Lead Cloud Solution Architect- Application Modernization (AWS)

About the Role

As a Lead Cloud Solution Architect - Application Modernization (AWS), you are a senior individual contributor and recognized AWS expert who shapes how WWT builds, sells, and delivers data and AI outcomes for enterprise clients. This is not a delivery execution role. Your primary mandate is to develop the solution assets, repeatable frameworks, and technical depth that enable WWT's Cloud practice to scale. The role focuses on three key areas: building and maturing WWT's App Modernization service offerings, supporting pre-sales pursuits as a technical subject matter expert (SME), and providing delivery oversight on strategic accounts and pilots.

You bring real-world modernization experience, having shipped containerized workloads, re-architected legacy applications for cloud-native patterns, and guided enterprise clients through the organizational and technical challenges of application transformation.

Responsibilities

Solution Development

• Lead the design, development, and continuous improvement of WWT's Application Modernization service offerings for the AWS platform, including reference architectures, delivery playbooks, assessment frameworks, and reusable delivery assets.
• Define and document repeatable engagement patterns for the full modernization lifecycle: assessment, roadmap development, re-platforming, re-architecture, and cloud-native transformation.
• Develop and maintain SOW templates, LOE models, and scope frameworks that enable account teams and delivery architects to structure and price engagements consistently.
• Partner with Practice Leadership to align modernization offerings to client demand signals, competitive positioning, and AWS partner co-investment opportunities.
• Provide technical oversight on pilot engagements and strategic accounts, ensuring architectural decisions align with WWT standards and client outcomes.
• Collaborate with the Cloud Data & AI, Security, and Infrastructure solution areas to ensure modernization offerings integrate cleanly across the WWT Cloud portfolio.

Pre-Sales SME Support

• Engage directly with clients during discovery and solutioning as the senior technical voice on application modernization, translating ambiguous business problems into well-scoped, value-anchored technical solutions.
• Review and validate SOWs, LOEs, and technical proposals produced by account teams and solution architects; identify scope gaps, risk patterns, and pricing inconsistencies before they reach the client.
• Support RFP/RFI responses as the technical subject matter expert, providing solution narratives, architecture rationale, and differentiators that reflect WWT's actual delivery experience.
• Partner with AWS field teams and WWT account executives to position modernization offerings and develop pursuit strategies for strategic accounts.

Technical Delivery Excellence

• Serve as a technical executive sponsor on WWT's highest-complexity modernization engagements, providing architectural guidance, escalation support, and quality assurance at key delivery milestones.
• Identify delivery risk early, including scope creep, architectural drift, and team skill gaps, and work with Delivery Leads to course-correct before issues reach the client.
• Conduct architecture and design reviews on active engagements to ensure alignment with WWT reference patterns and AWS Well-Architected principles.
• Capture delivery learnings and feed them back into the solution development process, closing the loop between what WWT promises and what it delivers.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in cloud architecture, application development, or related technical disciplines.
• Minimum 7 years of hands-on experience designing, deploying, and operating workloads on AWS in enterprise environments.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated real-world experience modernizing enterprise applications, including replatforming to containers, re-architecting to cloud-native patterns, and leading clients through the organizational dimensions of transformation.
• Deep expertise in AWS application and platform services: EKS, ECS, Fargate, Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, EventBridge, Elastic Beanstalk, and related ecosystem services.
• Expert-level knowledge of CI/CD pipeline development using Infrastructure as Code (CloudFormation, CDK, Terraform) and modern DevOps tooling (CodePipeline, GitHub Actions, AWS CodeBuild).
• Proven ability to develop and articulate modernization business cases, connecting technical architecture decisions to client outcomes and financial impact.
• Experience authoring SOWs, LOEs, reference architectures, and delivery playbooks that technical teams can execute from.
• Strong communication skills, able to present architecture concepts to executive audiences and technical depth to delivery teams with equal effectiveness.

Skills

Strongly Desired Skills

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect: Professional (strongly preferred).
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer: Professional.
• Cloud-native application architecture and development patterns (.NET Core, Java, Node.js in containerized or serverless environments).
• Container platforms and Kubernetes orchestration at scale (EKS, Fargate, ECR, service mesh patterns).
• Cloud data and AI platform integration within modernization workloads (Bedrock, Redshift, Kinesis, Glue, SageMaker).
• Core cloud infrastructure enabling modernization: networking (Direct Connect, Cloud WAN, Transit Gateway), security (AWS Network Firewall, WAF, IAM), compute, and storage.
• Application security patterns relevant to modernization (zero-trust, secrets management, compliance guardrails).
• Cloud cost modeling and FinOps principles as applied to application architecture decisions.

Multi-Cloud Exposure

• Familiarity with Azure migration and modernization services (Azure Migrate, AKS, Azure DevOps, Azure App Service).
• Experience advising clients on multi-cloud strategy or workload placement decisions across AWS and Azure.
• Microsoft Azure certifications (any level) are a plus.

Success Metrics

What success looks like in Year One:

• WWT's App Modernization service offerings are sharper, more repeatable, and faster to scope, measurably reducing presales cycle time.
• Solution Architects trust this role as their go-to technical escalation for modernization pursuits.
• Delivery oversight has prevented at least one significant architectural problem from reaching the client.
• The frameworks, playbooks, and standards this role has built have made WWT's modernization delivery more scalable, enabling the team to take on greater volume without sacrificing quality.
• Client satisfaction scores on modernization engagements reflect a measurable improvement in delivery consistency and outcome achievement.

Pay

A reasonable estimate of the current base pay range for this position is $140,000 to $175,000 annually. Actual salary will be based on a variety of factors, including shift, location, experience, skill set, performance, licensure and certification, and business needs. The range for this position in other geographic locations may differ. Certain positions may also be eligible for variable incentive compensation, such as bonuses or commissions, that is not included in the base pay.

Benefits

Health and Wellbeing

• Health (Medical & Prescription), Dental, and Vision Care.
• Onsite Health Centers (MO & IL).
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Wellness program.

Financial Benefits

• Competitive Pay.
• Profit Sharing.
• 401k Plan with Company Matching.
• Life and Disability Insurance.
• Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Tuition Reimbursement.

Paid Time Off

• PTO & Holidays.
• Parental Leave.
• Medical Leave.
• Military Leave.
• Bereavement.
• Day of Caring.

Additional Perks

• Family Planning Benefits.
• Nursing Mothers Benefits.
• Voluntary Legal.
• Voluntary Supplemental Accident/Illness/Hospital.
• Voluntary ID Theft.
• Pet Insurance.
• Employee Discount Program.