Lead Cloud Architect

C5MI Insight LLC; United States; On-site; USD 167,000 - 182,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Life insurance

Long-term disability

401(k)

Job summary

C5MI Insight LLC is seeking a Lead Cloud Architect to own the hosting, infrastructure, and platform architecture for a large-scale SAP S/4HANA modernization program for a Department of War. This role demands FedRAMP accreditation, DoD Cloud requirements, and the ability to sustain continuous authorization.

You will lead the cloud and platform engineering team, design the accredited hosting environment, ensure secure integration with the enterprise cloud, and build resilient, auditable, and

Qualifications

• 8-12 years of relevant experience with 3-5 years in people leadership.
• Experience designing workloads in a government cloud environment (Azure Gov, AWS GovCloud, or equivalent).
• Knowledge of FedRAMP authorization and DoD Cloud guidance (Impact Levels 4/5).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation in controlled environments.
• Ability to obtain/maintain DoD 8570/8140 IAT II certification and Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Owns end-to-end cloud and infrastructure architecture for the program, including hosting environment, network topology, connectivity, and enterprise cloud integration.
• Leads and develops the cloud and platform engineering team, managing delivery quality, staffing, and capability development.
• Designs environments for development, test, staging, training, and production with capacity planning for concurrent delivery.
• Ensures hosting posture meets federal security requirements, including FedRAMP and DoD standards.
• Presents architecture at gate reviews and collaborates with security, risk, and platform operations leadership.

Skills

Cloud architecture

DoD cloud security

FedRAMP

Azure Gov / AWS GovCloud

IAT II security

Leadership

Infrastructure as code

Education

Bachelor’s degree in related field

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Job description

C5MI is not your typical consulting firm. We are a high-performance team of SAP and supply chain experts who solve complex, mission critical challenges for organizations that cannot afford failure.

We hire consultants who thrive in complexity, move fast, take ownership, and deliver under pressure. At C5MI, you will not be siloed or stuck in theory. You will be hands on, client facing, and directly influencing outcomes that matter.

Our culture rewards initiative, accountability, and continuous growth. This is a place where your expertise is valued, your work is meaningful, and your performance truly matters. If you’re energized by learning through real-world challenges, collaborating with top-tier talent, and expanding your capabilities every day, C5MI is where strong consultants level up.

The Lead Cloud Architect owns the hosting, infrastructure, and platform architecture for a large-scale, greenfield SAP S/4HANA financial management modernization program for a Department of War (DoW) organization, accountable for a deployment posture that satisfies federal cloud security requirements and sustains continuous authorization throughout the program lifecycle. This position leads the cloud and platform engineering team, designing the accredited hosting environment, the connection and integration approach to the customer’s enterprise cloud, the environment landscape supporting concurrent process area delivery, and the resilience posture required for operation in degraded network conditions. The Lead Cloud Architect partners closely with security, risk management framework, and platform operations leadership to ensure every component of the solution is authorizable, hardened, monitored, and recoverable.

Note: This position is contingent upon contract award.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Owns the end-to-end cloud and infrastructure architecture for the program, including the accredited hosting environment, network topology, connectivity and boundary approach, and integration to the customer’s enterprise cloud environment.
• Leads and develops the cloud and platform engineering team; allocates work, manages delivery quality, and owns team performance, staffing, and capability development.
• Designs the environment landscape supporting development, test, staging, training, and production, including sizing, refresh strategy, and capacity planning for concurrent process area delivery.
• Ensures the hosting posture meets applicable federal cloud security requirements, including FedRAMP authorization levels and DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide impact levels.
• Partners with risk management framework and security personnel to produce authorization artifacts, support control implementation and assessment, maintain the plan of action and milestones, and sustain the authority to operate through change.
• Defines and enforces infrastructure hardening standards, including security technical implementation guide compliance, baseline configuration management, vulnerability scanning, and patch management.
• Designs the identity, credential, and access management integration approach, including federation, multifactor authentication, and privileged access management for platform administration.
• Establishes infrastructure-as-code, automation, and configuration management practices to ensure environments are reproducible, auditable, and consistently configured.
• Designs the resilience, backup, high availability, and disaster recovery architecture, including operation and synchronization under denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited-bandwidth conditions.
• Defines the containerization, orchestration, and portability approach for extensibility and integration services, ensuring compliance with container hardening standards.
• Owns platform monitoring, logging, and observability architecture, including audit log retention and protection sufficient to support financial audit and inspector general examination.
• Presents and defends the hosting and infrastructure architecture at program milestone gate reviews and in government security and architecture working groups.
• Advises program leadership on hosting cost drivers, licensing and consumption models, and the technical and schedule implications of hosting decisions.
• Ability to travel up to 50% to client sites, varying based on client program schedules.
• Adheres to all certified processes as part of our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of quality and information security, which includes actively participating in quality assurance activities and ensuring the protection of sensitive information in accordance with our security policies.
• Performs other related tasks as assigned by direct supervisor.

