Position Specifications
Specification
Details
Position Title
Solution Architect (RHEL & Cloud Specialist)
Work Model / Location
Remote
Experience Level
Senior (Minimum 5+ Years in Architectural Roles)
Language Requirements
Portuguese and English
Primary Technology Stack
RHEL, Ansible, Python, AWS/Azure/GCP, K8s
1.3 Strategic Importance of the Role
The Solution Architect (RHEL & Cloud Specialist) occupies a pivotal role within our Technology Office, serving as the bridge between high-level business strategy and technical execution. As our infrastructure transitions toward a sophisticated hybrid-cloud model, the strategic governance of our Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)estate becomes paramount for maintaining security, compliance, and operational reliability. This role is not merely advisory; it is a hands-on leadership position tasked with architecting the automated scaffolds that support our entire digital product portfolio.
Executive Summary: We are seeking a proactive technical leader who refuses to accept "status quo" system inefficiencies. The ideal candidate will design and govern resilient solutions that utilize Ansible for massive-scale automation, ensuring our hybrid-cloud platforms are self-healing, secure, and performant. You will be expected to guide engineering teams through complex migrations while remaining deeply connected to the code and configurations that define our environment.
In the context of the 2026 technology landscape, where cloud costs and sovereign data requirements are increasingly complex, this Architect will ensure our RHEL foundation provides the necessary abstraction and stability to move workloads between on-premise virtualization and public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, or GCP) with zero friction. The successful candidate will be a champion of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD, moving us closer to a fully autonomous data center vision.
2. Key Responsibilities & Strategic Objectives
The Solution Architect (RHEL & Cloud Specialist) is a high-impact role designed to steer the technical direction of the organizations infrastructure. The incumbent is responsible for ensuring that all technological solutions are not only fit for purpose today but are engineered to scale for the demands of 2026 and beyond. This involves a dual focus on high-level strategic vision and deep-dive technical implementation, particularly within the Red Hat ecosystem and hyperscale cloud environments.
2.1 Architectural Design & Strategy
Design and maintain comprehensive end-to-end solution architectures that integrate on-premise data centers with public cloud platforms, ensuring seamless workload portability and high availability.
Develop and document scalable, secure, and resilient architectural blueprints for hybrid-cloud deployments, utilizing RHEL as the primary operating system foundation.
Translate complex business requirements and organizational goals into detailed technical specifications and infrastructure designs.
Evaluate and select appropriate virtualization technologies (VMware, KVM) and cloud services (AWS, Azure, or GCP) that align with the organizations long-term cost-efficiency and performance targets.
Architect disaster recovery and business continuity solutions that ensure data integrity and minimal downtime across geographically dispersed sites.
Collaborate with Enterprise Architects to ensure solution designs remain compliant with the broader organizational technology roadmap and security policies.
2.2 Automation & Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Spearhead the transition to a fully automated infrastructure environment, reducing manual intervention and human error through robust Infrastructure as Code practices.
Architect enterprise-wide automation frameworks using Ansible for the consistent configuration, provisioning, and management of RHEL environments.
Define and enforce standards for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation to manage multi-cloud resource lifecycles.
Oversee the development of automated compliance and security hardening playbooks to ensure all systems meet internal and regulatory standards upon deployment.
Design automated patching and update workflows that leverage Red Hat Satellite or Ansible Automation Platform to maintain fleet-wide system health.
Standardize CI/CD pipeline integration for infrastructure components, ensuring that environment changes are tested, version-controlled, and deployed via GitLab CI or Jenkins.
Strategic Objective: The "Zero-Touch" Environment
The Architect is tasked with reducing "Toil" by 40% within the first 18 months. This is achieved by abstracting underlying hardware and cloud complexities through a unified, Ansible-driven automation layer that empowers developers to self-service their infrastructure needs within governed guardrails.
2.3 Technical Governance & Leadership
Provide the technical leadership necessary to maintain architectural integrity and foster a culture of engineering excellence across DevOps and Infrastructure teams.
Establish and chair the Architectural Design Review board for infrastructure projects, ensuring all solutions adhere to established standards for performance and security.
Mentor and provide technical guidance to Senior DevOps Engineers, SREs, and System Administrators, fostering a deep understanding of RHEL internals and cloud-native patterns.
