Cloud Solution Architect

Cloud Solution Architect

At the Department of Commerce (COM), we're reimagining what's possible in government. We're at the forefront of Azure cloud adoption for our enterprise IT systems. As our Cloud Solution Architect, you'll be our "go-to" person for everything Azure, migrating our on-premises IT systems, and everything in between. You will not only design but also get to implement it by configuring Azure and helping our teams migrate to it.

We will rely on your experience, expertise and ability to configure Azure in a way that will allow our agency to be agile and quickly change to support the needs of the agency.

This role is for an Azure specialist who is passionate and knows everything there is to know about Azure, enterprise IT systems, and bridging the gap between on-premises systems and cloud adoption. If that level of responsibility, innovation and impact excites you, then we believe you'll succeed with COM

Responsibility, impact, and trust are core to our identity. We're builders, thinkers, and change-makers, working at the intersection of innovation, community, and impact. From unlocking critical funding to fueling inclusive economic growth, we're turning big ideas into real-world solutions that uplift people and places.

Our agency's strength lies in the diversity of our workforce and the breadth of the lived experiences and perspectives employees bring to the work. We believe equity is not just a value but a practice, which is reflected in how we design programs, engage communities, and deliver outcomes. We foster a workplace culture where curiosity is encouraged, bold thinking is welcomed, and collaboration drives our impact.

Let's build what's next, together.

The Washington State Department of Commerce's mission is to strengthen communities in Washington. Innovation and Technology (IT) Division supports this mission by innovating, leading, and aligning technology with agency strategies, goals, and objectives.

Read that again. We're Innovation and Technology. Not just the Information Technology that you've experienced at your previous company. We sincerely mean that – the fields are green: come help us build IT solutions…try new things…actually innovate. We sincerely want you to bring your best on behalf of our Washington communities.

The IT Operations Team is responsible for the agency's cloud and on-premises infrastructure, security, and operations, including SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and application development infrastructure. This position works in the IT Operations team; developing the agency's IT system architecture, design, and configurations.

This role is centered on designing and developing highly complex IT systems at an enterprise level. It involves strategic planning, defining advanced architecture frameworks, and ensuring alignment with business objectives through the application of specialized technical skills and expert knowledge in cloud infrastructure and core enterprise server systems. Senior IT Architects work on complex projects, often collaborating with stakeholders to create scalable and efficient IT solutions.

This position's area of responsibility is the design and development of the agency's cloud platform as a service (PaaS) IT architecture and cloud software as a service (SaaS) applications infrastructure. This position consistently applies advanced strategic and operational expertise with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of cloud architecture and core enterprise server systems. This position understands the agency's business needs, strategic direction, and current and future state of cloud architecture to determine the right cloud solution infrastructure.

This position applies independent thinking and has decision making authority for cloud architecture and core enterprise PaaS and SaaS systems. Additionally, the position will evaluate and resolve highly complex assignments such as planning and directing large enterprise-wide cloud projects; conducting capacity planning; designing multi- SaaS and PaaS systems and enterprise storage solutions; directing and facilitating the installation of complex systems, hardware, software, application interfaces, or applications; applying vendor supplied patches within established timelines; developing and implementing performance monitoring. This position is our designated PaaS and SaaS Cloud Solutions Architect across the enterprise.

The agency's Cloud Solutions Architect for Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS)

solutions who develops, designs, evaluates plans, deploys, and manages new and complex technologies in all

Commerce Cloud Tenants and environments in support of ongoing agency wide efforts including migrating to

cloud PaaS and SaaS. Some examples of the Management of Cloud Tenants and Services include but not

limited to: WA Department of Commerce - Commercial Cloud Tenant (PaaS, SaaS), Open AI and other Platform

as a service (PaaS) Systems; Washington State Executive Branch Agencies - "StateOfWA" Government Cloud

Tenant: Power Portal, Power Apps Admin Center – Environments – Office Portal, Exchange Online, Teams,

OneDrive, SharePoint; WA Department of Commerce – On-Premise in State Datacenter: 106 virtual Servers,

Storage Area Networks (SAN), Backup. Windows and Linux – Web, Application, SQL Servers, Amazon Web

Services (AWS).

Tasks include:

• Applies strategic expertise and best practice to design and maintain Commerce's enterprise cloud

environment ensuring it meets all current business requirements and future growth needs.

• Applies highly specialized technical skills and expert knowledge of cloud infrastructure principles,

concepts, and practices to architect, design, and deploy complex cloud systems, ensuring scalability,

security, and compliance with industry standards.

• Architect a framework and carry out deployment, maintenance, monitoring and management tasks

within the implemented cloud infrastructure to support that framework.

• Translate project-specific requirements and processes into cloud-based infrastructure that will provide

reliable usage and scaling as requirements change or usage increases.

