Senior Cloud Architect: AWS & Kubernetes (Hybrid, Houston)

Empyrean; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Empyrean in Houston, TX, is seeking a Staff Cloud Architect to lead cloud platform strategy and deliver hands-on implementation. This onsite role requires working on-site 2 days per week and collaboration across Engineering, Security, QA, and Tech Leadership.

The ideal candidate brings deep AWS and Kubernetes expertise, with a track record of architecture governance, cost optimization, and scalable platform design in enterprise environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience preferred.
• 10+ years in technology with 5+ years leading cloud/enterprise architecture design and implementation.
• 5+ years hands-on AWS design/implementation experience.
• Practical experience designing Kubernetes-based platforms in production.
• Proven leadership in architecture across multiple applications/teams.
• Experience with cloud migration, modernization, or hybrid integration initiatives.
• AWS Solutions Architect - Professional or comparable certification preferred.

Responsibilities

• Translate business/app requirements into end-to-end cloud solutions across compute, networking, storage, identity, security.
• Evaluate architectures for security, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Lead architecture/design reviews and document decisions, tradeoffs, risks.
• Assess existing systems to identify gaps and modernization opportunities.
• Define IaC patterns, deployment workflows, and guardrails.
• Define milestones, manage dependencies, and support Kanban/release cadences.
• Maintain reusable cloud reference architectures and patterns.
• Apply Well-Architected principles to improve operations and cost efficiency.
• Mentor engineers and communicate with stakeholders.

Skills

AWS architecture

Kubernetes architecture

Security architecture

CI/CD automation

Terraform

Cost optimization

Observability

Influencing skills

Python scripting

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

GitHub Actions

Terraform

PowerShell

Python

Job description

Empyrean in Houston, TX, is seeking a Staff Cloud Architect to lead cloud platform strategy and deliver hands-on implementation. This onsite role requires working on-site 2 days per week and collaboration across Engineering, Security, QA, and Tech Leadership.

The ideal candidate brings deep AWS and Kubernetes expertise, with a track record of architecture governance, cost optimization, and scalable platform design in enterprise environments.