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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cloud Network Architect

💰 $140,000 - $200,000

CloudNetworkingArchitectureSecurityInfrastructure

🎯 Role Definition

The Cloud Network Architect is a senior technical leader who designs and governs the end-to-end network architecture for cloud-native, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. This role architects scalable, secure, and highly available network topologies (VPCs/VNets, subnets, transit gateways), defines connectivity patterns (VPN, Direct Connect, ExpressRoute), sets routing and traffic engineering standards (BGP, route reflectors), and leads automation through Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation). The Cloud Network Architect partners with security, platform, SRE, and application teams to deliver predictable, auditable, and cost-effective network infrastructure that supports rapid application delivery and business continuity.

Primary SEO keywords: Cloud Network Architect, cloud networking, hybrid cloud network design, multi-cloud connectivity, VPC architecture, SDN, Terraform, AWS networking, Azure networking, GCP networking, network security.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Network Engineer with cloud experience
  • Cloud Infrastructure Engineer / Cloud Platform Engineer
  • Network Architect in on-premises data center environments

Advancement To:

  • Principal Cloud Architect (Network specialization)
  • Director of Cloud Infrastructure / Head of Cloud Networking
  • VP of Cloud Engineering / Chief Infrastructure Architect

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Security Architect
  • Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Lead
  • Platform Engineering Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Architect and document scalable cloud network topologies (VPCs/VNets, subnets, route tables, security groups, NACLs) for production, DR, and non-production environments to meet performance, availability, and security requirements.
  • Design and implement hybrid connectivity solutions (AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect, SD-WAN) with deterministic routing, QoS, and failover strategies to ensure business continuity.
  • Lead multi-cloud network strategy and design, defining patterns for cross-cloud transit, peering, and edge connectivity to support containerized and serverless workloads.
  • Create and enforce network security architectures including segmentation, micro-segmentation strategies, next-generation firewall placement, IDS/IPS integration, and zero-trust access models for cloud resources.
  • Define and implement BGP routing policies, route propagation, prefix filtering, and route optimization across on-premises, cloud edge, and transit networks to maintain predictable traffic flows.
  • Develop Infrastructure as Code (IaC) modules (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM templates) for reusable network constructs, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployment of network infrastructure.
  • Design resilient, highly available load balancing and traffic management solutions (ALB/NLB, Azure Load Balancer, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, global/ regional DNS routing, traffic steering).
  • Establish network observability: implement telemetry, flow logs (VPC Flow Logs), monitoring, alerting, and dashboards to proactively detect latency, packet loss, or configuration drift.
  • Conduct network capacity planning and performance optimization for cloud egress, peering, bandwidth allocation, and cost control across accounts and projects.
  • Lead cross-functional network design reviews, provide technical guidance for application teams, and translate business objectives into network requirements and SLAs.
  • Implement identity-aware networking and secure service-to-service communication using mutual TLS, service meshes, or cloud-native security services.
  • Design and manage IP address management (IPAM) strategies, subnet allocation policies, and naming conventions for large-scale cloud estates to prevent address collisions and simplify operations.
  • Partner with security engineering to design secure VPN, bastion hosts, private endpoints, and managed connectivity for third-party integrations and SaaS platforms.
  • Define and enforce governance, compliance, and tagging standards for cloud network resources in accordance with regulatory and internal policies.
  • Perform architecture-level risk assessments, threat modeling, and mitigation plans for network exposure and interconnect vulnerabilities.
  • Lead migration planning for data center-to-cloud or cloud-to-cloud network transitions, including cutover planning, rollback strategies, and validation testing.
  • Prototype and evaluate new cloud networking services (transit gateways, service connectors, private service endpoints) and vendor solutions to drive technical improvements and cost savings.
  • Provide technical leadership for incident response affecting network availability or security, coordinate troubleshooting across cloud providers, and produce post-incident remediation and runbooks.
  • Mentor and upskill network, platform, and operations teams on cloud networking best practices, automation techniques, and troubleshooting methodologies.
  • Create and maintain detailed network architecture documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures to support on-call teams and audits.
  • Collaborate with procurement and vendor management for selecting cloud WAN, SD-WAN, firewall-as-a-service, and managed network providers; evaluate SLAs and support models.