• Work with business and technical teams to understand their needs and implement cloud strategies

designed to meet those needs.

• Determine where and when migration to cloud based solutions and services is appropriate and

propose processes and solutions to complete the effort.

• Integrate new and existing applications into the cloud environment.
• Work with disparate cloud environments and provide solutions for integration and data exchange.
• Work with virtualization and cloud technologies to achieve effective management of business

applications and services.

• Oversee the design, development, and implementation of a security first architecture to secure and

protect agency data and systems from potential breaches and data loss.

• Implement identity and role-based processes to improve security and access to resources and services.
• Implement and oversee the use of monitoring and auditing tools to comply with WaTech, OCS, privacy,

security, and auditing requirements.

• Monitor and maintain usage of resources in the cloud and ensure the structure is operating efficiently.
• Architect and design business continuity solutions to meet agency RPO/RTO services level agreements

for business applications and services.

• Provide training, guidance and recommendations on usage and functionality of cloud-based tools to all

whose roles bring them into contact with the cloud environment

• Architects, designs and plans large scale migrations to IaaS and PaaS platforms, including test and

remediation plans.

• Implements IaaS and PaaS security and threat management.
• Plans and configures all IaaS and PaaS services to include the following components:

o Licensing, Multifactor Authentication, Conditional Access, Data Loss Protection.

• Research, plan and deploy IaaS and PaaS workloads and cloud services.
• Manage IaaS and PaaS environment settings to align with governance and compliance.
• Manage user identity and roles, access and authentication.
• Work with vendors, Microsoft, and WaTech engineers to implement Best Practices as well as unique

solutions to meet Commerce's needs of the IaaS and PaaS environments.

• Lead, troubleshoot and provide mentoring and guidance to Senior, Journey, and Entry level System

Administrators on complex issues.

• Backup IaaS and Infrastructure Cloud solutions architect.
• Architect, develop, and implement a disaster recovery solution into each system, making sure to

account for multiple levels of backup, including data, system configuration, and total system recovery,

meeting all disaster recovery and RPO/RTO requirements.

Develop, plan, design, configure and manage system architecture. Core systems support for agency

development, quality assurance, and production application system environments for agency's mission critical

applications and services. Applies expertise for all Commerce environments on premise state datacenters and

the Azure IaaS "WA Department of Commerce" tenant.

Tasks include:

• Research and plan all modifications to all Commerce application backend infrastructure to migrate

them to the Cloud infrastructure.

• Develops and documents changes made to existing systems. Develops and documents new processes

for complex issues.

• Designs and Documents new Multi-Server Systems to adapt to all Commerce IT Business needs.
• Maintain awareness of industry trends, best practices and issues with Servers hardware, security &

new technologies to ensure the integrity of all agency server systems.

• Manage large/enterprise applications Systems technology projects for Azure Active Directory & Active

Directory (AAD & AD) as well as other various enterprise solutions.

• Installs, configures, and maintains system hardware and software.
• Contributes to the development of agency server and operating system configuration standards based

on type of server build. Follows State standards for server naming conventions.

• Architecting the backend application development environment in the cloud, supporting developers

and development in dev, qa, and production.

• Troubleshoots issues related to complex application backend services between multi-cloud systems,

and services using advanced knowledge of multiple IT

• Travel to agency offices, data centers, and other locations to support agency IT systems, hardware, and

software.

• Performs updates/changes on AD - DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and other critical Domain services related

to AAD & AD & other enterprise server solutions.

• File Server Management – working with Storage & Virtualization Engineers to ensure the stability and

integrity of all Agency data on the network shares.

• Planning, Developing and maintaining the present and future state of the File Share data.
• Identifies special networking access needs for new server installs through change management process
• Leads the ServerOps staff to Calibrate and test server hardware and software for proper deployment

and operations.

Serves as Lead Platform Engineer responsible for configuration and management of systems in our

Virtualization & Physical environments for all on premise datacenters and the Azure PaaS "WA Department of

Commerce" tenant.

Tasks include:

• Leads the development of agency server and operating system configuration standards and plans,

instructs and assigns server related work to junior engineers including AD, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy

and other domain services related to enterprise server services.

• Develop architectural input and capacity planning strategies to ensure system scalability and

functionality for servers utilizing the virtualization environment and (SAN) storage area network.

• Building Server Operating System both physical and virtual in accordance to Commerce Server

specifications

• Track cloud SaaS and PaaS spending and costs, ensuring system usage and architecture stay within the

assigned budget.

• Latest Windows Server Operating Systems
• Assist in the building of new VMware Hosts Linux ESXi OS along with our SR Virtualization Engineer
• Build, maintain and monitor servers within our VMware Vcenter console
• Monitor the Virtual Servers within the Vcenter system console.
• Utilizing built in tools or by using purchased third party tools evaluates server event logs to proactively

identify potential application and system related issues.

