Cloud Architecture Lead Seniority: Senior Leadership / Technical Lead

Experience:
12-18+ years in IT, Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure Engineering, or related domains *This is a contractual role ROLE OVERVIEW NeGD is seeking an experienced Cloud Architecture Lead to drive cloud strategy, architecture, infrastructure modernization, performance optimization, and cost governance across government digital platforms and e-Governance initiatives. The role combines senior technical leadership with the ability to prepare, review, and evaluate complex technical RFPs, tenders, and Statements of Work (SoWs).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Cloud Architecture & Infrastructure Strategy
• Define cloud architecture standards, reference architectures, and infrastructure best practices for government digital platforms.
• Design secure, scalable, resilient, and highly available solutions across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
• Evaluate cloud-native, hybrid-cloud, multi-cloud, and on-premises deployment models againstbusiness, security, compliance, and cost requirements.
• Guide infrastructure modernization, application migration, disaster recovery, business continuity, and capacity planning.
• Apply the AI Development Life Cycle (AIDLC) to assess and guide cloud architecture requirements, infrastructure readiness, scalability, deployment, and lifecycle optimization for AI-enabled government platforms. Cloud Cost Optimization & FinOps
• Lead cost optimization across compute, storage, databases, networking, managed services, and licensing.
• Establish FinOps practices, cost allocation models, tagging standards, budgets, and usage-monitoring mechanisms.
• Identify savings throughrightsizing, autoscaling, reservedcapacity, storage lifecycle management, and workload optimization.
• Review cloud bills,identify resource wastage,and establish measurable cost-reduction targets withoutcompromising security, availability, or performance.
• Develop cost forecasts, total cost of ownership (TCO) models, and comparative cost analyses. Complex RFP, Tender & Technical Evaluation
• Lead preparation and review of complex RFPs,technical specifications,



SoWs,and procurement documents for cloud infrastructure, managed services, data centres, and platform modernization.
• Translaterequirements into measurable technical specifications, SLAs,KPIs, service credits,acceptance criteria, and implementation milestones.
• Develop eligibility criteria, technical evaluation frameworks, compliance matrices, scoringmethodologies, and bidder response templates.
• Assess vendor proposals, solution architectures, cloud sizing, commercial assumptions, and cost estimates.
• Support pre-bid meetings,clarification responses, technicalpresentations, proof-of-concept evaluations, and technical committee proceedings.
• Identify vendor lock-in, hidden cost components, ambiguous scope, operational risks, and non-compliance. Cloud Governance, Security & Operations
• Establish cloud governance frameworks, architecture reviewprocesses, configuration baselines, and operational standards.
• Ensure alignment with applicable Government of India cloudpolicies, MeitY guidelines, CERT-In directions, and relevant security requirements.
• Oversee monitoring, observability, backup, disaster recovery, incident management, and performance optimization.
• Define cloud service SLAs, operational dashboards, and governance reporting. Leadership & Stakeholder Management
• Guide project teams, implementation partners, cloud service providers, and system integrators.
• Coordinate with government departments, ministries, procurement, finance, and security stakeholders.
• Review architecture proposals, implementation plans, audit observations, and technical deliverables.
• Present recommendations, risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and technology decisions to senior management. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology,



Engineering, or a relateddiscipline; relevant postgraduate qualifications are desirable.
• 12-18+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, cloud architecture, platform engineering, or enterprise technology.
• Significant experience designing and governing production-grade cloud environments on AWS, Azure, and/or GCP.
• Proven experience in cloud cost optimization, capacity planning, TCO analysis, and infrastructure budgeting.
• Demonstratedexperience preparing or evaluating complexRFPs, government tenders,technical proposals, and vendor submissions.
• Experiencewith large-scale digitalplatforms, public-sector projects, or mission-critical enterprise systems is highly desirable. TECHNICAL SKILLS
• AWS, Microsoft Azure, and/or Google Cloud Platform.
• Cloud networking, IAM, compute, storage, databases, Kubernetes, containers, and infrastructure as code.
• Cloud cost management, FinOps, budgeting, and optimization tools.
• High availability, disaster recovery, business continuity, monitoring, and observability.
• Architecture documentation, technical evaluation matrices, SLAs, and procurement specifications. KEY COMPETENCIES
• Strong architectural judgement and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent technical writing, RFP drafting, and evaluation capabilities.
• Ability to challenge vendor proposals and validate technical and commercial assumptions.
• Robust stakeholder management, analytical thinking, and decision-making.
• Ability to balance security, performance, scalability, compliance, and cost. EXPECTED OUTCOMES
• Standardized and resilient cloud architecture practices.
• Measurable cloud cost optimization and improved infrastructure utilization.
• High-quality, technically robust, and vendor-neutral RFPs and evaluation frameworks.
• Improved cloud governance, operational efficiency, and service reliability. Common expectation: The role requires independent assessment of complextechnology proposals and the abilityto balance technical suitability, security, compliance, lifecycle costs, scalability, and long-term sustainability.

📌 Cloud Architecture Lead (New Delhi)
🏢 National e Governance Division
📍 New Delhi