Dir - Architecture, Cloud & Services

The Director, Architecture, Cloud & Services role at Frontier Airlines provides strategic leadership and operational accountability for enterprise architecture, cloud platforms, middleware services, and enabling technology services that support the company's business operations.

• Essential Functions:
• Define and lead the enterprise architecture, cloud, middleware, and platform services strategy in alignment with business goals, technology roadmaps, security standards, and operational priorities.
• Establish architecture standards, reference architectures, governance practices, and reusable platform patterns that enable secure, scalable, and resilient solution delivery across the enterprise.
• Direct short- and long-term planning for cloud operations, middleware services, DevOps enablement, platform engineering, infrastructure modernization, and service reliability.
• Oversee the performance, availability, capacity, reliability, recoverability, and cost efficiency of cloud and hybrid technology platforms.
• Lead the design and continuous improvement of enterprise application architecture, cloud landing zones, network architecture, storage, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity capabilities.
• Partner with technology leaders, product teams, business stakeholders, information security, procurement, finance, and vendors to deliver platforms and services that support enterprise priorities.
• Drive initiatives related to cloud modernization, virtualization, VDI, containerization, DevOps automation, infrastructure as code, application integration, and middleware transformation.
• Establish and manage service levels, operational metrics, capacity plans, incident trends, and improvement plans for cloud, middleware, and architecture services.
• Lead SLA management, service reliability practices, disaster recovery planning, compliance support, risk mitigation, and audit readiness for assigned technology domains.
• Maintain compliance with external regulations, internal IT governance policies, security standards, and enterprise risk management expectations.
• Implement FinOps practices to improve cloud cost visibility, forecasting, optimization, commitment management, and accountability across consuming teams.
• Develop, manage, and optimize multi-million-dollar budgets, including cloud consumption, licensing, managed services, third-party support, and transformation investments.
• Lead vendor strategy, RFP processes, contract negotiations, portfolio rationalization, and third-party partner performance management.
• Promote engineering excellence by guiding high-level architecture decisions, design reviews, operational readiness, automation, observability, and continuous improvement practices.
• Build, lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of architects, cloud engineers, DevOps resources, FinOps professionals, and related technical staff.
• Set clear expectations, communicate departmental goals, provide performance feedback, support career development, and foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, recognition, and innovation.
• Identify systemic technology risks, operational constraints, and architectural gaps; lead strategic solutions that improve platform maturity, service quality, and business outcomes.
• Represent the architecture, cloud, and services function in executive updates, governance forums, planning sessions, compliance activities, and cross-functional technology initiatives.

Other Functions:

• Participate in enterprise technology planning, budgeting cycles, leadership communications, and continuous improvement initiatives as needed.
• Support special projects, operational reviews, vendor evaluations, and cross-functional initiatives that advance IT strategy and business priorities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive technology experience, including leadership responsibility for architecture, cloud platforms, infrastructure, middleware, DevOps, or enterprise technology services.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing technical teams, leaders, vendors, budgets, and complex enterprise technology portfolios.
• Demonstrated experience defining and executing cloud, hybrid infrastructure, enterprise architecture, platform engineering, or modernization strategies in a large-scale environment.
• Hands-on and leadership experience with public cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, including architecture, governance, security, cost management, and operational support.
• Experience with cloud cost optimization, FinOps, enterprise discount programs, reserved capacity, savings plans, licensing optimization, or comparable cost-management practices.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered. Advanced degree preferred.
• Relevant certifications preferred, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect, ITIL, TOGAF, Kubernetes, or FinOps Certified Practitioner.
• Airline, transportation, travel, or other high-availability operational industry experience is a plus.
• Desired expertise: Enterprise architecture, cloud-native design, hybrid reference architectures, high-throughput and low-latency services, Kubernetes and container orchestration, service mesh, serverless and event-driven architecture, API management, data architecture, observability, SRE practices, infrastructure as code, GitOps/CI/CD, security and identity, cloud networking, disaster recovery, multi-region resiliency, performance engineering, vendor management, and FinOps.
• Experience building scalable enterprise platforms, reusable standards, self-service capabilities, reference implementations, and developer enablement models is strongly preferred.
• Role is based in Denver, CO.
• Knowledge, Skills And Abilities:
• Strategic technology leadership with the ability to translate business priorities into architecture, cloud, platform, and operational roadmaps.
• Deep understanding of enterprise architecture, cloud governance, IT service management, ITIL practices, security controls, compliance expectations, and operational risk management.
• Strong knowledge of large-scale infrastructure and cloud environments, including compute, storage, network, middleware, DevOps, observability, resiliency, and automation capabilities.
• Ability to communicate complex technology issues, risks, tradeoffs, and investment needs in clear business terms for executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, build alignment across teams, resolve competing priorities, and drive decisions in ambiguous or fast-changing environments.
• Strong financial acumen, including budget planning, forecasting, vendor spend management, cost optimization, and business case development.
• Excellent interpersonal, coaching, and leadership skills with the ability to develop talent, build high-performing teams, and promote a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Professional demeanor with the ability to model dedication, integrity, sound judgment, and support for company goals.
• Ability to identify root causes, define scalable solutions, and lead enterprise-level initiatives within project timelines and budget expectations.
• Ability to balance innovation, reliability, security, compliance, and cost efficiency when making architecture and operational decisions.
• Thorough knowledge of applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing information technology, telecommunications, cloud services, data protection, and information security activities.
• Ability to use discretion and good judgment when handling confidential, sensitive, or high-impact business and technology matters.

Equipment Operated: Standard office equipment, including PC, copier, fax machine, printer.

Work Environment: Typical office environment, adequately heated and cooled.

Physical Effort: Generally, not required.