Senior Cloud Architect - Capital Markets

SMBC Group; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

SMBC Group is looking for a Senior Cloud Architect in Charlotte who will lead the transformation of our Middle-Office and Back-Office ecosystems. This role involves designing cloud infrastructure for trading systems and ensuring high availability.

Ideal candidates have over 10 years in IT architecture, including 4 years as a Cloud Architect in Capital Markets. Experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, and Apache Kafka is essential. A hybrid work model is available for this role.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in IT architecture, with at least 4+ years as a Cloud Architect.
• Advanced experience with Kubernetes and AWS Fargate.
• Strong technical background in Java and Python.
• Expertise in writing modular Terraform configurations.
• Hands-on expertise with Apache Kafka.

Responsibilities

• Lead the transformation of BOMO ecosystems.
• Design Event-Driven Integration patterns.
• Ensure system changes maintain backward compatibility.
• Create design standards aligned with Enterprise Architecture.
• Drive automated infrastructure provisioning with Terraform.

Skills

IT architecture experience

Cloud Architect experience in Capital Markets

Kubernetes expertise

Java proficiency

Python skills

Terraform mastery

Apache Kafka expertise

Stakeholder management

Education

10+ years in IT architecture

Job description

Job Level: Director

Location: Charlotte, NC, US, 28202

Employment Type: Full Time

Requisition ID: 7658

Role Description

We are seeking a visionary and hands‑on Senior Cloud Architect to lead the transformation of our Middle‑Office and Back‑Office (BOMO) ecosystems. In this role, you will own the architectural roadmap, design, and cloud infrastructure for our next‑generation rates and FX & Derivatives trading systems. You will replace legacy batch processing with a modern, high‑throughput, event‑driven streaming architecture utilizing AWS Fargate, Amazon EKS (Kubernetes) and Amazon MSK (Apache Kafka). Your mission is to build a highly resilient, scalable data pipeline that seamlessly feeds our Databricks analytics platform while ensuring zero disruption to critical upstream front‑office desks and downstream financial systems.

Role Objectives

• Define Target‑State BOMO Architecture: Shape middle‑ and back‑office platform visions to directly support business revenue growth and multi‑fold transaction scaling.
• Design Event‑Driven Integration (OBS 2.0): Architect high‑throughput publisher/subscriber patterns using Amazon MSK (Kafka), Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate.
• Protect Workflow Integrity: Guarantee that BOMO system changes maintain strict backward compatibility, preventing any upstream or downstream system disruptions.
• Establish Architectural Governance: Create reusable design standards and reference blueprints aligned with broader Enterprise Architecture guardrails.
• Own Cloud Infrastructure & Security: Drive 100% automated infrastructure provisioning via Terraform while enforcing a Zero‑Trust security and IAM posture.
• Ensure High Availability & Performance: Guarantee peak platform reliability and sub‑millisecond scalability using active CloudWatch observability and self‑healing systems.

Qualifications and Skills

• Experience: 10+ years in IT architecture, with at least 4+ years as a Cloud Architect within Capital Markets, Investment Banking, or Fintech domains.
• Advanced Containerization: Production experience architecting, scaling, and managing cloud‑native applications on Kubernetes (Amazon EKS) and AWS Fargate/ECS. Knowledge of container lifecycle management, service meshes, and autoscaling paradigms (e.g., KEDA based on Kafka lag) is highly desired.
• Polyglot Engineering Literacy: Strong technical background in Java (for enterprise backend frameworks and high‑performance Kafka streams) and Python (for data engineering, pipelining, and rapid service deployment). Must be capable of performing deep‑dive code reviews.
• Infrastructure as Code Mastery: Deep, production‑hardened experience writing modular, scalable Terraform configurations to maintain immutable AWS environments.
• Core Messaging Fabric: Deep, hands‑on production expertise with Apache Kafka (or Amazon MSK), including performance tuning, topic partition strategies, and consumer lag mitigation.
• Integration Patterns: Mastery of distributed systems concepts, including event sourcing, CQRS, dead‑letter queuing, and idempotency patterns.
• Communication: Exceptional stakeholder management skills; ability to articulate complex distributed systems architecture to both C‑level executives and engineering teams.
• Preferred Certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional; HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate; Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD); Databricks Certified Solutions Architect or Confluent Certified Administrator/Developer.

Additional Requirements

SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA‑registered roles for which in‑office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at [e-mail].