Cloud Architect Job Description: Writing Guide, Sample Template & More

These days, cloud computing is more viable and useful for all kinds of organizations than ever before — which means cloud architect skills are a highly sought-after commodity.

A great cloud architect is valuable because of their knowledge and skills, necessary for navigating, creating, and maintaining complex cloud environments, implementing and developing cloud strategies, and making sure existing cloud systems run smoothly and stay up to date.

Most organizations that decide to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud will hire a cloud architect if they don’t have one at their disposal already. This ensures a smooth transition and helps companies avoid risk.

All of this means that the demand for top-level cloud systems architects is as high as it’s ever been, and attracting top talent in this niche is not an easy task even for experienced tech recruiters and hiring managers.

If you want to find the best people for this role in your own company, you’ll need a great cloud architect job description. Don’t underestimate the value of the job description — after all, it’s the very first thing most candidates will see when they decide to look for a new job.

Your cloud architect job ad has to be well-written; in other words, it needs to provide enough information without looking cluttered and badly constructed. It should captivate the best candidates instead of boring them.

Don’t worry, though — we’ll help you pique the interest of your prospective candidates with our in-depth guide for writing a cloud architect job description! Keep reading to learn about:

• Our proprietary template for cloud architect job descriptions
• A detailed guide on writing the most informative job ad for technical roles
• Some practical advice on making your job description unique among hundreds of others

Let’s dive in!

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Sample Cloud Architect Job Description Template

Before we get into our guide on creating a great job description for cloud data architects, you should get a feel for the finished product. Considering that, we’ve provided a sample job description below. And feel free to copy, paste, and edit it according to your company’s needs — but before you do, make sure to read our guide on its individual sections below!

Principal Cloud Architect, Enterprise Architecture Team (Remote)

About Us
UANY is a NYC-based startup that helps large companies and global enterprises develop and execute digital transformation strategies. In the past couple of years, we’ve assisted several top Fortune 500 companies in reaching their full digitalized potential. Now we’re looking for a principal cloud architect to help us serve even more clients by taking our cloud infrastructure to the next level. We’re an equal-opportunity employer with a company culture that places emphasis on employee wellbeing over profits.

What You’ll Do
As a Principal Cloud Architect at UANY, your role will be to leverage your technical knowledge across best practices, technologies, and industries in helping our clients utilize the benefits of the cloud for positive business outcomes. You will have the opportunity to work with Kubernetes, DevOps, Big Data, IoT, and other cutting-edge teams and technologies — as well as a passionate group of experts who are driving digital transformation forward across a range of industries.

Responsibilities: 
● Make informed decisions on the strategic direction and roadmap for the use and implementation of cloud platforms and DevOps methodologies
● Create a well-informed, in-depth cloud strategy and manage its adaptation process
● Organize and develop cloud systems;
● Closely work with IT security teams to monitor clients’ cloud privacy
● Work closely with internal data teams and business intelligence partners to help design the next version of our infrastructure.
● Deal with technical issues in a timely and professional manner;
● Provide guidance and advice in infrastructure movement techniques, such as bulk application transfers to the cloud;
● Identify the best cloud architecture solutions for specific strategic business needs of client companies. 

Necessary Qualifications:
● Bachelor’s degree in computer science or similar related field such as information technology or computer engineering;
● Three to five years of experience in supporting, executing, and designing IT cloud solutions
● In-depth knowledge of current cloud computing technologies and trends
● Effective verbal and written communication skills
Nice-to-Have Qualifications:
● Proficiency with Azure and Google Cloud technologies

Compensation & Benefits
● Stipends for professional improvement and gym memberships
● Yearly stipend for remote work
● Competitive salary
● Stock options, 401(k), retirement plans,
● Comprehensive medical plan with dental, vision, and life insurance
● Unlimited vacation time

Apply Now!
Here at UANY, we house a diverse team of professionals at what has proudly been recognized as a “Great Place to Work” by Great Place to Work® US for the past several years. The happiness of our workforce and the nurturing of great talent are two or our top priorities. We have remote work options, generous vacation time, and a host of other awesome benefits. We can't wait to get your job application!

Check out our entire set of tech job descriptions and choose the one which fits your hiring needs best:

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How to Write a Cloud Architect Job Description

Now that you have a sense of what a great cloud architect job description looks like when it’s done, let’s dissect it for individual parts and the content you should include within them.

Now, while the sections below aren’t listed in any particular order, make sure that the most important info about your job description is situated at the top of your ad — top-notch candidates that don’t spend a lot of time looking for work won’t want to scroll through the entire thing to learn about the basic stuff.

1. Job title

What’s the first thing any candidate sees in a job description, even before they click on it? That’s right: the job title.

