other protected classification.

Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law.

Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits:

$129,600.00 - $194,400.00

The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales‑incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play.