Drive the adoption of best practices in containerization (Docker, Kubernetes/OpenShift), ensuring teams build portable and secure microservices architectures.
Maintain a comprehensive Service Catalog and Architectural Decision Log (ADL) to document the "why" behind critical technology choices.
Lead vendor engagement and technology pilots (POCs) to assess emerging tools and their potential impact on the organizational tech stack.
2.4 Proactive System Optimization
Serve as a proactive agent for change by identifying and resolving structural weaknesses and performance bottlenecks before they impact the business.
Conduct regular architectural health checks and performance audits of the RHEL fleet and cloud environments to identify areas of waste or inefficiency.
Analyze system telemetry and monitoring data to identify recurring performance bottlenecks, designing architectural or automated remediations to eliminate them.
Proactively optimize cloud spend by designing architectures that leverage spot instances, auto-scaling, and right-sized resource allocation.
Identify architectural "technical debt" and create structured plans for modernization or decommissioning of legacy systems.
Collaborate with Security teams to proactively address emerging threat vectors by updating architectural patterns and hardening standards.
3. Core Technical Proficiencies
The candidate must demonstrate a high level of technical mastery across a diverse stack of infrastructure and automation technologies. As a Senior Solution Architect, the expectation is not only to understand these tools individually but to have the proven ability to integrate them into cohesive, high-performance architectures that serve complex enterprise needs in a 2026 technical landscape.
Technology Domain
Mandatory Technical Requirements
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Expert Administration: Deep-level knowledge of RHEL 8 and 9, including advanced system internals, kernel parameter tuning, and troubleshooting complex OS-level performance issues. Security Hardening: Mastery of SELinux (policy development and troubleshooting), Firewalld, and implementing OpenSCAP for automated compliance auditing. Lifecycle Management: Expert implementation of Red Hat Satellite for managing content views, repositories, and automated provisioning workflows. Storage & Identity: Proficiency in LVM, Stratis, and integration with SSSD/Identity Management (IdM/FreeIPA) and Active Directory.
Automation & Scripting
Ansible Mastery: Advanced use of Ansible Core and Ansible Automation Platform (AAP). Ability to develop complex, idempotent roles, custom modules, and filter plugins. Python Proficiency: Strong ability to write Python (3.x) for custom tooling, API integrations, and data processing scripts. Advanced Shell Scripting: Mastery of Bash for system-level automation, health checks, and intricate diagnostic utilities. State Management: In-depth knowledge of Jinja2 templating and YAML for dynamic configuration management.
Cloud Platforms
Hyperscale Architecture: Deep architectural knowledge of either AWS (VPC, Transit Gateway, IAM, EC2), Azure (VNet, RBAC, VMSS), or GCP (VPC, Cloud IAM, Compute Engine).Hybrid Connectivity: Experience designing secure tunnels and dedicated connections (Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, or Cloud Interconnect) between on-premise RHEL environments and the cloud. Cloud Governance: Knowledge of CloudFormation or Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployment of cloud-native resources.
Containerization & Virtualization
Kubernetes & OpenShift: Proven experience designing and securing production-grade Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift clusters, including ingress controllers, CNI, and CSI. Container Standards: Mastery of OCI-compliant runtimes including Docker, Podman, and Buildah. Virtualization: Strong architectural knowledge of VMware vSphere (7.x/8.x) and KVM/libvirt for hosting RHEL workloads in high-availability configurations.
CI/CD & DevOps Ecosystem
Pipeline Engineering: Expert knowledge of Jenkins (Pipeline as Code/Groovy) or GitLab CI/CD for automating the build, test, and deployment of infrastructure code. DevSecOps: In-depth understanding of integrating security scanning tools (SonarQube, Snyk, or Trivy) directly into deployment pipelines. Git Mastery: Advanced knowledge of Git workflows (GitFlow, Trunk-based development) and repository management.
Professional Certification Expectations: While the role prioritizes hands-on architectural experience, the following certifications are considered highly desirable: Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA), Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), and AWS/Azure Solutions Architect Professional.
