Job Title: Senior Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Architect Location: Austin, Texas (with potential for hybrid/remote work supporting Texas state clients) Employment Type: Full-time Contract Context: Position supports strategic cloud architecture and managed public cloud services under the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) Public Cloud Manager (PCM) contract, delivering secure, compliant, and innovative Google Cloud solutions to Texas state agencies, higher education institutions, local governments, and other eligible public entities. Job Summary We are seeking a strategic and technically deep Senior Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Architect to lead the design and governance of enterprise-grade GCP environments for Texas public sector customers under the DIR PCM program. This senior role focuses on creating secure, scalable, cost-optimized, and compliant architectures-particularly for regulated workloads that may involve or access Criminal Justice Information (CJI)-while ensuring alignment with DIR PCM service catalogs, TxRAMP requirements, CJIS Security Policy, and federal/state standards. The successful candidate must successfully complete and maintain an FBI CJIS background check (fingerprint-based national criminal history check) upon hire and renewed every 12 months. Key Responsibilities
• Lead end-to-end architecture design for complex GCP deployments, including multi-project/folder/organization structures, hybrid/multi-cloud connectivity, data platforms, AI/ML workloads, security posture, and operational excellence.
• Define and implement reference architectures, landing zones, and foundational patterns using Google Cloud best practices: Organization Policy Service, Folders, Projects, Shared VPC, VPC Service Controls, Access Context Manager, Assured Workloads, and Google Cloud for Government capabilities.
• Architect secure-by-design environments with zero-trust principles: CMEK encryption, Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP), BeyondCorp Enterprise, Binary Authorization, Confidential Computing, Security Command Center Premium, Chronicle SIEM, and audit logging strategies compliant with CJIS requirements.
• Design high-availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions (multi-region/multi-zone deployments, Cloud Interconnect/Partner Interconnect, Cloud DNS, Global Load Balancing, Backup and DR services).
• Guide cost optimization and FinOps strategies (Billing Budgets, Recommender, Committed Use Discounts, Sustained Use Discounts, Cloud Billing export to BigQuery for analytics).
• Translate business, regulatory, and technical requirements into prescriptive GCP blueprints, reference implementations, and decision frameworks for Texas agencies.
• Collaborate with DIR PCM program leadership, agency stakeholders, security teams, and delivery engineers to align architectures with contract SLAs, TxRAMP controls, CJIS Security Policy, NIST 800-53/800-171 alignments, and state data classification standards.
• Provide technical leadership during migrations, modernization, and greenfield initiatives; conduct architecture reviews, threat modeling, and compliance gap analyses.
• Author architecture decision records (ADRs), design documents, security control mappings, and compliance evidence packages for audits and assessments.
• Mentor cloud engineers and cross-functional teams; stay ahead of GCP roadmap, Google Cloud for Government updates, and evolving compliance mandates.
Required Qualifications
• 8+ years of professional experience in cloud architecture and engineering, with at least 5+ years focused on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in enterprise or production-scale environments.
• Proven track record designing secure, compliant GCP architectures for regulated industries (government, public safety, healthcare, finance) or environments subject to CJIS, FedRAMP, TxRAMP, or equivalent standards.
• Deep expertise across GCP pillars: Infrastructure (Compute, Networking, Storage), Data & Analytics (BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Dataproc), Security & Identity, Operations (Monitoring, Logging, Cloud Operations Suite), Application Modernization (GKE, Cloud Run, Anthos), and AI/ML foundations.
• Strong understanding of zero-trust security models, encryption strategies, network perimeter controls (VPC Service Controls, Private Google Access), and observability/logging pipelines.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform strongly preferred; Deployment Manager, Cloud Foundation Toolkit, or Google-provided blueprints a plus) and CI/CD automation.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Relevant certifications required or highly preferred:
• Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect (mandatory)
• Google Cloud Professional Security Engineer
• Google Cloud Professional DevOps Engineer or Professional Data Engineer (strongly preferred)
Security & Compliance Requirements
• Must successfully pass and maintain an FBI CJIS-compliant background chec