Senior GCP Operations Architect

540 is seeking a Senior GCP Operations Architect to support a mission-critical aviation platform that helps enable the safe and efficient operation of the nation’s airspace. The platform modernizes how time-sensitive safety information is managed and distributed through secure, near-real-time data exchange.

Working alongside Google technical advisors and customer operations teams, you will provide architectural guidance and day-two operational expertise across GCP infrastructure, security, resiliency, automation, and DevSecOps. This highly visible role requires a proactive technical leader who can resolve complex issues, strengthen operational readiness, and help ensure the reliability and availability of a platform that directly supports aviation safety.

• Location : Remote within the continental United States
• Citizenship & Clearance Requirement : Per client requirements, candidates must be U.S. Citizens and currently hold or be eligible to obtain and maintain an FAA Public Trust
• Education Requirement: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field (preferred)
• 540 Internal Thrive Level: Senior Platform Engineer

WHY 540?

540 is a forward-thinking company that the government turns to in order to #getshitdone. We don’t just talk about innovation – we deliver it. We break down barriers, build impactful technology, and solve mission-critical problems.

HOW YOU’LL DRIVE IMPACT

Provide expert guidance on the architecture and operation of GCP networking, compute, security, storage, and supporting platform services

Partner with customer operations teams to identify and introduce new tools, operational patterns, and cloud best practices that improve team productivity, platform reliability, and operational efficiency

Serve as a primary point of contact for infrastructure and operations questions and technical escalations, providing Tier 3 troubleshooting across cloud infrastructure, Terraform deployments, and DevSecOps pipelines

Quickly develop expertise and take ownership of unfamiliar technical or operational areas, providing guidance to customer and delivery teams as new challenges emerge

Participate in Agile delivery ceremonies and technical forums, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning and reviews, technical syncs, scrum-of-scrums, operational reviews, postmortems, and technical retrospectives

Review system metrics and logs to identify performance bottlenecks, stability concerns, and emerging risks; support root cause analysis and define sustainable, long-term remediation actions

Assess and strengthen day-two operational readiness, including troubleshooting procedures, escalation paths, support-team preparedness, backup and recovery strategies, disaster recovery protocols, and high-availability configurations

Provide guidance on Terraform module development, state management, infrastructure automation, and CI/CD integration, and review GitOps and DevSecOps workflows to troubleshoot critical pipeline and deployment issues

Support release-management activities, including the application and rollback of database releases

Review and guide the development of runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting materials, and other operational artifacts to ensure they are accurate, complete, consistent, and aligned with the current architecture and recommended practices

Review the Technical Design Document every two weeks, advise customer stakeholders on required revisions and document governance, and develop supporting materials for technical and architecture reviews

Conduct weekly office hours for Infrastructure, DevSecOps, and Release Management processes

Engage with the customer’s Change Control Board and Architecture Review Board to evaluate proposed configuration and architectural changes

Research relevant GCP services and architectural components to inform technical recommendations and customer decision-making

Maintain accurate and detailed activity, status, and task information in Jira

Reduce technical and operational ambiguity by clarifying requirements, establishing a path forward, and maintaining momentum when requirements or direction are not fully defined

Demonstrate proactive ownership and confident technical leadership across the broader project, helping maintain architectural cohesion, operational standards, and delivery quality while representing Google and 540 in customer-facing engagements

Reduce technical and operational ambiguity by clarifying requirements, establishing a path forward, and maintaining momentum when requirements or direction are not fully defined

Demonstrate proactive ownership and confident technical leadership across the broader project, helping maintain architectural cohesion, operational standards, and delivery quality while representing Google and 540 in customer-facing engagements

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

8+ years of relevant experience

Extensive experience designing, operating, or supporting production environments in Google Cloud

Strong knowledge of GCP networking, compute, storage, identity, access management, and core security services

Experience translating cloud architecture into practical day-two operations and support processes

Hands-on experience with Terraform, including reusable modules, remote state management, deployment troubleshooting, and CI/CD integration

Experience supporting GitOps, CI/CD, or DevSecOps workflows in production environments

Experience with infrastructure monitoring, logging, system-health analysis, and operational risk identification

Strong understanding of high availability, disaster recovery, backup and recovery, and platform resiliency

Experience conducting root cause analysis and developing long-term corrective and preventive actions

Ability to troubleshoot complex cloud infrastructure and deployment issues at a Tier 3 level

Experience creating and reviewing technical design documents, runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and operational procedures

Experience supporting release-management and rollback processes

Working knowledge of Agile delivery practices and task-management tools such as Jira

Strong customer-facing communication, facilitation, and technical advisory skills

Ability to communicate architectural concepts and operational recommendations to both technical teams and customer leadership

Proactive ownership mindset with the confidence to identify risks, recommend improvements, and drive issues toward resolution

NICE TO HAVE

Google Cloud professional-level certification

Experience supporting mission-critical government or regulated cloud environments

Experience with Apigee architecture, deployment, or operations

Experience participating in formal Change Control Board or Architecture Review Board processes

Experience supporting database release and rollback activities

Familiarity with site reliability engineering and production operations practices

Experience supporting large-scale modernization or cloud-transformation programs

Familiarity with aviation, transportation, or other high-availability operational systems

BENEFITS & PERKS

Flexible PTO + all Federal holidays off

Health, dental and vision insurance plans

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

401k with employer match

Company-sponsored life insurance, short- and long-term disability

Professional development (training, certifications, conferences)

Paid cloud developer accounts

Referral bonuses

HQ office perks (parking / metro reimbursement, nitro coffee & lunches)

Annual social events (540 Week, hackathon, charity golf tournament, etc.)

Access to 540’s Washington Capitals & Nationals tickets

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY (EEO)

540's policy is to provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, nati