Cloud Architect, Senior Staff

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General Summary:

Qualcomm IT is seeking a Sr. Staff Cloud Architect to own the strategy, architecture, and execution of ourGitOps -driven platform engineering capabilities. You will serve as a technical authority and organizational multiplier, setting the direction for ourEKS platform today while building the foundation for future multi-cloud expansion. This is a high-impact, high-autonomy role for an IT architect who operates at the intersection of deep technical expertise and broad organizational leadership.

This role requires full-time onsite work in San Diego, CA (5 days per week).

**This role is not eligible for Qualcomm immigration sponsorship.

What You Will Own:

• Platform Strategy & Architecture: Define and drive the multi-year platform roadmap acrossEKS maturation and multi-cloud expansion; establish scalable platform patterns for multi-tenant environments including cluster lifecycle, upgrade strategies, and operational readiness; co-own architectural governance as a peer to others in IT.
• Infrastructure as Code: Own theTerraform platform strategy across module design, state management, multi-environment patterns, and IaC governance; establish reference implementations and guardrails that enable distributed engineering teams to deliver infrastructure consistently and safely at scale.
• Kubernetes Platform Engineering (EKS): Own end-to-end cluster provisioning and lifecycle management including autoscaling withKarpenter, add-on lifecycle management, and cluster upgrade and rollout strategies; establish organizational standards for cluster operations that scale across multiple teams and environments.
• GitOps & CI/CD Operating Model: Establish and own the enterpriseGitOps operating model usingArgo CD as the primary continuous delivery platform; define multi-environment promotion strategies, deployment guardrails, and auditable delivery pipelines; extendGitOps standards across multiple application and platform teams usingGitHub Actions for CI/CD orchestration.
• Reliability, Observability & Cost: Own platform reliability and cost efficiency strategy; drive observability standards usingDatadog andPrometheus/Grafana including dashboards, alerting, and SLO frameworks that measurably improve operational outcomes.
• Security & Policy: Define secure-by-default platform patterns and own policy enforcement usingKyverno andCilium; serve as the technical authority partnering with security stakeholders on controls, exceptions, and governance.
• Organizational Leadership & Communication: Communicate platform strategy, investment rationale, and operational health to senior IT leadership; represent platform engineering in architecture reviews and cross-organizational forums; build alignment across platform, security, and application teams without direct authority.
• Technology Evaluation & Innovation: Lead structured build vs. buy assessments and proactively evaluate emerging platform technologies across theCNCF landscape; ensure the platform strategy remains forward-looking through disciplined evaluation of open-source projects, vendor capabilities, and multi-cloud control plane developments.
• Technical Talent Development: Mentor senior and staff engineers; shape hiring bar standards; establish communities of practice that raise the platform engineering capability across the Qualcomm enterprise.
• Operational Excellence: Own the on-call model, runbook standards, and incident response practices; lead high-severity incident resolution and long-term corrective action planning. On-call participation is required, including potential 24/7 coverage.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years of IT-related experience with abachelor’s degree in computer science, Applied Mathematics, or EngineeringOR 14+ years without, with clear progression from technical execution to organizational technical leadership
• 5+ years operating Kubernetes at enterprise scale; deepEKS expertise required including multi-tenant architecture and cluster lifecycle ownership
• AdvancedTerraform expertise including module strategy, state management, and multi-environment governance
• Strong CI/CD fundamentals usingGitHub Actions or similar experience to build pipelines integrating building, linting, testing,DevSecOps, andArgo CD integration
• AdvancedAWS expertise across networking, IAM, and theEKS ecosystem in complex enterprise environments
• Proven track record driving cross-organizational technical strategy and influencing senior stakeholders without direct authority
• StrongLinux and distributed systems troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes, networking, andAWS
• Experience withHelm /Kustomize, Kubernetes networking fundamentals, andCilium
• Clear written and verbal communication skills across both engineering and executive audiences
• Platform product thinking, treating developer experience as a product with measurable outcomes

Highly Desired:

• Kubernetes certifications (CKA /CKAD /CKS) and/orAWS Solutions Architect Professional / DevOps Engineer Professional
• Experience withKarpenter cost optimization,Kyverno policy-at-scale, andCrossplane concepts
• Demonstrated success building self-service "paved road" platform capabilities at scale

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e-mail [email protected] or call Qualcomm's toll-free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).

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EEO Employer: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or any other protected classification.

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Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits :

The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer - and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.

If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.