The GCP Cloud Architect is responsible for leading enterprise application migration and modernization from legacy platforms to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This role drives end-to-end cloud architecture, solution design,…
Engineering & IT · Washington, DC
Cloud Architect jobs in Washington, DC
Cloud architects design how an organization's systems run on platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP — balancing reliability, security, and cost, and guiding teams through migrations and growth.
2,199
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$57–$132/hr
Typical pay range
$181k
Median, full-time
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Open cloud architect roles
6 shown of 2,199 · sorted by freshness
Job Description Job Description Cloud Architect? ??? Northern Capital Region???? Full-Time | On-site | Position Contingent Upon AwardJoin Synertex and bring your expertise to a mission that matters. We're looking for a C…
$169.6k - $229.46k
: Software Engineering Job Qualifications: Skills: Cloud Native, Microsoft Azure, Platform as a Service (PaaS) Certifications... ...: Yes Job Description: GDIT is seeking a Cloud Architect / Developer SME to design, buil…
Role: Principal AWS Cloud Architect Work Location: San DiegoCA92121 Contract duration (in months)* 6 Job Details: Must Have Skills (Top 3 technical skills only): AWS Cloud Architecture AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Step Funct…
at the frontier of the Nation's most complex and rewarding challenges. Join our team. Barbaricum is seeking an experienced Cloud Architect to lead the design and implementation of cloud solutions under the Military Commu…
Job Description Job Description Tharseo IT is seeking a Principal Cloud Architect (Cloud Architect Level 4) to lead the design and implementation of secure, enterprise-scale cloud environments supporting federal and miss…
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What cloud architects earn in Washington
Hourly first — that's how the offer arrives
| Experience | Hourly | Annual, full-time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $57–$75 | $119k–$156k |
| Mid level | $75–$99 | $156k–$206k |
| Senior | $96–$132 | $200k–$275k |
Adjusted for the Washington market from national ranges.
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What employers ask for
The skills these listings keep naming
Deep AWS, Azure, or GCP expertiseArchitecture patterns and tradeoffsNetworking and security designInfrastructure as codeCost modeling and FinOpsMigration planningKubernetes and containersStakeholder communicationWriting architecture documents
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Interview questions worth rehearsing
With the thing the interviewer is actually listening for
Design a highly available architecture for a customer-facing web application.
Ask about requirements and budget first. Cover multi-AZ, load balancing, data replication, and failure modes — and say what you would deliberately not build at this scale.
How would you plan a migration from on-premises to the cloud?
Talk about assessment, choosing rehost versus refactor per workload, sequencing by risk, and running hybrid during the transition. Phased beats big-bang.
A team's cloud costs doubled in a quarter. How do you investigate?
Visibility first — cost explorer, tagging — then the usual suspects: data transfer, oversized instances, forgotten environments. Show you treat cost as an architectural property.
When would you advise against microservices?
Small teams, unclear domain boundaries, or operational immaturity. Arguing against a fashionable pattern with specifics is a strong signal for an architect.
How do you get engineering teams to actually follow your architecture?
Influence over mandate: reference architectures, paved-road templates, and review checkpoints. Acknowledge that unused architecture documents are a failure mode.
How do you design for disaster recovery, and how do you set RTO/RPO?
Explain that RTO/RPO are business decisions with price tags, then map them to backup, pilot-light, or active-active patterns. Mention actually testing the recovery.
Tell me about an architecture decision you got wrong.
Pick a real one, explain the reasoning at the time, and what your process learned from it. Architects who claim a clean record are not believed.
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Resume tips that move the needle
For cloud architects specifically — generic advice costs you here
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Anchor each role in scale and outcomes: workloads migrated, availability achieved, annual spend managed or reduced.
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List current professional-level certifications (AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Azure Solutions Architect); they are near-mandatory screens for this title.
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Show breadth across compute, networking, data, and security — architecture hiring looks for T-shaped depth.
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Include the organizational side: teams guided, architecture reviews run, standards adopted.
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Name a migration or greenfield build you owned end to end; a single deep case study outweighs a list of services.
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Where this role goes
Typical progression
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Cloud Engineer
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Senior Cloud Engineer
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Cloud Architect
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Principal Architect
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