Enter a job title or keyword
Lead Cloud Architect
Job Location:
Job Location:
Birmingham, MI - USA
Yearly Salary:
$ 122000 - 150000
Yearly Salary:
Posted:
19 June 2026 (30+ days ago)
Posted:
Application Deadline:
10 November 2026
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Vacancies:
Job Summary
The work we do has an impact on millions of lives and you can be a part of it.
Wehelp protect our customers against lifes ofwhere you work within thecompany youll behelping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.
Join our cloud infrastructure team the driving force behind our organizations cloud transformation. We architect standardize and engineer resilient Azure environments that fuel enterprise-wide innovation ensuring scalability security and reliability as the Secure Sandbox for all cloud activities. Building on our established Azure presence and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices we partner with Networking Security Enterprise Architecture Operations and various domain teams (e.g. Data & AI) to create Paved Roads for seamless cloud consumption and advanced platforms like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). As a peer among technical experts youll collaborate on collective decisions and innovations that mature our cloud ecosystem.
Were looking for a Lead Cloud Architect to evolve our Azure cloud platform in partnership with a team of peer this hands-on individual contributor role youll leverage your expertise to strengthen resilient infrastructure refine IaC and CI/CD artifacts and elevate SRE practicesbuilding on our solid foundation for even greater reliability. Reporting to the Senior Director of Cloud Infrastructure youll contribute to platform strategy through shared insights joint problem-solving and targeted improvements that advance our cloud maturity. Ideal for a seasoned Azure specialist excited by cloud-native SRE at scale; your work will emphasize enhancements and new solutions atop what weve already established not starting from zero. Collaborating with Enterprise Architecture and Application Development teams youll support the design implementation and refinement of Azure and O365 services delivering innovative IaC orchestration and automation while prioritizing top-tier Information Security.
Responsibilities
- Architect the Cloud Foundation: Partner with peers to refine Azure Landing Zone architectures weaving in Networking Security and Enterprise Architecture needs into our secure platform. Evolve the Secure Sandbox for better multi-tenant isolation compliance and growth including networking monitoring and automation. Offer senior architecture guidance for onboarding new cloud workloads.
- Build Paved Roads for Cloud Enablement: Collaborate to enhance reusable IaC modules (Bicep ARM Terraform) and CI/CD templates (Azure DevOps GitHub Actions). Empower app and domain teams with refined governance security and cost controls. Orchestrate automated builds for O365 and cloud platforms company-wide upholding standards via Azure Policy.
- Drive Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Practices: Team with Operations to define SLOs/SLIs using tools like Azure Monitor and Application Insights for advanced self-healing remediation and strategies (e.g. blue/green canary). Support production with issue troubleshooting 24/7 on-call rotation and resolution of critical cloud incidents.
- Standardize Advanced Platforms: Optimize AKS and related services with peers focusing on provisioning scaling observability and security in hybrid/multi-cloud setups including containers and Blob Storage. Shape the design roadmap and support for Azure and O365 applications.
- Foster Platform Resilience and Scalability: Engage in reviews tuning chaos engineering incident response and post-mortems to mitigate risks and boost metrics. Integrate security via Azure Defender Sentinel and Key Vault into DevOps. Lead disaster recovery planning and multi-site/multi-vendor operations. Apply proactive problem-solving to preempt issues and inform strategic decisions.
- Contribute to Team Excellence: Exchange knowledge via code reviews troubleshooting and sessions to mature practices. Join Agile sprints standups blameless post-mortems and tech radars. Grasp development basics to build/update code for cloud maturity (e.g. Terraform JSON Git Docker Kubernetes Ansible).
- Advance DevOps and Automation: Champion CI/CD and release strategies organization-wide. Research and deploy streamlined automations; craft PowerShell/VM scripts for ops support. Integrate monitoring/config services self-developing as needed. Engage seniors and stakeholders to promote cloud best practices.
- Innovate with Identity and Emerging Tech: Apply on-prem/cloud IAM expertise for Entra ID Federation and Azure B2C. Explore services like Azure Arc or Confidential Computing for PoCs; analyze trends in reporting and forensics for regulated compliance.
Qualifications
- Required
- Experience: 8 years in cloud engineering (5 in Azure architecture/SRE); hands-on in production-scale environments high-availability and root-cause analysis. Background in Cloud Development and Architecture; experience managing projects of varying scale.
- Technical Expertise:
- Proficient in Azure essentials: Landing Zones AKS VMs Container Instances Blob Storage VNet Entra ID Policy/Blueprints. Design/manage IaaS/PaaS/SaaS (Load Balancers App Gateways DNS Front Door Storage Monitor Security Center Log Analytics).
- IaC/CI/CD mastery (Bicep/ARM/Terraform Azure DevOps/GitHub Actions PowerShell/CLI); 2 years in automation for CI/CD.
- SRE core: SLOs/SLIs error budgets observability (Azure Monitor/Prometheus/Grafana) automation (Logic Apps/Functions).
- Security: Defender Sentinel Key Vault; IAM depth (Entra ID AD Azure AD DS/Connect/B2C MFA). Enterprise account/security models; Azure Policy implementation; Key Vault/encryption.
- 2 years O365 and Azure AD B2C; 2 years Kubernetes/Docker/Containers; 3 years Azure (Functions API Mgmt Blobs VMs SQL Event Grid) Core PowerApps.
- Large-scale distributed systems OSes secure configs; deep Azure/cloud knowledge.
- Skills: Complex system problem-solving; container/microservices; requirements-to-architecture translation.
- Soft Skills: Collaborative communicator for partnerships/influence; agile/blameless culture; change/incident management. Mentor juniors; plan/manage technical implementations.
- Preferred
- Certifications: AZ-305 AZ-500 AZ-400 CKAD/CKA; AZ-300 A plus. Industry certs encouraged.
- Advanced Azure: Arc AI/ML (e.g. ML on AKS) databases (Cosmos/SQL). Compute/Storage/Networking automation (Azure Automation/CLI/PowerShell).
- Chaos tools (Gremlin/Litmus) GitOps (Flux/ArgoCD) Ansible; regulated envs (HIPAA/GDPR/SOX).
- Open-source/internal tooling contributions.
- Bachelors in CS/Engineering (or equivalent) strongly preferred
$122000 - $150000 a year
Protectives targeted salary range for this position is $122000 to $150000. Actual salaries may vary depending on factors including but not limited to job location skills and experience. The range listed is just one component of Protectives total compensation package for employees.
This position also offers additional incentive opportunitiesthrough an annual incentive based on individual and Company performance.
#LI-VG1
Employee Benefits:
We aim to protect the wellbeing of our employees and their families with a broad benefits addition to offering comprehensive health dental and vision insurance we support emotional wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance balance is important and Protective offers a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g. paid time off paid parental leave short-term disability and a cultural observance day).The financial health of our employees is just as important as physical and emotional health. Some of the financial wellbeing benefits include contributions to healthcare accounts a pension plan and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards Protectives platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.
Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Companys benefit plans.
Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability:
If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability please emailemailprotected. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.
Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation. General employment questions should not be sent through this process.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting retaining and growing an inclusive workforce.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.
Required Experience:
Staff IC
About Company
Protect your future with a life insurance policy or annuity from Protective. Discover options that give you and your family confidence for what's ahead.
