Principal Cloud Architect

The Role

The Evolve programme is accelerating Euroclear’s adoption of public cloud by establishing secure, resilient and scalable foundations, architecture standards and reusable implementation patterns. It brings together architecture, engineering, security, operations and migration stakeholders to enable workloads to move to and operate effectively on Azure in line with Euroclear’s business, risk and regulatory requirements.

As Principal Cloud Architect, you will act as a senior architecture leader for cloud adoption. You will set architecture direction across a broad, cross-organisational scope; help mature the Cloud Solution Design Authority into an effective and sustainable decision-making body; steer cloud foundation priorities; govern architecture artefacts and reference implementations; and provide pragmatic guidance to workload teams.

The role combines strategic architecture leadership, hands-on delivery support and cross-functional decision-making. A key outcome is to expand Euroclear’s cloud presence responsibly by turning cloud strategy and principles into actionable standards, deployable patterns and sound workload decisions.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Solution Design Authority

• Mature the Cloud Solution Design Authority by clarifying its mandate, decision rights, intake process, governance, cadence, quality criteria and follow-up of architecture decisions.

• Establish a sustainable operating rhythm that enables timely, traceable and risk-informed decisions.

• Facilitate complex architecture discussions, document outcomes and ensure that decisions, conditions and actions have clear owners.

• Improve the quality and consistency of architecture submissions by providing guidance, templates and early engagement.

Cloud Foundations and Roadmap

• Refine, prioritise and maintain the cloud foundation roadmap across identity, connectivity, security, governance, management, operations and automation.

• Balance migration demand, risk reduction, platform scalability, technical debt and delivery capacity when setting priorities.

• Identify cross-platform dependencies and sequence foundation capabilities so that workload teams can adopt cloud safely and efficiently.

• Advise programme and technology leadership on architecture choices, investment priorities and delivery trade-offs.

Architecture Direction and Artefacts

• Develop, maintain and govern cloud architecture principles, standards, target-state designs, roadmaps and architecture decision records.

• Translate enterprise strategy, regulatory expectations and delivery needs into clear architecture direction.

• Ensure cloud architecture remains aligned with enterprise, security, data, resilience and technology standards.

• Maintain traceability between strategic objectives, architecture decisions, implementation guidance and delivery outcomes.

Reference Implementations and Reusable Patterns

• Prioritise reusable cloud patterns and reference implementations based on workload demand, risk reduction and strategic value.

• Guide their delivery so that approved patterns are deployable, testable, automated and consumable by workload teams.

• Translate architecture into infrastructure-as-code accelerators, policy-driven guardrails and reusable platform services.

• Promote standardisation and governed self-service while limiting manual fulfilment and one-off solutions to justified exceptions.

Workload Assessment and Migration Guidance

• Support migration teams and workload owners in assessing application architecture, dependencies, data, security, resilience, operability, compatibility and migration readiness.

• Recommend appropriate migration or modernisation strategies based on business value, criticality, compliance, lifecycle impact and technical feasibility.

• Help teams select the most appropriate service model, considering SaaS, PaaS, containers and IaaS without assuming that one model is universally optimal.

• Identify architecture gaps and convert assessment findings into actionable remediation, sequencing and decision points.

Cloud Footprint and Regional Architecture

• Shape the expansion of Euroclear’s cloud footprint, including new-region adoption, regional operating models and multi-region approaches.

• Assess implications for foundations, connectivity, identity, security, data residency, resilience, operations, support and cost.

• Define architecture guidance for workload placement and regional deployment.

• Ensure exceptions to approved regions or patterns have documented rationale, risk assessment, ownership and approval.

Sustainability and Net-Zero Assessment

• Assess the cloud implications of sustainability and Net-Zero-related decisions.

• Evaluate architecture trade-offs involving region selection, service choices, resource efficiency, carbon considerations, cost, resilience and performance.

• Promote efficient use of managed and cloud-native services where they provide measurable value and acceptable risk.

• Ensure sustainability considerations are incorporated into architecture decisions and roadmaps without compromising security, regulation or service quality.

