Remote [Job - 22620] CloudOps Software Architect

Description:

• We are tech transformation specialists, uniting human expertise with AI to create scalable tech solutions.
• We have over 6,500 CI&Ters around the world and have built partnerships with more than 1,000 clients during our 30 years of history.
• We are looking for a CloudOps Software Architect to guide the evolution of our Azure-native Kubernetes platform.
• The stack is GitOps-based (Argo CD), leverages Argo Rollouts for blue/green and canary releases, and relies on Istio Service Mesh for secure, multi-cluster traffic management.
• You will coach engineering squads on best practices, mature our scaling strategies, streamline governance across multiple environments and clusters, and ensure robust secret-management and policy-as-code guardrails.
• Your responsibilities will include designing and evolving the platform, building and refining a Helm-driven, multi-cluster AKS architecture, and establishing reusable charts, upgrade/rollback playbooks, and disaster-recovery strategies.
• You will drive GitOps and progressive delivery, own repository-based deployment workflows with Argo CD, and standardize blue/green and canary releases via Argo Rollouts.
• You will lead networking and service mesh, tuning Istio for traffic management, mTLS, policy enforcement, and observability.
• You will define cross-cluster routing, fail-over, and zero-trust patterns, engineer autoscaling and resilience, and optimize resource requests/limits, PDBs, and QoS classes.
• You will manage infrastructure and policy, maintain Infrastructure-as-Code modules, enforce CI checks and compliance using Kyverno policy-as-code, and architect secure secrets management.
• You will provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, run architecture reviews, and own the platform roadmap while aligning designs with security, compliance, and cost-optimization goals.

Requirements:

• You must have 2+ years as a software/system architect or technical lead guiding multiple squads.
• You should have 5+ years total in software engineering, DevOps, or SRE roles.
• Proven expertise with Kubernetes, Helm, Argo CD, and Argo Rollouts is required.
• You must have production AKS experience, including Azure networking (VNet, Private Link, Azure Monitor).
• Strong knowledge of Istio or other Envoy-based service meshes (mTLS, traffic policies, observability) is necessary.
• A deep understanding of Kubernetes HPA/VPA and resource-efficiency tuning is essential.
• Hands-on experience with secret-management solutions in Kubernetes is required.
• Proficiency with Azure DevOps (Repos, Pipelines, Artifacts) is necessary.
• Familiarity with Kyverno (or Gatekeeper) for policy enforcement is required.
• Clear written and verbal English communication skills are essential.
• Nice-to-have qualifications include practical exposure to Cluster API for cluster lifecycle automation and familiarity with Solo.io products or other enterprise Istio distributions.
• Experience adopting or extending Backstage developer portals and open-source contributions in CNCF, Istio, Kyverno, or GitOps projects are also desirable.
• Certifications such as CKA/CKS, Microsoft Certified – Azure Solutions Architect, or HashiCorp Terraform Associate are a plus.
• You should be a systems thinker with a bias for automation and simplification, skilled at explaining complex architectures to various stakeholders, and a servant-leader who empowers teams while upholding high engineering standards.

Benefits:

• Health and dental insurance are provided.
• Meal and food allowance is included.
• Childcare assistance is available.
• Extended paternity leave is offered.
• Wellhub (Gympass) and TotalPass are part of the benefits.
• Profit-sharing (PLR) is included.
• Life insurance is provided.
• Access to CI&T University is available.
• A discount club is offered.
• A free online platform dedicated to physical, mental, and overall well-being is included.
• A pregnancy and responsible parenting course is available.
• Partnerships with online learning platforms are provided.
• A language learning platform is included.
• Many more benefits are available, with more details found at CI&T Careers.