Lead Cloud Architect

Job Description

Lead Cloud Architect | Mizuho

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Mizuho, located in a hybrid capacity, likely within New York City. Mizuho is the world’s 15th largest bank, offering comprehensive financial services across various global markets and to a broad client base in 35 countries. As a Lead Cloud Architect, you will provide critical technical leadership, defining the strategic direction and target-state architecture for the company’s Azure cloud estate. Your work will enable secure and compliant cloud operations in a regulated financial environment, directly impacting Mizuho’s digital transformation and operational resilience.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: Hybrid, New York City, NY, USA
• Pay: $160000–$225000 yearly
• Team: Reports to the Head of Cloud Platform, leading the cloud architecture function and collaborating with other cloud architects and engineers.
• Mission: Own the target-state architecture for the Azure estate and the standards, patterns, and conformance framework that will get us there.
• Tech Stack: Azure, Terraform, Azure Policy, ExpressRoute, Private Link, Entra ID, Key Vault, HSM-backed key management, CI/CD.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Architecture Ownership: Own the target-state cloud architecture (North Star) for the Azure estate and the roadmap toward it, ensuring ratification with senior technology leadership.
• Standard Definition: Define and publish cross-cutting architectural standards, including resource organization, networking, identity, encryption, resilience, and recovery, as clear documentation and consumable patterns.
• Guardrail Implementation: Establish and enforce guardrails through Azure Policy and landing zone controls based on Zero Trust principles, making the standard the easiest path to follow.
• Regulatory Representation: Represent cloud architecture in audit, regulatory, and senior technology forums, ensuring alignment with compliance and security baselines.
• Technical Leadership: Provide technical leadership for the architecture function, fostering design review, coaching, and pattern evangelism across the team to raise the technical bar.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Senior-level technical leadership in cloud architecture or infrastructure engineering within regulated financial services.
• Experience: 10+ years in cloud architecture or infrastructure engineering, with significant depth in Azure at an enterprise scale, including direct exposure to audit and regulatory review. Proven track record of defining and implementing target-state architecture and standards adopted by engineering teams.
• Skills: Expertise in Azure landing zone design, hybrid networking, private connectivity (ExpressRoute, Private Link), and identity (Entra ID) architecture. Strong command of Infrastructure-as-Code, CI/CD automation, and policy-as-code (Azure Policy). Working knowledge of data protection and encryption key management (Key Vault, HSM-backed key management) and familiarity with control frameworks (CIS, ISO 27001, NIST) and their translation into technical controls.
• Bonus: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification preferred.