85% Remote: Lead Architect (m/f/d) Cloud-Native Platform & Kubernetes

Lead Architect (m/f/d) Cloud-Native Platform & Kubernetes

Project Description

Our client is building an internal, cloud-native platform designed to accelerate the development and delivery of software products — addressing the massive challenges facing the energy sector. The platform is service-oriented and provides application teams with self-service capabilities to develop, run, and operate their software products. It covers application infrastructure, data management, service lifecycle management, build and delivery pipelines, and operational services. The platform is deployed as a hybrid cloud, encompassing both private cloud and select public clouds.

The Lead Architect will play a pivotal role within the platform's core product line, which is responsible for a central product portfolio including an Infrastructure as a Service product, a managed Kubernetes Service, a resource management service, and a service lifecycle workflow engine — all forming the core of an on‑premise private cloud platform supporting critical IT/OT business applications.

Framework Parameters

Start:

Duration:

Workload: Full-Time

Location: 85% Remote, 25% Frankfurt am Main

Tasks

1. Architecture Design
2. Consulting on coordination with stakeholders (product owners, lead and domain architects) to define and refine functional and non‑functional requirements
3. Translating requirements and high‑level service architecture into modular, scalable, and maintainable technical designs aligned with cloud‑native and service‑oriented principles
4. Providing, maintaining, and versioning architecture artifacts throughout the product lifecycle
5. Consulting on and maintaining security best practices within Kubernetes environments
6. Conceptualizing and continuously evolving a well‑defined service architecture promoting consistency and interoperability
7. Establishing and governing architecture standards, design principles, and reusable patterns
8. Providing strategic recommendations for complex architectural topics and trade‑offs
9. Technology Evaluation
10. Overseeing and guiding the development of proof‑of‑concepts (POCs) and reference implementations to validate architectural decisions
11. Providing strategic recommendations on technology adoption, optimization, and deprecation
12. Evaluating and selecting emerging technologies and tools for potential adoption
13. Defining guardrails and standards for technology usage across the platform
14. Architecture Guidance
15. Guiding architects and engineering stakeholders on architecture and design patterns during implementation
16. Structuring refinement of engineering stakeholders based on developed designs and POC learnings
17. Enabling communication and exchange with stakeholders across the platform
18. Acting as a senior advisor and escalation point for architecture‑related topics across engineering teams
19. Mentoring architecture and engineering stakeholders and fostering a strong architecture community

Experience & Skills

1. Minimum 5 years of hands‑on project experience as a Lead Architect at a transmission system operator in the context of critical systems (System Operations, on‑premise IT Infrastructure for Operations)
2. Profound understanding of cloud‑native platform architecture, including CI/CD pipelines, observability frameworks, and release processes
3. Deep expertise in Kubernetes tooling and frameworks, including microservices, pub‑sub brokering, event sourcing, sharding/partitioning, load throttling/gateway patterns, and performance management
4. Strong experience in software and distributed system development with the ability to rapidly design and build POCs
5. Proven experience decomposing architecture designs into structured, actionable work items, guiding engineering and DevOps teams
6. Deep understanding of CI/CD workflows, IaC, and GitOps tools
7. Experience with the Controller Runtime library
8. Proficiency in English (spoken & written, minimum C1)

Preferred

1. Understanding of API design, development, and migration
2. Experience with service discovery
3. Familiarity with test-, behavior-, and observability‑driven development
4. Experience designing RBAC and other access control methodologies
5. Proficiency in German or Ukrainian (spoken & written, minimum C1)