VP, Senior Cloud Architect

Job Description

Job Description :

Role Summary / Purpose :

The Senior Cloud Architect will serve as a key strategic leader and technical expert in designing, implementing, and evolving the organization's private and public cloud platforms. This role requires a strong blend of architecture, strategy, and engineering leadership with hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure, security, and Agile product delivery. The Senior Cloud Architect will collaborate closely with senior leadership, product management, engineering and information security teams, and business stakeholders to drive cloud transformation initiatives that align with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and evolving technology landscapes.

This position acts as a pivotal bridge between cloud platform engineering, information security, DevOps and agile product management teams, ensuring technical excellence, operational stability, and scalable cloud adoption across multiple product lines and business units. The role emphasizes automation, security, governance, and the enablement of developer-friendly cloud services while leading cross-functional teams in complex, mission-critical cloud environments.

Our Way of Working

We’re proud to offer you choice and flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home, near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. Occasionally you may be required to commute to our nearest office for in person engagement activities such as business or team meetings, training and culture events.

Essential Responsibilities :

Drive execution of cloud strategy and roadmaps that align with business goals, compliance mandates, and infrastructure capabilities.

Lead and influence multiple Agile DevOps teams through Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) principles to deliver cloud solutions.

Provide cloud platform governance, standards, procedures, and automated workflows, focusing on CI / CD, infrastructure as code, automated testing, and auditability.

Ensure integration and enforcement of cloud security best practices including defense-in-depth, access control, encryption, data protection, and compliance with industry regulations (PCI, FedRAMP).

Collaborate across CTO, Engineering, Security, and Business stakeholders to prioritize, plan, and communicate cloud initiatives and transformation progress.

Manage lifecycle events of cloud technologies, maintaining currency and scalability while monitoring virtual infrastructure for resiliency, vulnerabilities, and performance.

Responsible for availability, latency, performance, efficiency, monitoring / observability, emergency response, capacity planning, setting and maintaining SLOs, SLIs and Error Budgets, creating dashboards.

Act as a key technical advisor and contributor in architectural design of complex cloud systems, innovating new cloud solutions for emerging system needs. \

Manage site stability, performance, reliability, and maintain uptime for production environments.

Develop a fully automated multi-environment observability stack based on the existing system and extend it to predict capacity needs based on the usage patterns.

Strive for automation to reduce toil and increase development velocity.

Serve as an executive level liaison and communicator for cloud platform initiatives, providing clear technical insights and business value articulation.

Lead process improvement and operational automation initiatives aimed at enhancing client satisfaction and ensuring reliability in a high availability, mission-critical environment.

Perform special projects or other duties as required.

Qualifications / Requirements :

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cloud Computing, Engineering, or related field and 9+ years in information technology with cloud leadership OR equivalent experience (12+ years in information technology with cloud leadership).

10+ years of experience in IT leadership roles managing cloud platforms, infrastructure, or engineering teams.

Deep expertise with major public cloud providers—AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)—including compute, storage, networking, security, and data platform services.

Proven track record delivering large-scale, mission-critical, complex cloud solutions and driving cloud transformation initiatives.

Strong technical knowledge of hybrid cloud networking, security controls, automation, CI / CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code tools.

Experience managing Agile teams and driving Agile / DevOps transformations using frameworks such as SAFe.

Deep technical experience with scripting and automation tools (e.g., Terraform, Python, Ansible).

Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence executives and technical teams.

Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, navigate ambiguity, and deliver technology roadmaps that meet business and regulatory needs.

Experience working within or alongside Payment Industry standards, governance, and security frameworks preferred.

Desired Characteristics :

Scaled Agile Framework or other Agile certification and relevant experience

Action and detail oriented, excellent organization and prioritization skills

Independent worker with awareness of when to escalate and engage others

Proven experience executing with accuracy, on time and while dealing with ambiguity

Demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement

Demonstrate strong risk management mindset and behavior

Grade / Level : 14

The salary range for this position is 150,000.00 - 250,000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon work experience, skill level or knowledge.

Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle.

Eligibility Requirements :

You must be 18 years or older

You must have a high school diploma or equivalent

You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process

You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles.  Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles.  Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post.  All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.  We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Our Commitment :

When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all.

Reasonable Accommodation Notice :

Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.

If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-866-301-5627.   Representatives are available from 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday, Central Standard Time

Job Family Group :

Information Technology