Architecture Assurance

• Review solution designs and assess alignment with approved principles, standards, target architectures and reference patterns.

• Identify material risks, gaps and deviations, and provide clear recommendations to delivery teams and decision-makers.

• Ensure exceptions have an explicit rationale, accountable owner, remediation action and expiry or review date.

• Track recurring deviations and use them to improve standards, patterns, platform capabilities and governance.

Stakeholder Alignment and Leadership

• Work closely with Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Engineering, CISO, Production, Business Resilience, migration teams, programme leadership and workload owners.

• Resolve architectural dependencies and accelerate decisions across organisational boundaries.

• Influence senior business and IT stakeholders by making complex trade-offs clear and decision-ready.

• Challenge constructively and drive outcomes without relying solely on formal authority.

Architecture Community and Knowledge Transfer

• Coach and mentor architects and engineers working on cloud initiatives.

• Strengthen the architecture community through knowledge sharing, reviews, reusable guidance and lessons learned.

• Ensure cloud standards, patterns and decision processes are understood and applied consistently.

• Promote pragmatic, collaborative and outcome-focused ways of working across architecture and delivery teams.

Candidate Profile

Required Experience

• Extensive experience as a cloud architect, enterprise architect or principal solution architect in large-scale technology transformation.

• Demonstrated experience leading architecture across complex, cross-organisational business and IT scopes.

• Strong practical knowledge of Microsoft Azure, including landing zones, identity and access management, network topology, security, governance, policy, management, observability and platform automation.

• Experience establishing or maturing design authorities, architecture review boards, decision processes and architecture assurance practices.

• Proven ability to develop and govern principles, standards, target architectures, roadmaps, architecture decision records, reference patterns and implementation guidance.

• Experience translating architecture into infrastructure-as-code accelerators, reference implementations, guardrails and consumable platform services.

• Practical experience assessing workload architecture, dependencies, data, security, resilience, operability and compatibility, and recommending migration or modernisation strategies.

• Experience designing or governing multi-region cloud environments, including region selection, connectivity, data residency, resilience, operational support and cost trade-offs.

• Strong understanding of security by design, policy-driven governance, shared responsibility and risk-proportionate control models.

• Experience in financial services, financial market infrastructure or another regulated environment.

• Good understanding of ICT risk, operational resilience, data protection and third-party requirements relevant to regulated financial institutions.

• Proven ability to align senior stakeholders, facilitate complex decisions and communicate architecture recommendations clearly.

• Ability to balance strategic direction, portfolio prioritisation and detailed technical implementation challenges.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex architecture topics clear, actionable and decision-ready.

• Experience working in Agile, DevOps or hybrid delivery environments.

• Proficiency in English.

Preferred Experience

• Experience applying Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework and enterprise-scale Azure landing-zone principles.

• Experience with cloud-native and managed service adoption across SaaS, PaaS, containers and IaaS.

• Knowledge of application modernisation, integration architecture, APIs, event-driven design, data platforms or container platforms.

• Experience with FinOps, cloud cost transparency and continuous optimisation.

• Experience assessing cloud sustainability and resource-efficiency implications.

• Knowledge of post-trade market infrastructure or comparable critical financial-market environments.

• Familiarity with architecture frameworks such as Open Agile Architecture or TOGAF.

• Working proficiency in French or Dutch.

Certifications

The following certifications are valued. Candidates are not expected to hold all of them, but should demonstrate relevant depth across Azure architecture, security and enterprise architecture:

• Azure Architecture: Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

• Azure Security: Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate or equivalent.

• DevOps and Automation: Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert, Terraform certification or equivalent infrastructure-as-code accreditation.

• Enterprise Architecture: TOGAF, Open Agile Architecture or an equivalent architecture certification.

• Security and Risk: CISSP, CCSP, CISM, CRISC or equivalent.

• FinOps and Sustainability: FinOps Certified Practitioner or relevant cloud sustainability training.

Please note that this is a permanent position, and we do not offer freelance/contract arrangement for the role.

In order to cultivate relationships and promote team spirit, we require your presence in the office for a minimum of 8 days per month.