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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for AWS Solutions Architect

💰 $ - $

CloudArchitectureAWS

🎯 Role Definition

As an AWS Solutions Architect you will design, build, and guide the implementation of robust, scalable, and secure cloud solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This role partners with engineering, product, security, and business teams to translate requirements into technical architecture, drive cloud migrations, optimize cost and performance, and ensure best-practice operations using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, and observability. Ideal candidates demonstrate deep AWS service knowledge (EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, RDS, Lambda, EKS), proven migration experience, and the ability to influence architecture decisions and governance across the organization.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Cloud Engineer / DevOps Engineer with AWS experience
  • Senior Software Engineer or Backend Engineer working on cloud-native systems
  • Systems Architect or Infrastructure Engineer transitioning to cloud architecture

Advancement To:

  • Senior/Principal Solutions Architect
  • Cloud Architecture Lead / Director of Cloud Engineering
  • Chief Architect / Head of Cloud Platform

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Security Architect
  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Lead
  • Technical Program Manager (Cloud Migration)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead end-to-end architecture design for AWS-based solutions, producing high-quality architecture diagrams, detailed solution designs, component selection, and clear non-functional requirement definitions (scalability, availability, resilience, security, cost).
  • Architect, document and validate multi-account AWS environments, including VPC design, network segmentation, Transit Gateway or AWS PrivateLink patterns, security groups, NACLs, and hybrid connectivity (VPN/Direct Connect) to meet performance and compliance needs.
  • Design and execute cloud migration strategies and runbooks: rehost, replatform, refactor, or rebuild approaches; lead proofs-of-concept and lift-and-shift or re-architecture efforts to move on-premise and multi-cloud workloads to AWS.
  • Build and promote Infrastructure as Code (IaC) standards using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or CDK to provision repeatable, auditable, and version-controlled infrastructure across dev/test/prod.
  • Define and enforce identity and access management policies using AWS IAM, AWS Organizations, SCPs, and role-based access to ensure least-privilege and secure cross-account operations.
  • Implement cloud-native security controls and patterns (encryption at rest/in transit, KMS, Secrets Manager, WAF, GuardDuty, Security Hub), and collaborate with security teams to run threat modeling and remediation.
  • Optimize cloud cost and performance using AWS Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, Savings Plans/Reserved Instances, rightsizing assessments, and design patterns that reduce waste and enable predictable billing.
  • Design high-availability and disaster recovery architectures including multi-AZ and multi-region patterns, active-active/passive failover, backups, and RTO/RPO planning.
  • Define container and orchestration strategies using Amazon EKS/ECS, design CI/CD pipelines for containerized workloads, and integrate with image registries, secrets, and network policies.
  • Architect serverless solutions using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, and DynamoDB where appropriate, balancing operational simplicity and scalability with cost and latency tradeoffs.
  • Design and optimize data storage and database architectures (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, S3, Glacier, Redshift), including backup, replication, consistency, and query performance considerations.
  • Establish observability and monitoring standards using CloudWatch, X-Ray, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus/Grafana, and logging frameworks to provide actionable alerts, dashboards, and incident triage flows.
  • Drive automation of environment provisioning, deployments, configuration management, and runbook tasks to reduce manual toil and accelerate delivery cycles.
  • Conduct architecture reviews and code reviews, provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineering teams, and ensure implementation aligns to the approved architecture and AWS Well-Architected Framework.
  • Lead vendor and third-party integrations on AWS, evaluate SaaS and managed services, and negotiate technical trade-offs while maintaining security and performance SLAs.
  • Develop and maintain architecture patterns, blueprints, and reusable modules to accelerate project delivery and ensure consistent, secure implementations across teams.
  • Partner with product managers and business stakeholders to translate product requirements into cloud architecture roadmaps, define milestones, and assess technical risks, dependencies, and timelines.
  • Drive cloud governance and operational controls: tagging strategy, account provisioning, CI/CD gating, compliance reporting, and maturity metrics to support scale and auditability.
  • Perform capacity planning and workload modeling to inform architecture decisions, anticipated costs, scaling policies, and the selection of appropriate compute and storage tiers.
  • Plan and execute migrations and cutovers, coordinate cross-functional deployment plans, rollback strategies, and post-migration validation to ensure minimal business disruption.
  • Investigate and resolve complex production incidents related to architecture, performance, or security; lead post-incident reviews and implement long-term remediation to prevent recurrence.
  • Create and deliver technical documentation, runbooks, architecture decision records (ADRs), and handover materials to support operations and knowledge sharing.
  • Keep current with AWS service releases, cloud-native design patterns, and industry best practices; propose continuous improvement initiatives and pilot new AWS capabilities.
  • Collaborate with legal and compliance teams to design architectures that meet regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI) and produce evidence for audits and security assessments.
  • Advocate for and implement DevOps/Platform engineering patterns that enable developers to self-serve infrastructure safely, with guardrails and policy-as-code enforcement.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Provide training sessions, brown-bags, and onboarding materials for engineering teams on AWS best practices, IaC, and chosen platform components.
  • Assist procurement and vendor management with technical evaluations, RFP responses, and onboarding of managed service providers.
  • Support internal architecture governance boards by preparing evaluation summaries, risk assessments, and recommended architecture alternatives.
  • Help define SLOs/SLAs and operational runbooks in partnership with SRE/Operations teams to ensure production reliability and scalability.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep knowledge of AWS core services: EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, RDS/Aurora, Route 53, CloudFront, Lambda, API Gateway.
  • Experience designing network architectures including VPC peering, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, hybrid networking, and DNS strategies.
  • Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code — Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or AWS CDK — with experience building reusable modules and CI/CD integrations.
  • Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS/ECS, and container networking/security patterns.
  • Expertise in serverless architectures and event-driven design using Lambda, SNS/SQS, EventBridge, and Step Functions.
  • Practical experience with cloud database design and optimization (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift), including replication, sharding, and indexing strategies.
  • Familiarity with security tooling and compliance controls: KMS, Secrets Manager, GuardDuty, Security Hub, WAF, IAM policies, and encryption best practices.
  • Strong skills in CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CodePipeline) and blue/green or canary deployment strategies.
  • Experience with observability, logging, and monitoring solutions: CloudWatch, X-Ray, ELK/Opensearch, Prometheus/Grafana, and distributed tracing.
  • Cost optimization and FinOps practices: rightsizing, reserved capacity, tagging strategies, and cost reporting.
  • Scripting and automation skills: Python, Bash, PowerShell, or Go for building operational scripts and automation tooling.
  • Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, policy-as-code (OPA, AWS Config), and secure software delivery pipelines.
  • Experience in migration tools and frameworks: AWS Migration Hub, Database Migration Service (DMS), Server Migration Service (SMS), and well-architected migrations.
  • Knowledge of infrastructure patterns for high availability, disaster recovery, and multi-region failover.
  • Understanding of identity federation, SSO, and directory services (AWS Single Sign-On, Active Directory integration).

