Principal GCP Architect

Job Title: Principal GCP Architect

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (On-site)

Max Rate: $15-18 per hour (TBD)

Eligibility: Candidates from Pakistan, India, CIS, Asia, Africa, and Arabia already residing in Saudi Arabia with a valid work visa.

Job Overview

We are seeking a Principal GCP Architect to lead cloud transformation initiatives, ensuring enterprise-grade scalability, security, and efficiency. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Kubernetes (GKE), with a strong focus on cloud migration, infrastructure optimization, and DevOps methodologies.

This role requires a strategic leader who can architect, optimize, and migrate large-scale workloads to GCP, while also serving as a mentor and technical advisor to teams.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Architecture & Migration

1. Lead the migration of enterprise workloads to Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
2. Design and implement highly available, multi-region cloud architectures aligned with business objectives.
3. Define and enforce cloud security policies, networking configurations, and storage best practices.
4. Develop a cloud transformation roadmap and ensure seamless integration with existing IT infrastructure.

Kubernetes & Deployment Optimization

1. Architect and manage Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters for production and non-production environments.
2. Optimize Kubernetes orchestration, scaling, and automation to improve performance and reliability.
3. Implement CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native deployment strategies.

High-Availability & Performance Tuning

1. Design multi-zone deployments to ensure system resiliency and fault tolerance.
2. Optimize GCP networking, IAM, VPCs, and interconnects for security and efficiency.
3. Ensure performance tuning, monitoring, and observability to minimize downtime.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

1. Act as a technical mentor, guiding engineering teams on GCP best practices, cloud cost optimization, and workload automation.
2. Provide strategic insights on cloud governance, compliance frameworks, and risk management.
3. Lead knowledge-sharing sessions and train internal teams on advanced GCP services and DevOps automation.

Security, Governance & Compliance

1. Implement cloud security controls, IAM policies, and data encryption strategies.
2. Ensure compliance with industry standards (ISO, NIST, SOC2, GDPR, etc.) for cloud workloads.
3. Develop and oversee incident response and disaster recovery strategies.

Required Qualifications

Experience:

1. 12+ years in cloud architecture and infrastructure engineering.
2. 5+ years of hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in an architectural or leadership role.

Technical Expertise:

1. Strong proficiency in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Terraform, Helm, and container orchestration.
2. Experience in designing and managing multi-region, highly available cloud deployments.
3. Proficiency in CI/CD pipelines, cloud automation (Terraform, Ansible), and DevOps practices.
4. In-depth knowledge of GCP networking, IAM, VPCs, Cloud Interconnect, and hybrid cloud solutions.
5. Strong understanding of cloud cost optimization (FinOps) and performance tuning.
6. Hands-on experience with Google Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, and BigQuery.

Leadership & Strategies:

1. Demonstrated leadership experience in mentoring and guiding technical teams.
2. Strong understanding of cloud governance, compliance frameworks, and security best practices.

Job Type & Category

Job Category: Solutions Architect

Job Type: Full-Time

Work Mode: On-site (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)