3.6 Supplementary Knowledge Areas
Beyond the core stack, the Solution Architect is expected to be conversant in the following areas to ensure holistic solution integrity:
Observability: Designing monitoring and logging strategies using the Prometheus/Grafana stack or ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana).
Networking: Thorough understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, Load Balancing (F5, HAProxy, or cloud-native LBs), and modern SDN concepts.
Security Standards: Familiarity with ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and data requirements as they relate to infrastructure architecture.
4. Desired Professional Attributes (Soft Skills)
At the Senior Solution Architect level, technical mastery is considered the baseline. Success in this role is fundamentally determined by an individual's professional character, cognitive agility, and ability to navigate complex human and organizational systems. We are seeking a candidate who transcends the "siloed expert" stereotype to become a true business partner and technical diplomat.
4.1 Strategic Thinking & Business Alignment
The Solution Architect must possess the cognitive capacity to operate simultaneously at the granular technical level and the macroscopic business level. This attribute ensures that technology serves the business, rather than becoming an end in itself.
Big-Picture Orientation: Ability to visualize the entire ecosystem and understand how a single RHEL configuration or cloud policy ripple-effects through the organization's long-term objectives.
Future-Proofing: Anticipating market shifts and technological evolutions (particularly in the 2026-2030 horizon) to ensure current designs do not become legacy debt within short cycles.
Value-Driven Decision Making: Evaluating architectural choices through the lens of Return on Investment (ROI), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and operational efficiency.
4.2 Proactive Problem-Solving & Anti-Fragility
We require a "hunter" mindsetsomeone who does not wait for an outage to investigate a system. This role demands a commitment to building anti-fragile systems that improve through stress and automated self-healing.
Root Cause Obsession: A natural inclination to bypass "quick fixes" in favor of identifying and remediating systemic architectural weaknesses.
Predictive Analysis: Utilizing telemetry and system patterns to identify bottlenecks and potential points of failure before they manifest as critical incidents.
Resourcefulness: Demonstrating high levels of ingenuity when faced with unique integration challenges or legacy constraints.
The "Architect-as-Consultant" Competency
Successful candidates will demonstrate the ability to act as internal consultants, providing objective, data-backed guidance to product owners while maintaining the emotional intelligence to pivot strategies when business priorities shift abruptly.
4.3 Exceptional Communication & Stakeholder Influence
This role acts as a linguistic bridge between the data center and the boardroom. The ability to translate "kernel panic" into "business risk" is essential for securing project buy-in and funding.
Architectural Storytelling: Utilizing data visualization and clear narratives to articulate complex technical blueprints to non-technical executives.
Consensus Building: Navigating diverse opinions across engineering teams to reach a unified architectural decision without causing friction or resentment.
Active Listening: Genuinely understanding the pain points of developers and operations staff to ensure architectures address real-world usability.
4.4 Leadership, Mentorship & Technical Advocacy
Leadership in this role is not about title or hierarchy; it is about "leading by influence." The Solution Architect must be a standard-bearer for engineering excellence.
Knowledge Multiplier: A documented track record of uplifting the technical capabilities of others through mentorship, workshops, and high-quality documentation.
Culture Champion: Promoting a culture of DevSecOps, automation-first, and blameless post-mortems across the engineering organization.
Integrity: Having the professional courage to voice concerns over technical decisions that may compromise system integrity or long-term stability.
4.5 Architectural Pragmatism
While striving for technical perfection, the Architect must recognize when "good enough" is the correct business decision. Pragmatism is the key to delivering value in high-pressure environments.
Balancing Innovation and Stability: Knowing when to deploy a bleeding-edge technology and when to rely on a "boring but stable" RHEL foundation.
Technical Debt Management: Making conscious, documented decisions to accept technical debt in exchange for speed-to-market, while having a clear plan for its future retirement.
Adaptability: Remaining flexible in the face of shifting project requirements, changing cloud vendor landscapes, or evolving regulatory environments.
Attribute Summary
Expected Organizational Impact
Strategic Thinking
Reduction in technology redundancies and better cost-to-performance ratios.
Influence & Comm
Faster approval cycles for critical infrastructure upgrades and project funding.
Pragmatism
On-time delivery of projects that meet immediate business needs without future breakage.
Originally posted on Himalayas