Of course, cloud architects expect to see their own title on any ad they’d be interested in. But apart from the obligatory “Cloud Architect” part, there’s a ton of other significant information you could include in the job title to provide some vital information right away. Here are two examples:

Bad Example:

Cloud Architect

Good Example:

Remote Senior Cloud Architect — Cloud Strategy Development — Kubernetes

Of course, as with any other title, you don’t want it to be too long — but you still need to include all the information that could compel experienced candidates to click on the title and read further. And just saying “Cloud Architect” isn’t going to cut it.

Instead, you can include other job qualifiers, such as:

• A more specific field of expertise (Cloud Strategy Development)
• The seniority level of your open position (Junior, Senior, etc)
• The technology they’ll be working on (Kubernetes)
• The type of position (remote, on-site, hybrid)

2. About us

As we’ve already mentioned above, there’s plenty of demand for cloud network architects these days — which means top-level candidates can pick and choose their favorite out of a huge number of potential employers.

In this kind of buyer’s market, it’s not a bad idea to approach your job description like you would your own job interview — after all, you’re the one who’s leaving a great impression on the cloud architect here and not the other way around.

With that in mind, put some effort into writing a great “About Us” section that gives candidates a brief look into your company culture and values.

Here’s a great example from a cloud architect job description posted by JP Morgan on LinkedIn:

JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the oldest financial institutions, offers innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers, small businesses and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Our history spans over 200 years and today we are a leader in investment banking, consumer and small business banking, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management.

3. Role summary

Before they apply for a position at your company, candidates will want to know the specifics of what they’d do at your company — which is why including a “Role Summary” section is a great way to entice them to read further.

This is basically a high-level overview of the job role for interested candidates. There’s no need to go into too much detail here, as you’ll describe your company’s various cloud architect responsibilities in a separate section below.

Here’s an excellent “About The Job” section from the same JP Morgan cloud solutions architect job ad we mentioned above:

Working as an Architect, your passion for technology and thirst for innovation will help shape the future of global digital commerce, now and for years to come. Every day, you'll bring critical day-to-day leadership and thinking to the table, working with teams of architects, aligning cross-functional projects, ensuring that they're within reason, fiscally and technically. You'll collaborate with internal teams and business leaders alike, creating strategically sound Target State Architectures. You'll have a major say in budgeting, hiring, mentoring, setting priorities and fostering a client-centric environment where everyone learns and grows. At the end of the day, your work will have tremendous and positive impact, whether it's in-house, in collaboration with technologists across JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s global technology community or in partnership with some of the most important tech firms in the world.

4. Duties and responsibilities

Once your candidates have a general idea of what their role at the company would entail, it’s time to give them a more detailed look at the cloud architect duties and responsibilities they’ll be performing.

Some recruiters like to roll this section into the “Role Summary” one we’ve described above. While that’s fine, make sure to highlight the individual duties in a separate bullet list if you decide to go down that route — these are the best format for readability and visibility.

Here’s a decent example we’ve found on cloud architect job description by Deloitte on LinkedIn:

• Strong experience with Azure (Amazon and other cloud providers is a plus)
• Strong experience with PaaS services; understands leading practices and adoption patterns.
• Strong experience with IaaS, such as Microsoft SQL Server and database administration (e.g. Always On)
• Strong experience with networking, firewalls, load-balancers in Azure and on-premise.
• Experience with Puppet, Chef, Ansible, and continuous integration tools, such as VSTS, Bamboo, Jenkins
• Experience automating the provisioning and automation of your architectures and solutions (i.e. Infrastructure-as-Code)

5. Must-have skills and experience

Now that your candidates are more intricately familiar with what their role would be, it’s time to present them with the qualifications and requirements they’d need to fulfill the role successfully.

Here’s a well-written example taken from a 5G Cloud Solutions Architect job ad posted by Verizon on LinkedIn:

You’ll Need To Have

• Bachelor’s degree or four or more years of work experience.
• Six or more years of relevant work experience.
• Experience with Linux operating systems internals (e.g. filesystems, system calls), and with networking (e.g. routing, DNS) or cloud systems.
• Experience developing infrastructure solutions across major cloud computing providers (AWS/Azure/GCP) and/or container orchestration platforms (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Experience with popular programming languages (Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, GoLang).

6. Nice-to-have skills and experience

Every company wants to hire the ideal candidate that fits their requirements and company culture perfectly. However, that doesn’t mean you should be so specific in your requirements that you turn away a bunch of great picks that aren’t precisely what you were envisioning while writing the job ad.

That’s why having too many formal requirements isn’t the optimal solution. Instead, you can do what the folks at Verizon have done in the job ad we’ve referred to above, and what most other companies do: create a “nice-to-have skills” section that describes their perfect candidate in more depth.

Here’s the example from the same sample cloud architect job description from Verizon we used above:

Even better if you have one or more of the following:

• Three or more years of experience in software sales, pre-sales, or consulting.
• One or more Professional-level or Specialty cloud certifications.
• Demonstrated thought leadership across blog posts, white papers, or speaking engagements.
• The ability to work cooperatively with, and gain the respect of, software developers.
• Outstanding public speaking and presentation skills.

