Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal

We are seeking a Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal to support the reliability, scalability, security, and strategic evolution of EVERFI's PaaS systems, while acting as a force multiplier for the broader engineering organization. The Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal is expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, make consequential architectural decisions, and represent cloud infrastructure to senior leadership as needed. Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal Compensation and Benefits $170,000-$185,000 annual base salary depending on experience and education. Everfi may pay more or less based on employee qualifications, market value, Company finances, and other operational considerations. This role is eligible to participate in the Corporate Bonus Plan 100% Remote position Health, Dental, and Vision insurance 401(K) with matching contribution Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal Responsibilities Strategic Architecture & Technical Vision Shape and execute the multi-year cloud architecture strategy for EVERFI's platform, aligning infrastructure direction with business growth, product roadmap, and organizational scalability goals Lead enterprise-wide architecture reviews and establish cloud governance standards, guardrails, and best practices adopted across all engineering teams Identify and evaluate emerging technologies (e.g., AI/ML infrastructure, FinOps, platform engineering tooling) and make forward-looking recommendations to VP and CTO leadership Serve as a technical decision-maker and escalation point for complex, cross-functional cloud architecture challenges Drive the evolution of EVERFI's platform from reactive infrastructure management to proactive, resilience-first platform engineering Platform Engineering & Infrastructure Design, build, maintain, and monitor internal PaaS systems in the cloud at enterprise scale — with a focus on high availability, fault tolerance, and cost efficiency Lead the implementation of geographically redundant, multi-region, and highly available architectures capable of supporting EVERFI's growth trajectory Architect and oversee the full lifecycle of cloud deployment tooling, ensuring CI/CD systems are continuously optimized for speed, safety, and developer experience Design reliable, interoperable components and utility libraries that underpin EVERFI's applications across engineering teams Architect and own a comprehensive metrics, monitoring, and observability system enabling full-stack visibility, proactive incident response, and SLA enforcement Security, Compliance & Risk Ensure all cloud environments are designed and administered in accordance with company security guidelines, SOC 2 compliance requirements, FERPA, and applicable data privacy regulations Architect zero-trust networking, identity and access management (IAM), and data encryption frameworks across EVERFI's cloud environments Partner with Security and Legal teams to lead cloud risk assessments and drive remediation of architectural vulnerabilities at the platform level Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence Act as a senior technical advisor to Engineering, Product, and Executive leadership on all cloud infrastructure decisions — translating complex technical tradeoffs into clear business impact Champion engineering culture: establish and promote best practices for reliability, performance, and operational excellence across all teams consuming cloud infrastructure Build training programs, playbooks, and knowledge resources that upskill engineering teams on cloud operations, architecture patterns, and performance optimization Represent the Cloud Architecture function in cross-functional planning, capacity modeling, and strategic workforce design discussions Mentorship & Talent Development Provide mentorship, technical guidance, and career development support to Principal, Staff, and Senior Engineers on the Cloud Architecture team and adjacent teams Participate in hiring, technical interviews, and calibration discussions as needed Participate in an on-call rotation to provide emergency incident support as needed, modeling expected standards of operational excellence for the team Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent combination of education and experience required; Master's degree strongly preferred 10+ years of progressive professional experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or systems architecture Minimum 3–5 years of experience operating at the Principal or Staff Engineer level, with demonstrated ownership of enterprise-wide architectural decisions Proven track record of leading large-scale cloud transformations, platform modernizations, or migrations in high-growth SaaS environments Experience in EdTech, FinTech, or compliance-heavy industries strongly preferred Certifications (Preferred) AWS Solutions Architect – Professional (or equivalent Azure/GCP professional-level certification) AWS Security Specialty or Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent Technical Skills Cloud Platforms: Deep expertise in AWS (required); hands-on experience with Azure and/or GCP preferred Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Pulumi, or CDK at enterprise scale Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (EKS/AKS/GKE), Kafka CI/CD & DevOps: Advanced pipeline design with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, or equivalent Networking & Security: TCP/IP, DNS, SMTP, HTTP, VPCs, zero-trust architecture, WAF, distributed networks Programming & Scripting: Python, Go, Ruby on Rails, or Bash (proficiency in at least two) Data & Storage: SQL and NoSQL (Postgres and equivalents); familiarity with data lake and lakehouse architectures Observability: Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus/Grafana, or equivalent full-stack observability platforms AI/ML Infrastructure: Familiarity with cloud-native AI/ML infrastructure (SageMaker, Vertex AI, or equivalent) preferred Open-Source Ecosystem: Extensive experience contributing to and consuming open-source tooling in production environments Web Services & APIs: Expert-level knowledge of REST, RPC, SOA, and API design principles Apply To This Job