Essential People Leader Functions:

• People Management & Performance Accountability: Sets performance expectations; provides ongoing coaching, feedback, and recognition; conducts goal-setting, evaluations, and development planning; and addresses performance, conduct, and attendance issues in a timely, compliant manner.
• Employee Development & Capability Building: Develops employees through coaching, mentoring, training, and stretch assignments; identifies skill gaps and development needs; and supports succession planning and talent pipeline readiness within scope.
• Engagement, Culture & Team Effectiveness: Fosters an inclusive, respectful, high-performing environment; promotes accountability and collaboration; and reinforces company values, behavioral expectations, and professional standards.
• Workforce Planning & Resource Oversight: Plans, assigns, and prioritizes work to meet delivery, quality, and timeline goals; manages workloads and staffing within approved parameters; and escalates resource risks or constraints as needed.
• Policy, Compliance & Risk Management: Applies company policies and employment practices consistently; partners with HR on employee relations matters; and identifies and mitigates people, delivery, and compliance risks.
• Communication & Stakeholder Alignment: Communicates expectations, decisions, and changes clearly; aligns team or organizational objectives with business priorities; and collaborates effectively across matrixed, cross-functional, or client environments.

C5MI Expectations of all Employees:

• Adheres to all C5MI Policies and Procedures.
• Always conducts self in a manner consistent with C5MIs’ Core Values.
• Maintains a positive and respectful attitude with all contacts.
• Consistently reports to work on time and prepared to perform the duties of the position.
• Meets productivity standards and performs duties as workload necessitates.
• Maintains the privacy of all company proprietary information.
• T​reats vendors, customers, and team members with respect and dignity.
• Able to safely perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience; 8-12 years of relevant experience and 3-5 years of people leadership experience with a Bachelor’s degree, or 10-14 years of relevant experience and 5-8 years of people leadership experience without a degree. Advanced certifications valued.
• 8+ years of cloud or enterprise infrastructure architecture experience, including 5+ years focused on a major public cloud platform.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering workloads in a government cloud environment, including Azure Government, AWS GovCloud, or an equivalent accredited enclave.
• Working knowledge of FedRAMP authorization, the DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide, and Impact Level 4 and 5 hosting requirements.
• Experience supporting the risk management framework authorization process, including control implementation, artifact production, and continuous monitoring.
• Demonstrated experience with infrastructure-as-code, automation, and CI/CD tooling in a controlled environment.
• Experience designing high availability, backup, and disaster recovery architectures for mission-critical enterprise applications.
• Experience leading an engineering team, including work allocation, quality review, and performance management.
• Must meet DoDM 8140.03 (formerly DoD 8570.01-M) IAT Level II baseline certification requirements (e.g., CompTIA Security+ CE) prior to being granted privileged access, and must obtain any computing environment certification required by the Government within six months of assignment.
• Secret security clearance required: must hold an active Secret clearance or be able to obtain and maintain one prior to assignment (requires U.S. citizenship).

Nice to Have:

• Active Secret security clearance at time of hire.
• Experience hosting or integrating SAP S/4HANA workloads in an accredited federal cloud, including SAP-certified infrastructure sizing and HANA platform operations.
• Industry-recognized cloud architecture certification; relevant certifications include Azure Solutions Architect Expert or AWS Solutions Architect Professional.
• Experience with zero trust reference architecture implementation in a defense environment.
• Experience with hardened container registries, Kubernetes orchestration, and DevSecOps pipeline accreditation.
• Experience supporting federal ERP modernization programs, Department of War (DoW) SAP environments, or other defense business systems acquired under DoDI 5000.75.
• CISSP or equivalent advanced security certification.

Compensation:

In accordance with pay transparency law, the expected salary range for this position is $166,800 – $182,400 annually. The actual compensation offered will be determined based on factors such as the candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and location. We are committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. This posted range reflects our good faith estimate of the compensation we reasonably expect to offer for this role at the time of posting.

Application Deadline:

We anticipate this job posting will be posted until 12/01/2026

Benefits:

C5MI offers a market competitive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability coverage, a 401(k) plan, bonus opportunities, paid holidays, and paid time off. See more information on our benefits here: C5MI Benefits

Our employees are key to our success, so we strive to be more than just a team; we’re a community built upon a set of Core Values that guide our every action:

• Challenge – We believe in challenging the present – it’s the only way to shape the future. We must be exceptional communicators and collaborators while always learning. We also understand that speaking your mind requires equal parts brain (what to say), thoughtfulness (when to say it), and caring (how it’s said). Incremental won’t win.
• Have Fun – We are on a journey, together. Take care of your family, take care of yourself, and take care of each other. Live your happiness. Stay human, take care of each other and invest in your community. Life isn’t all about work. Live your happiness. Be healthy.
• All In – You can’t fake passion – show your energy. Own it – take charge and lead. Our team is made up of top quartile talent and we never accept second best. Accountability, trust, and integrity create an environment to realize the team’s true potential.
• Never Forget the Customer – We have walked a mile in your shoes. Experience matters. We drive innovation to generate business value. Be true – no BS.
• GSD (Get Stuff Done) – We take initiative and never make excuses. We act with urgency, and we delivery high quality outcomes with extreme velocity. We embrace process discipline, drive continuous improvement, and stay audit ready. We relentlessly execute and plan for tomorrow by creating sustainable outcomes. That is how we win!
• Empower – Our people are the foundation for our success. We recognize their value, and support them by fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation. We recognize individual strengths, build confidence through action, and invest in personal development.

C5MI is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, pregnancy‑related conditions, and lactation), gender identity or expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws and ordinances.