Principal Cloud Architect II

Company Overview

Iridium is an award-winning and innovative satellite communications company with bragging rights to the only network that offers voice and data connectivity anywhere in the world. For over 20 years, Iridium’s unique network and services have supported critical communications needs for individuals, businesses, and the evolving Internet of Things.

At Iridium, we understand the importance of staying connected and the limitations of traditional communications networks. People across the globe, including first responders, humanitarians, global militaries, scientific researchers, and lone workers, as well as ships, aircraft and remote operations all rely on Iridium to stay connected. We take our responsibility for providing these essential communications very seriously and pride ourselves on offering a reliable lifeline when needed. Likewise, Iridium is committed to providing an exciting and innovative workplace, where employees are challenged to think outside the box and collaborate on new, bold ideas and solutions. Our talented teams are passionate about their work and the impact our company makes around the world. Iridium fosters an empowering and inclusive culture that allows employees to genuinely be their best selves. We are looking for others who want to join this truly unique company that celebrates our employees and provides the opportunity to truly make a difference in the world.

What We’re Looking For:

Iridium is seeking a motivated Principal Cloud Architect II to join our Government focused System Architecture Team on a Space Development Agency (SDA) project. As a Principal Cloud Architect II, you’ll be responsible for helping shape the design and deployment of government cloud environments while collaborating with cross-functional teams. You’ll focus on designing highly available and secure operations across cloud-native and hybrid system, getting consensus on the design, ensuring all processes are followed to begin, and then ensuring that the team executes to plan. You’ll thrive in this role if you enjoy designing innovative solutions, building architecture roadmaps, presenting the solution, answering technical questions, and aligning infrastructure with evolving mission needs.

This position requires an active/current Top Secret Security Clearance (A U.S. Security Clearance that has been active in the past 24 months is considered active).

What You’ll Do:

Develop and implement scalable, secure cloud architectures for cross-domain government environments

Provide architectural documentation and support to engineering teams across multiple initiatives

Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to align cloud capabilities with mission priorities

Drive cloud infrastructure improvements through automation, high availability patterns, and operational enhancements

Be responsible for ensuring solutions align with telecom-grade availability and security best practices

Analyze system requirements and translate them into effective architecture options, including Digital Twin environments

Maintain awareness of emerging technologies and evaluate their applicability to program requirements

What You’ll Need to Succeed:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field OR equivalent relevant experience in lieu of degree

12+ years experience as a Cloud Solutions Architect or similar role, with a strong background in designing and implementing cloud-based solutions for government or enterprise-level programs

5+ years of relevant government experience in cross domain Cloud-based solutions

5+ years of relevant experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible or similar tools

5+ years of relevant experience with Software as a service (SaaS) solutions, specifically related to the creation of Digital Twin environments

Must possess the ability to create and present complex solutions in diagrams and presentation formats

Must be able to articulate designs, solutions, strategies, and answer detailed technical questions about solutions

Can easily form relationships with executive leadership and encourage cross-functional team building

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey products, deliverables, analyses, and/or issues clearly and confidently, and confidently recognize and adapt to different communication techniques

Experience with Remote Virtual display connections to Cloud hosted solutions (eg: AWS Workspace) in an Operations-focused, Mission Critical, Secure space

Experience with configuration management, green/blue deployments and CI/CD for cloud-native solutions, as well as high availability architectural design patterns needed to meet telecom grade availability requirements

Fluency in security best practices for cloud-native solutions

Be a strategic thinker who demonstrates good judgment and decisiveness

Be able to analyze a situation or problem and come up with effective solutions

Things That Would be Great if You Brought to the Table:

AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or similar certification demonstrating advanced expertise in cloud architecture and design.

We’ll also need you to:

Be onsite to support in-person discussions, meetings, on a regular basis (2-3 days a week)

Be on call with the ability to support virtual meetings across various time zones

Be able to travel up to 15% to various Iridium/partner sites

US Citizenship required

Work Environment:

This position primarily works in an office setting and is largely sedentary with the majority of the position working with a computer. The role typically requires the use of basic office equipment such as a phone, video, computer, keyboard, mouse, and printer.

Iridium is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.