Soft Skills

  • Excellent stakeholder management and ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills for presenting architecture to technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Leadership and mentorship skills; experienced in coaching engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives.
  • Problem-solving mindset with attention to detail and a data-driven approach to trade-off analysis.
  • Effective prioritization and time management when balancing multiple concurrent projects.
  • Collaborative team player capable of influencing technical decisions without direct authority.
  • Comfortable working in ambiguous environments and driving clarity through experimentation and iterative design.
  • Customer-centric orientation, focusing on delivering measurable business value and reliable outcomes.
  • Conflict resolution and negotiation skills when aligning architecture with product and operational constraints.
  • Continuous learner mentality; keeps up with AWS roadmap and cloud-native developments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Computer Science, Cloud Computing, or MBA with technical focus.
  • Relevant professional certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate or Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or Kubernetes certifications (CKA).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cloud Computing

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–8 years in cloud engineering or architecture roles with at least 2+ years of hands-on AWS experience.

Preferred:

  • 5–10 years of progressive experience designing and implementing production AWS architectures, leading migrations, and contributing to cloud governance, with demonstrated experience in IaC, DevOps/CI-CD pipelines, and cross-functional leadership. Proven track record of delivering high-availability, secure, and cost-optimized cloud solutions and holding advanced AWS certifications is highly desirable.
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