Cloud Architect, Senior Staff
$154,000 - $231,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 17 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
Qualcomm IT is seeking a Senior Staff Cloud Architect to own the strategy, architecture, and execution of GitOps-driven platform engineering capabilities across EKS and future multi-cloud expansion. This role requires full-time onsite work in San Diego, CA (5 days per week).
What you'll do
- Define and drive multi-year platform roadmap strategy across EKS maturation and multi-cloud expansion, establishing patterns for multi-tenant environments and architectural governance. - Own the Terraform platform strategy across module design, state management, multi-environment patterns, and IaC governance. - Manage end-to-end Kubernetes cluster provisioning and lifecycle management using Karpenter for autoscaling, add-on lifecycle tools, and cluster rollout strategies. - Establish the enterprise GitOps operating model utilizing Argo CD for continuous delivery and GitHub Actions for CI/CD orchestration. - Define secure platform patterns and policy enforcement using Kyverno and Cilium, serving as technical authority with security stakeholders. - Drive platform reliability, cost efficiency, and observability standards utilizing Datadog and Prometheus/Grafana with SLO frameworks.
What you'll need
- 10 years of IT-related experience with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or Engineering (or 14 years of experience without a degree). - 5 years operating Kubernetes at enterprise scale, including deep EKS expertise with multi-tenant architecture and cluster lifecycle ownership. - Advanced Terraform expertise covering module strategy, state management, and multi-environment governance. - Advanced AWS expertise across networking, IAM, and the EKS ecosystem in enterprise environments. - Strong CI/CD fundamentals using GitHub Actions or similar tools integrated with DevSecOps and Argo CD. - Hands-on experience with Helm, Kustomize, Kubernetes networking fundamentals, Cilium, and Linux distributed systems troubleshooting.
Nice to have
- Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD, CKS) or AWS Solutions Architect Professional / DevOps Engineer Professional certifications. - Experience with Karpenter cost optimization, Kyverno policy-at-scale, and Crossplane concepts. - Demonstrated success building self-service paved road platform capabilities at scale.
Skills: Kubernetes, EKS, Terraform, GitOps, AWS
This role has been open 129 days — well above the 53-day median for Infrastructure/Platform Software roles.
Infrastructure/Platform Software · Infrastructure Platform
|
Open roles in category
1004
|
Median days open
53 d
|
Median salary
$224k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (1004 roles · 89 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 65 | 1004 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 735 | 6250 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 52 d | 53 d (−1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $224k |
Skills observed across this category: Kubernetes, EKS, Terraform, GitOps, AWS
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 286 open roles · median 52 d
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 65 open roles · median 52 d
- AMD · 57 open roles · median 26 d
- Graphcore · 50 open roles · median 100 d
- Intel Corporation · 48 open roles · median 14 d
- Cerebras · 35 open roles · median 90 d
How we counted: 1004 open Infrastructure/Platform Software (Infrastructure Platform) roles from 89 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.
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