Senior Architect (Cloud & FinOps Strategy)

Position Description Location: Toronto/Montreal Preferred Languages: Bilingual (English/French) Preferred Employment Type: Full-Time CGI is seeking an experienced Senior Architect to join our growing Architecture & Solutions consulting practice within the Emerging Technologies team. As a full-time member of CGI, you will become part of a collaborative team of architects, engineers, and consultants delivering enterprise technology solutions for some of Canada's leading public and private sector organizations. While you may be assigned to lead one or more client engagements, you will remain a permanent member of CGI's Architecture practice, collaborating with peers, contributing to reusable reference architectures, and continuously developing your technical and consulting expertise. In this role, you will help clients translate complex business objectives into scalable, secure, and financially optimized technology strategies. You will design enterprise-grade systems, guide engineering teams through implementation, and ensure that technical solutions align with the client's long-term vision, operational capabilities, and budget. Success in this role requires a strategic mindset, exceptional communication skills, a deep understanding of enterprise systems, and a strong grasp of cloud economics. You will leverage broad architectural principles and FinOps practices to deliver innovative, pragmatic, and highly cost-efficient solutions across cloud native apps, data platforms, and enterprise infrastructure. Your future duties and responsibilities Solutions & Enterprise Architecture Design end-to-end technical solutions that are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned with client business objectives and budgets. Evaluate complex business requirements and translate them into conceptual, logical, and physical architecture designs. Define integration patterns, API strategies, and data flows for complex enterprise ecosystems (e.g., microservices, event-driven architectures, legacy integrations). Conduct technology vendor assessments, build-vs-buy analyses, and total cost of ownership (TCO) evaluations. Cloud Economics & FinOps Strategy Establish and mature enterprise FinOps practices, bridging the gap between engineering, finance, and business leadership to drive cloud cost accountability. Architect systems explicitly for cost optimization, using dynamic scaling, spot instances, right sizing, and optimal storage tiering. Design and implement cost allocation models, showback/chargeback frameworks, and tagging taxonomies to ensure full visibility into cloud spend. Identify architectural inefficiencies, technical debt, and cloud waste, providing remediation roadmaps. Strategic Consulting & Roadmapping Partner with C-level executives and business stakeholders to define IT strategies, technology roadmaps, and digital transformation initiatives. Assess legacy systems and define pragmatic modernization journeys, including cloud migrations, re-platforming, and refactoring strategies with clear ROI models. Align technology investments with business value, ensuring architecture support scalability, agility, and competitive advantage. Technical Leadership & Governance Lead and mentor engineering and development teams, providing technical direction, oversight, and architectural guardrails throughout the delivery lifecycle. Establish and enforce engineering standards, best practices, and governance models (e.g., Architecture Review Boards, Cloud Centers of Excellence). Resolve complex technical escalations and guide teams through critical design trade-offs (performance vs. cost vs. speed to market). Cloud & Platform Strategy Design multi-cloud, hybrid, and cloud-native architectures utilizing modern principles (Well-Architected Frameworks). Guide organizations in adopting Platform Engineering, DevSecOps, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) operating models. Architect foundational cloud environments (Landing Zones) that balance developer agility with strict security, compliance, and financial controls. Security & Risk Management Design systems with a security-first mindset, integrating Zero Trust principles, robust identity management, and data protection strategies. Identify and mitigate architectural risks, technical debt, and compliance gaps across enterprise systems. Consulting & Collaboration Facilitate architecture workshops, FinOps maturity assessments, and technical presentations with diverse stakeholder groups. Collaborate with CGI practice leads, project managers, and engineers to ensure successful end-to-end solution delivery. Drive the creation of proposals, technical estimates, statements of work, and go-to-market offerings. Required Qualifications To Be Successful In This Role Architectural & Cloud Economics Experience Demonstrated experience as a Solutions Architect, Enterprise Architect, or Principal Engineer designing complex, large-scale technology solutions. Strong expertise in Cloud Financial Management (FinOps), with a track record of optimizing enterprise cloud spend and establishing financial governance. Deep background in software engineering, data engineering, or platform/infrastructure engineering before transitioning into an architecture role. Experience leading enterprise modernization, cloud transformation, or digital strategy initiatives. Ability to context switch between high-level business/financial strategy and deep technical problem-solving. Architectural Principles & Methodologies Experience with concepts such as: FinOps Principles and the FinOps Lifecycle (Inform, Optimize, Operate) Cloud Adoption Frameworks & Well-Architected Frameworks (Cost Optimization pillars) Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Event-Driven Architecture & Microservices Zero Trust Security Models Cross-Domain Technical Expertise (Adjacent Skills) Broad understanding across multiple engineering disciplines to design cohesive systems, including: Cloud: Deep understanding of AWS, Azure, or GCP capabilities, billing constructs, compute savings plans, and reserved instances. Software: Knowledge of modern application architectures, API design, and modern programming paradigms. Data: Understanding of Data Mesh, Lakehouse architectures, and the cost implications of massive data processing (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks compute costs). Platform/DevSecOps: Knowledge of Kubernetes, CI/CD strategies, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles. Professional Skills Exceptional executive presence and the ability to present complex technical and financial concepts to non-technical business leaders. Strong negotiation, consensus-building, and conflict-resolution skills. Strategic thinker with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities. Passion for mentoring technical talent and building engineering cultures. Experience That Will Help You Succeed The following experience is considered an asset but is not required: Artificial Intelligence Strategy Experience architecting solutions that incorporate Machine Learning, Generative AI (LLMs), or RAG securely, including forecasting the highly variable compute costs of AI workloads. Industry Experience Domain expertise in Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Insurance, Utilities, or other regulated industries. Certifications FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP) or FinOps Certified Professional. Cloud Architect Professional Certifications (AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect). Types of Client Engagements As a member of CGI's Architecture practice, you may lead initiatives such as: Enterprise FinOps Operating Model Design & Implementation Cloud Cost Optimization & Architecture Remediation Enterprise IT Strategy & Roadmap Development Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) Design Legacy Application Modernization & Re-architecture Data Platform & AI Strategy