Cloud Architect Engineer (GCP)

Role Overview

Cloud Architect Engineer (GCP) at Artefact. This role is based with Artefact, a data service provider specializing in data consulting and data-driven digital marketing.

Company Overview

Artefact is a new generation of data service provider dedicated to transforming data into business impact across the entire value chain of organizations. The Data Consulting team comprises more than 400 consultants covering data marketing, data governance, strategy consulting, product ownership, and related offerings. The company is experiencing skyrocketing growth.

Role Purpose

Design, implement, and oversee robust, scalable, and secure cloud solutions that support clients' data and technology ecosystems. Collaborate with technical teams and business stakeholders to align cloud architecture with business needs, optimize tool selection, drive cost efficiency, and ensure scalability. Lead technical teams, mentor engineers, and contribute to Artefact's growth through innovation and best-practice promotion in cloud technology.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Infrastructure Design

• Lead the design and implementation of cloud infrastructure architectures—cloud, on-premise, and hybrid—aligned with business requirements.
• Oversee the integration of cloud platforms with data pipelines, storage, and compute services.
• Design end-to-end GCP environments that are highly available, secure, and cost-efficient, leveraging Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Run, Compute Engine, and Cloud SQL.

Security, Compliance & Best Practices

• Define and enforce best practices for cloud platform deployment, configuration, security, networking, operations, and tools selection.
• Implement deep expertise in GCP security, networking, and compliance best practices including VPC Service Controls, IAM, and Organization Policy.

Data Pipeline & Analytics

• Architect end-to-end data pipelines—streaming and batch ETL workflows using Pub/Sub, Dataflow (Apache Beam), and Dataproc to ingest high-throughput events into BigQuery for real-time insights.
• Design scalable data models in BigQuery with dimensional schemas, partitioning, and clustering to achieve sub-second query times on petabyte-scale datasets.
• Partner with data teams to fine-tune architectures on Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Dataflow, and Dataproc, delivering performant, scalable analytics platforms.

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Design and implement automated solutions to set up, monitor, and adjust cloud infrastructure efficiently.
• Automate infrastructure lifecycle via Terraform and Cloud Build pipelines, implementing auto-scaling, patch management, and monitoring workflows to boost operational efficiency.
• Orchestrate and schedule workflows leveraging Cloud Composer (Airflow) and Workflows, adding automated retries, data-quality validations, and alerting to guarantee pipeline reliability.
• Standardize coding, deployment, and monitoring practices across cloud environments.

Disaster Recovery & High Availability

• Define global DR/HA strategies using Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud CDN, and automated failover with multi-region Bigtable/Spanner or persistent disk replication, achieving sub-hour RTOs for critical workloads.

Cost Management

• Master cost control in GCP through committed-use discounts, custom machine types, billing export analytics, and budget alerts, plus high-availability patterns for resilience.

Technical Leadership & Problem-Solving

• Lead problem-solving initiatives for complex technical challenges related to cloud environments.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple cloud projects, ensuring efficient resource management.
• Diagnose and resolve architectural challenges across compute, data, and networking domains.

Team Development & Mentorship

• Foster teamwork by mentoring, coaching, and guiding cloud engineers and ensuring knowledge transfer.
• Develop cloud engineering talent through hands-on training, code reviews, and best-practice evangelism.

Stakeholder & Client Management

• Manage client relationships regarding project expectations, timelines, and outcomes.
• Communicate effectively, crafting business-focused presentations and leading stakeholder workshops on GCP strategy.
• Lead skilled stakeholder management from technical deep dives with engineering teams to strategic discussions with C-level executives.
• Proven leadership in guiding cross-functional teams and steering complex, multi-phase cloud projects to on-time delivery.

Business Growth

• Contribute to Artefact's growth by maintaining tech partnerships, leading technical proposals to support project planning, and identifying potential growth areas with existing accounts.
• Leverage GCP innovations to unlock new revenue streams and streamline operations.

Qualifications & Experience

• Proven track record architecting and deploying large-scale Google Cloud solutions.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing global DR/HA strategies using Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud CDN, and automated failover mechanisms.
• Extensive experience architecting end-to-end data pipelines with streaming and batch ETL workflows.
• Proven leadership in guiding cross-functional teams and steering complex, multi-phase cloud projects to on-time delivery.
• Recognized as a business growth driver leveraging GCP innovations to unlock new revenue streams.

Skills & Competencies

• Deep expertise in GCP security, networking, and compliance best practices including VPC Service Controls, IAM, and Organization Policy.
• Mastery of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Run, Compute Engine, and Cloud SQL.
• Advanced proficiency with Pub/Sub, Dataflow (Apache Beam), and Dataproc for ETL workflows.
• Expert-level BigQuery skills including dimensional schema design, partitioning, clustering, and sub-second query optimization on petabyte-scale datasets.
• Advanced knowledge of Cloud Composer (Airflow) and Workflows for orchestration and scheduling.
• Expert-level Terraform and Cloud Build pipeline automation.
• Advanced cost control expertise: committed-use discounts, custom machine types, billing export analytics, and budget alerts.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, adept at crafting business-focused narratives.
• Strong problem-solving capabilities across compute, data, and networking domains.
• Advanced stakeholder management skills spanning technical and executive audiences.
• Mentorship and coaching expertise in developing cloud engineering talent.