Consulting Principal, Utilities Consulting Practice

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Chief/ Senior Cloud Architect to guide enterprise cloud architecture toward resilient performance and sustainable cost optimization in a hybrid work model. The role collaborates across teams to align cloud solutions with business strategy, driving efficient resource use and secure scalability for global operations.

Responsibilities include designing cost-aware cloud blueprints, optimizing spend, governance, and ensuring security, compliance, and service quality across

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading enterprise cloud architectures.
• Proven ability to align cloud solutions with business strategy.
• Strong skills in cost management and governance.
• Experience with multi-cloud environments.
• Excellent communication across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and refine end-to-end cloud architecture blueprints prioritizing cost optimization, resilience, and secure scalability.
• Develop and maintain cloud cost optimization strategies with budget-aware planning.
• Analyze cloud usage patterns and pricing to identify optimization opportunities.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to embed cost-efficient design principles.
• Guide migration and modernization initiatives to improve sustainability.
• Establish governance for cloud resource provisioning and tagging for cost transparency.
• Create standards and guardrails for right-sized resource allocation across cloud providers.
• Partner with finance to translate technical decisions into cost impacts and investment rationale.
• Review major cloud projects to ensure alignment with cost optimization and security requirements.
• Provide regular cost assessments and dashboards highlighting trends and savings.
• Mentor teams on cost-aware design practices and responsible cloud usage.
• Coordinate with operations to tune configurations for consistent user experience and resilience.
• Champion innovative cloud technologies that reduce environmental impact and affordability.

Skills

Senior cloud architect

Cost optimization

Hybrid cloud

Cloud platforms

Security governance

Infrastructure as code

Cross-functional collaboration

Serverless/microservices

Job description

Job Summary

This role focuses on guiding enterprise cloud architecture to achieve resilient performance sustainable cost optimization and secure scalability for global operations in a hybrid work model. The chief architect collaborates across teams to align cloud solutions with business strategy driving efficient use of resources while improving customer outcomes and supporting environmentally responsible technology adoption.

Responsibilities

• Design and refine end to end cloud architecture blueprints that prioritize cost optimization operational resilience and secure scalability for complex enterprise ecosystems
• - Develop and maintain cloud cost optimization strategies that balance performance needs with budget constraints while supporting predictable financial planning across business units
• - Analyze cloud usage patterns and pricing models to identify optimization opportunities that lower total ownership costs without compromising reliability or regulatory compliance
• - Collaborate with product and engineering teams to embed cost efficient design principles into solution architectures and reference implementations for business critical applications
• - Guide migration and modernization initiatives by defining cloud patterns that reduce wasteful resource consumption and improve long term sustainability of technology investments
• - Establish and continuously improve governance frameworks for cloud resource provisioning and tagging to enable transparent cost tracking and accountable spending decisions
• - Create architectural standards and guardrails that encourage right sized resource allocation and effective use of managed services across multiple cloud providers

• - Partner with finance and procurement stakeholders to translate technical resource decisions into clear cost impacts and support data driven investment choices

  - Review major cloud projects and proposals to ensure alignment with cost optimization objectives while maintaining required levels of security and service quality

  - Provide actionable insights and recommendations through regular cloud cost assessments and dashboards that highlight trends anomalies and potential savings

  - Mentor architecture and engineering teams on cost aware design practices while promoting a culture of responsible and efficient cloud cons

  umption

  - Coordinate with operations and reliability teams to tune configurations and capacity plans so that cost controls support consistent user experience and service resilience

  - Champion innovative use of cloud technologies that reduce environmental impact improve affordability of digital services and support the company mission to deliver inclusive and sustainable solutions

• Qualifications

  - Demonstrate extensive experience as a senior cloud architect or chief architect with responsibility for defining enterprise scale architectures and cost optimization frameworks

  - Possess deep hands on expertise in cloud platforms and services with proven ability to align technical choices to financial efficiency and business outcomes

  - Apply advanced skills in cloud cost management tooling usage and reporting to produce clear analytics and guidance for engineering and executive stakeholders

  - Bring strong knowledge of infrastructure as code automation and configuration management practices that support standardized cost efficient resource provisioning

  - Show proficiency in performance tuning capacity planning and workload right sizing techniques that minimize over provisioning and improve utilization

  - Exhibit practical experience in security compliance and governance domains ensuring that cost optimization efforts remain consistent with organizational risk standards

  - Utilize well developed communication and collaboration skills to work effectively in hybrid models across technical teams finance groups and business partners

  - Display familiarity with modern application architectures such as microservices containers and serverless patterns and how they impact cloud cost structures