7. Educational requirements

Speaking of too many formal requirements — you should consider whether it’s worth asking for a formal educational background in 2022 and beyond. The age of the Internet has given rise to democratized education, especially when it comes to computer sciences.

Plenty of people without college degrees have the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary for a cloud architect role. So, it may not be a bad idea to forgo formal educational requirements while advertising this kind of open position.

Naturally, most companies still prefer to use college education as a filter, even in computer engineering — and if your company has the same policy, you should clearly state the required education for the advertised position in this section.

Mention the level of education required (bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, PhD, etc), as well as any specific area of study you need.

8. Compensation, benefits, and perks

Our next section is the part the majority of candidates will want to learn about the most: the benefits and compensation you offer. This largely depends on the current state of the market and the company policies you have, but here are some of the benefits most frequently offered by tech companies:

• Regular company lunches, happy hours, and other social events
• Company team-building retreats
• Retirement savings and 401(k) programs
• Sick leave policies
• Health coverage: mental health, vision, dental, medical, etc.
• Necessary hardware and software for work
• Performance bonuses
• Paid subscriptions: magazines, gym memberships, etc
• Stipends for professional growth
• Parental leave policies
• PTO (Paid Time Off) policies
• Referral bonuses
• Equity, ownership, and/or stock options
• Annual salary range
• Remote work office reimbursements

9. Other job description sections

The job description sections we’ve described above are the most important ones — the parts that contain all the vital information that most candidates will be interested in. However, there are plenty of other sections you can choose to include for an even more informative job ad:

Crucial dates — Some job boards don’t display the ad’s expiration date in a very visible place, so you may want to specify it within your job description itself. Also, there are other important dates you may want to disclose to any potential applicants — such as the job’s start date. Whichever ones you include, just ensure they’re visible and easily distinguishable from text-heavy sections.

Hiring process — Some companies use a more in-depth, multi-step process while hiring a senior cloud architect in an effort to check whether applicants are really as familiar with the required architecture of cloud computing as they claim. If that’s the case with your hiring process, make sure candidates know what to expect — especially if there are any technical aptitude tests they should prepare for.

Tech stack — All software developers like knowing what kind of technologies they’ll be working on. And you may want to talk a bit more about the tech powering your company in general, beyond the immediate scope of the cloud architect job role.

This is vital if you’re hiring a full-stack engineer, but others will appreciate knowing all about the frameworks and languages you’re using before the interview as well. That way, they’ll know if the position is within their realm of expertise.

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Tips for Writing a Captivating Job Description for Cloud Architects

1. Make it skimmable

When you’re writing a cloud architecture job description, you’re trying to achieve the same thing every other writer wants — keeping their audience interested to read to the end.

However, when it comes to in-demand, time-poor technical roles — the candidates for them won’t have the patience to keep reading badly formatted content. So, if you want to keep the best possible candidates interested in your job description, you’ll need to make sure it’s extremely readable and easily digestible.

When there’s so much information you need to share, it’s easy to make the mistake of creating overly lengthy, hard-to-read, and just too complicated job ads. Remember — high-quality applicants will appreciate skimmable, yet informative job descriptions. And that means they’ll be more likely to apply for your position.

To achieve this, use proper formatting — which means short paragraphs, bullet points, headings, and subheadings — while conveying information. That way, candidates will be able to find any specific piece of info regarding the role without reading a ton of text or scrolling up and down in frustration.

2. Be inclusive

As we’ve mentioned above, today’s best tech candidates have a huge number of employers to choose from — especially when it comes to remote cloud architects that have access to a global pool of employers.

Because of this, you need to use your job ad to demonstrate that your company promotes the right values, as well as a safe, emotionally satisfying work environment. One of the main values on this list is inclusivity — and it’s the one you should focus on the most.

Besides being fair and the right thing to do, inclusivity is also a logical, sound company policy. If you make sure everyone has a fair shot at roles within your company, you’ll have access to the widest candidate pool.

While these HR reps should keep in mind while enforcing and creating company policies, it’s also something to consider while you’re writing your job ad. Use inclusive language to subtly show your dedication to inclusivity — careless phrasing is likely to turn away non-male applicants, people of color, and various other minorities.

3. Close with a great CTA

In the end, remember what a job description is for in-demand sales roles — essentially, it’s a sales pitch. And if you’re going to treat it as such, you’ll also need to finish it off with an inspiring and energetic call to action (CTA).

If you’ve done everything else right, it’ll be the cherry on top for candidates you’ve managed to hype up throughout the rest of your cloud architect job description. Nonetheless, it’s important — so, write something short and sweet that compels people to apply.

You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:

⚡️ Access 350,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time

Try Arc and hire top talent now →