  • Drive automation for network lifecycle management: testing, validation, drift detection, and controlled updates across multi-account or multi-subscription environments.
  • Ensure network designs align with cost optimization initiatives, recommending bandwidth tiering, peering strategies, and utilization monitoring to minimize cloud networking spend.
  • Evaluate and adopt modern SDN/virtual networking frameworks to improve agility, programmability, and orchestration across cloud and edge environments.
  • Standardize secure connectivity patterns for SaaS integration, cross-account access, and partner onboarding while minimizing blast radius and exposure.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist in vendor proof-of-concepts and technology evaluations for cloud networking and secure connectivity.
  • Provide input to procurement regarding technical requirements and expected performance for network services.
  • Support creation of training materials and workshops on cloud networking fundamentals for engineering teams.
  • Participate in architectural governance boards and contribute to roadmaps that include network modernization initiatives.
  • Assist in estimating effort and risk for network components in broader platform projects.
  • Periodically review and update disaster recovery and business continuity network procedures.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep experience designing cloud network architectures across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (VPC, VNet, VPC Service Controls).
  • Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools: Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM templates, with modular, testable network modules.
  • Strong routing and switching knowledge: BGP, OSPF, route reflectors, VRF, overlay/underlay designs, and route policy configuration.
  • Hands-on experience with hybrid connectivity: Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, Cloud Interconnect, site-to-site VPNs, and SD-WAN integration.
  • Expertise in network security: firewalls (NGFW, cloud-native firewall services), NAT, IDS/IPS, WAF, network segmentation, and zero trust models.
  • Familiarity with network automation and orchestration tools: Ansible, Python scripting, REST APIs, and GitOps practices.
  • Experience with load balancing and traffic management: ALB, NLB, Application Gateway, Cloud Load Balancing, global DNS and CDN strategies.
  • Knowledge of service mesh and microservices networking patterns (Istio, Linkerd) and secure service-to-service connectivity.
  • Proficient in monitoring and observability for networks: VPC Flow Logs, NetFlow, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Stackdriver, Prometheus, Grafana.
  • IP Address Management (IPAM) and subnet planning for large-scale cloud deployments; understanding of IPv4/IPv6 implications.
  • Solid understanding of performance optimization: QoS, traffic engineering, bandwidth management, and cost/throughput tradeoffs.
  • Familiarity with cloud-native security controls and identity federation: AWS IAM, Azure AD, GCP IAM, private endpoints, service principals.
  • Experience in network troubleshooting at scale and participating in incident response, RCA, and remediation planning.
  • Knowledge of compliance frameworks and cloud governance: PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC2, GDPR, and how network controls map to requirements.
  • Experience evaluating and integrating managed network services and third-party cloud networking vendors.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business needs into pragmatic network solutions.
  • Strong communicator able to present complex network designs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Influential leader who can drive cross-functional alignment and mentor junior engineers.
  • Problem-solver comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change in cloud environments.
  • Collaborative team player with experience working in agile, DevOps-oriented organizations.
  • Detail-oriented with strong documentation and runbook creation skills.
  • Customer-focused mindset balancing reliability, performance, and cost.
  • Effective prioritization and time-management skills for multi-project environments.
  • Strong analytical skills with a data-driven approach to capacity planning and cost optimization.
  • Comfortable working in on-call rotations and handling high-severity incidents calmly.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Computer Science, Networking, Cloud Computing, or MBA with technical emphasis.
  • Relevant cloud certifications (AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty, Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate, Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Network Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Telecommunications Engineering
  • Cybersecurity

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 7–15+ years of overall networking experience with 4–8+ years focused on cloud networking and hybrid architectures.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated track record designing and operating production cloud networks at scale for large enterprises or SaaS providers.
  • Experience leading network architecture for multi-region and multi-cloud deployments and participating in organization-wide cloud migrations.
  • Past involvement in automation, IaC, SDN projects, and mentoring network/cloud engineers.
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