Westat is a leader in research, data collection and analysis, technical assistance, evaluation, and communications. Our evidence-based findings help clients in government and the private sector accelerate advancements in health, education, transportation, and social and economic policy. Our dedication to improving lives through research and our approach to projects grounded in investigative curiosity, statistical and data rigor, adaptive methods, and advanced technology are why clients find exceptional value in our work.
Westat is seeking an experienced Cloud Architect to help shape and advance our enterprise cloud strategy and technology environment. This role will provide strategic and technical leadership in designing and operating secure, resilient, scalable, and cost-effective cloud solutions that support Westat’s evolving business, research, and technology needs.
The Cloud Architect will lead and develop the cloud team, establish architectural standards and governance, guide cloud modernization, strengthen cloud financial management, and collaborate across technology and business teams to support the responsible adoption of cloud and emerging technologies. The Cloud Architect will primarily lead technical efforts and provide hands-on engineering and administration of our AWS environment, with secondary responsibilities for Azure and integrations with our data center. The Cloud Architect will oversee a large-scale migration of data center workloads to AWS, supported by contractors.
The cloud team will also be responsible for maintaining and extending core Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Terraform modules which will be used to implement and operate all new cloud initiatives.
This is a hybrid role based in our Bethesda, Maryland office, you will work on-site 3 days per week and from home 2 days per week.
Job Responsibilities:
- Define and evolve cloud architecture, standards, roadmaps, and reference architectures aligned with Westat’s business and technology priorities.
- Design secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective solutions primarily on AWS, including integration across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.
- Define architecture patterns supporting high availability, disaster recovery, networking, identity, automation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
- Lead and develop the cloud team by setting priorities, providing technical direction, mentoring team members, building cloud capabilities, and ensuring effective delivery of cloud initiatives.
- Provide architectural leadership for cloud migration, modernization, and workload placement, balancing security, cost, performance, risk, and operational requirements.
- Establish cloud governance, security, and architecture guardrails in partnership with cybersecurity, infrastructure, application, and data teams.
- Define how IaC codebases are managed with Git version control and executed through DevSecOps to ensure consistent, reproducible environments with proper governance.
- Incorporate FinOps principles into architecture decisions to improve cloud cost visibility, recovery, accountability, and optimization.
- Partner with developers and data engineers to increase adoption of DevOps when deploying workloads to the cloud.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and communicate architectural recommendations, risks, costs, and trade-offs to technical teams and leadership.
Basic Qualifications:
- A minimum of 15 years of progressive IT experience; or a bachelor’s degree in a related technical field with a minimum of 10 years of progressive IT experience.
- Significant experience defining enterprise-wide cloud and infrastructure architectures.
- Strong, hands-on experience designing and implementing AWS cloud infrastructure, including networking, compute, storage, security, and identity and access management, in regulated environments (FedRAMP preferred).
- Experience designing hybrid cloud environments integrating cloud and on-premises infrastructure.
- Strong knowledge of cloud networking, security, identity and access management, zero-trust principles, high availability, and disaster recovery.
- Demonstrated expertise in Infrastructure as Code, primarily using Terraform and comparable tools.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience using AI/SI coding agents and assistants to develop and deliver cloud solutions, with the ability to lead teams while remaining an active technical contributor through effective use of these tools.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced experience with AWS enterprise cloud landing zones and governance; additional architecture experience with Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Experience with multicloud, cloud-native, container, or Kubernetes-based architectures.
- Experience establishing cloud governance, architecture practices, or a Cloud Community of Practice/Cloud Center of Excellence.
- Experience supporting complex or regulated environments, including privacy, compliance, and data residency requirements.
- Relevant professional certification, such as AWS Solutions Architect – Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect, FinOps certification, or TOGAF.
- Understanding of cloud financial management and FinOps principles, including cost optimization and resource consumption.
- Demonstrated experience leading technical teams, mentoring technology professionals, setting technical direction, and driving delivery across complex initiatives.
- Strong communication, collaboration, and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for technical, business, and leadership audiences.
Westat offers a well-rounded and comprehensive benefits program focused on wellness and work/life balance. Subject to plan requirements, employees may participate in:
- Employee Stock Ownership Plan
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- Paid Parental Leave
- Vacation Leave (20 days per year)
- Sick Leave (9 days per year)
- Holiday Leave (7 government holidays and 2 floating holidays)
- Professional Development
- Health Advocate
- Employee Assistance Program
- Travel Accident Insurance
- Medical Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Short Term Disability Insurance
- Long Term Disability Insurance
- Life and AD&D Insurance
- Critical Illness Insurance
- Supplemental Life Insurance
- Flexible Spending Account
- Health Savings Account
Any offer of employment may be contingent upon receipt of acceptable results from a post-offer background screening, if required for the specific position, which may include, for example, identity verification, employment history, motor vehicle driving record history, and criminal or sexual offender records history. Any background screening results will be evaluated through an individualized assessment based on the individual’s specific record and the duties and requirements of the position.
This opportunity will be posted for a minimum of 5 days and may be removed from posting after 100 applications have been received.
Employment Eligibility: This is a U.S.-based position. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Westat does not offer employment-based visa sponsorship (including H-1B sponsorship) for this role. Depending on project requirements, some positions may require employees to meet specific residency criteria.
Westat is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other protected status under applicable law. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
