Lead GCP Architect – Migration and Modernization only USA citizens

About this role

Lead GCP Architect – Migration and Modernization

Experience: 12 to 15 years in infrastructure and cloud architecture, including 4+ years of hands-on Google Cloud work. The candidate has led at least one data center exit or migration of 100+ servers to the cloud.

Location: On-site, California

Role Summary

We are looking for a Lead GCP Architect to lead a client’s move from a VMware data center to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and to support the modernization that follows. The environment runs Perl applications and MySQL databases on Linux virtual machines, many on end-of-life CentOS, with a shared NetApp NFS file system. You will work on-site as part of the client’s engineering team, lead a team of engineers in India, and own the technical plan, the key decisions and the production cutovers.

Key Responsibilities
• Lead discovery with the client’s engineers. Map servers, applications, databases, scheduled jobs and every dependency on the shared file system, and group the workloads into migration waves.
• Own the target architecture on GCP within the client’s existing landing zone: Compute Engine, networking and firewall rules, IAM, hybrid connectivity, load balancing, DNS, file storage and databases.
• Drive the early decisions with the client’s security and DevOps teams: the path for end-of-life Linux and FreeBSD servers, public IP ranges, shared file storage, databases and the data-wipe method.
• Plan and run the proof of concept and the production pilot, and present go/no-go recommendations at each decision gate.
• Write and own the cutover and rollback runbooks, and lead the rehearsals, weekend cutovers and hypercare for every wave.
• Lead the data center exit through decommissioning, a certified data wipe and handover to the client’s operations team.
• Lead the offshore team day to day: set priorities, review designs and infrastructure code, and keep scope, risks and the schedule visible to the client.
• Coordinate with the client’s DevOps, security and network teams, with Google and with the data center provider.
• After the migration, provide the GCP platform design that the modernization work builds on.

Technical Skills

We do not expect every candidate to cover all of these areas, but hands-on depth in Google Cloud, large migrations and Linux is essential.
• Google Cloud: Compute Engine, VPC networking and firewall rules, IAM, hybrid connectivity, load balancing, DNS, and monitoring and logging; working inside an existing landing zone.
• Migration: VMware vCenter, Google Migration Center and Migrate to Virtual Machines; dependency mapping, wave planning, runbooks, rehearsals, weekend cutovers, rollback and hypercare; moving servers off end-of-life CentOS and FreeBSD.
• Linux and applications: deep RHEL-family Linux, including CentOS and Oracle Linux, and working knowledge of FreeBSD; legacy web stacks with Perl, Apache, cron and Make-based builds; reading code to find hidden dependencies such as shared paths and hard-coded addresses.
• Storage: NFS and NetApp storage; Filestore and Google Cloud NetApp Volumes; moving a shared file system to the cloud without breaking the applications that use it.
• Databases: MySQL and Percona replication; Cloud SQL for MySQL and Database Migration Service; low-downtime database cutovers.
• Network and security: public IP planning and partner IP allowlisting; NetScaler and Cloudflare; least-privilege access; data center decommissioning and certified data wipe.
• Infrastructure as code: Terraform and Ansible; GitLab CI/CD.
• Resilience and cost: backup and disaster-recovery design with Google Cloud Backup and DR; cloud cost modeling and tracking.
• AI-assisted engineering: AI coding assistants for code analysis, infrastructure code and runbooks, with engineering review of every output.
• Leadership and communication: leading a team split between the US and India; clear writing and presentations for senior engineering and product leaders; change control and go/no-go decisions.

Nice to Have
• Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, Professional Cloud Network Engineer or Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification.
• Exposure to application modernization, such as containers, Kubernetes and managed databases, to support the work that follows the migration.

Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.

Required skills

• SQL
• MySQL
• Oracle
• Google Cloud
• Kubernetes
• Terraform
• Ansible
• Linux
• CI/CD
• GitLab CI
• IAM
• DevOps