• Architect complex systems using diagramming tools such as visio.
• Managing cloud services such as the following to support complex application infrastructure solutions:

o Azure DevOps / App Center / App Service

o Azure SQL Database / Data lakes / Storage

o Azure Defender / Sentinel / Monitor

o Azure AI / Functions / Migrate

o Azure Service Health

• Performs system-level advanced diagnostics to determine proper repair action(s).

Support daily systems maintenance & operations using various server tools for enterprise services.

Systems Maintenance & Operations tasks include:

• Support all efforts to maintain a development environment (DevLab) for new technologies and

application development.

• Azure Performance Monitoring
• Manage Azure Resources assigned to this position using resource groups and subscriptions
• Configure and document Cloud Resources using tools such as Tags, Security, Access Control,

Monitoring, and Diagnostics.

• Azure Shared workbooks for team members monitoring review
• Power Admin Alerting System configurations and updating
• Responds to system alerts and resolves issues.
• Works with other Systems Engineers & Supervisor to implement changes to systems for stability and

improved performance.

• Responds to customer requests via ticketing systems and emails to bring resolution and proper change

management to needed systems.

• Document all changes using proper change management databases and communications available.

Lead IT Projects and Teams

Lead tasks include:

• Lead IT projects, ensuring people meet timelines and quality standards.
• Coach, mentor and support IT teams this position leads, fostering a collaborative work environment.
• Plan, assign, instruct, and check the work of staff working on IT projects this position leads.
• Act as a liaison between IT staff and leadership, ensuring clear communication of goals and

expectations.

• Collaborate with vendors to implement best practices and tailored solutions.

Required Experience:

Eight (8) years of professional IT experience in 2 of the following 3 IT disciplines:

1. Cloud Architecture – Experience independently designing, configuring, and

implementing Azure cloud solutions supporting IaaS and PaaS systems such as

VMs, vNets, Resource Groups, Data lakes, Storage, Budget monitoring, Tags, Azure Open

AI, Application Gateways, Application Services, etc.

1. System Administration – experience independently architecting, designing,
   
   troubleshooting, installing, backing up and maintaining servers such as Backup, VMware,
   
   SAN, NAS, File, Print, IIS, SQL, GIS, WSUS, GIS, Email, Deployment, Monitoring, etc.

2. Network Administration – experience independently architecting, designing,
   
   troubleshooting, installing and maintaining campus networks, WANs and LANs with
   
   firewalls, switches and routers and other technologies such as, DNS, IPv4, IPv6, vLANs,
   
   protocols, ports, network monitoring and configuration backup, etc.

OR

Associate's degree in IT program or closely related field and six (6) years of recent professional experience

listed above.

OR

Bachelor's degree or higher in Information Technology program or closely related field and four (4) years of

recent professional experience listed above.

• Experience must include one (1) year of leading IT professionals or consulting as a technical lead, and can be

obtained concurrently to other professional experience listed above. Experience in effectively communicating

and aiding a diverse set of information technology peers.

• 2 years or more experience supporting Microsoft Azure infrastructure services and can be obtained concurrently

with other professional experience listed above.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A Bachelor's degree or completion of an accredited vocational training program in an information technology

or related program and four years of experience analyzing, installing, and/or maintaining server systems,

software applications, hardware, or telecommunications or network infrastructure equipment.

• Valid IT Certifications (ITIL, CCNA, MCSE, etc)
• Valid Azure Infrastructure Certifications
• VMware Training/Certifications
• Cisco Training/Certifications

To be considered for this position the following are needed:

• A complete and detailed online application.
• A cover letter (enter online) - that details how your skills and experience make you an ideal candidate for this position
• At least three professional references (enter online).

For questions about this recruitment, please contact our recruitment team via email: - please reference the job number in your message.

Work from Anywhere in Washington State

This position may be located anywhere within Washington State though occasional travel to a Commerce office building or in-state travel to attend events or meetings may be required. If selected, you will need to travel to pick up equipment and receive instruction. Many Commerce employees work remotely or have a hybrid schedule.

This recruitment may be used to fill future vacancies over the next 60 days.

Technical support is provided by NEOGOV, can't log in, password or email issues, error messages). DES job seeker support may answer general questions regarding the recruiting system at

Our Commitment to Equal Opportunity

The Washington State Department of Commerce is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of disability, persons over 40 years of age, veterans or people with military status, and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are encouraged to apply. Persons needing accommodation in the application, testing, or interview process or this job announcement in an alternative format may email Human Resources at Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call through the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or

Department of Commerce also offers a competitive benefits package including: medical and dental insurance benefits, retirement and deferred compensation plans, 11 paid holidays each year, 14-25 vacation days per year (depending on length of employment), 8 hours of sick leave per month (if full time employed), bereavement leave, an employee assistance program, as well as other benefits. Please see the Benefits Tab for more details.