Solution Architect II

Location: Atlanta, GA

Client: Southern Company

Employment Type: Contract-to-Hire (3-6 Months)

Experience Required: 7–10+ years

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced Solution Architect II with strong expertise in enterprise DevOps, Azure Cloud, Platform Engineering, CI/CD architecture, automation, GitHub Actions, and secure software delivery .

This is a senior-level position requiring an individual who can operate effectively in a large enterprise environment, lead cross-functional technical initiatives, influence architecture and engineering decisions, and communicate confidently with Director-level and senior leadership.

The ideal candidate will bring hands-on technical depth combined with strong architecture, leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide cross-functional technical leadership across DevOps, cloud, platform engineering, application development, security, and infrastructure teams.
• Design and support scalable enterprise DevOps platforms and engineering solutions .
• Architect and improve enterprise CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and software delivery processes .
• Design, manage, and optimize GitHub Actions Runner and build-agent infrastructure .
• Support enterprise Azure Cloud architecture, identity, access management, and governance .
• Develop and support cloud-native and container-based platforms .
• Integrate security controls and best practices into CI/CD pipelines and software delivery processes.
• Advance enterprise DevSecOps capabilities and secure software development practices.
• Evaluate and support adoption of GitHub Copilot and AI-enabled development technologies .
• Develop observability, reporting, analytics, and performance-monitoring capabilities for DevOps platforms.
• Collaborate with architects, developers, infrastructure teams, cybersecurity teams, business stakeholders, and senior leadership.
• Present technical strategies, architecture recommendations, risks, and solutions to Director-level and executive stakeholders.
• Establish architectural standards, engineering best practices, and automation strategies across teams.
• Identify opportunities to improve developer productivity, platform reliability, security, scalability, and operational efficiency.

Critical Skill Areas

Candidates should demonstrate particularly strong expertise in the following areas:

1. Cross-Functional Technical Leadership

• Ability to lead architecture and technical initiatives involving multiple engineering and business teams.
• Experience influencing technical strategy and architectural decisions within a large enterprise.
• Strong stakeholder-management and executive communication skills.

2. Enterprise DevOps Platform Engineering

• Enterprise-scale DevOps platform architecture and engineering.
• Platform standardization, automation, governance, scalability, and reliability.
• Experience supporting large development organizations and multiple engineering teams.

3. CI/CD Architecture & Automation

• Design and implementation of enterprise CI/CD architectures.
• Pipeline automation, deployment automation, build processes, and release management.
• Experience improving software delivery speed, reliability, and governance.

4. GitHub Actions & Build Infrastructure

• Strong hands-on experience with GitHub Actions .
• Architecture and administration of GitHub Actions runners.
• Build-agent infrastructure, scalability, security, and performance optimization.
• Enterprise GitHub configuration and integration experience.

5. Azure Cloud & Identity Governance

• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure .
• Azure architecture, infrastructure, identity, security, and governance.
• Experience implementing enterprise cloud standards and controls.

Additional Technical Areas

Cloud-Native & Container Platforms

• Experience supporting cloud-native applications and container technologies.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes, container orchestration, and modern application deployment patterns preferred.

DevSecOps & Secure Software Delivery

• Integration of security practices into CI/CD pipelines.
• Secure software development lifecycle practices.
• Automated security controls, scanning, governance, and compliance.

GitHub Copilot & AI Enablement

• Experience with or understanding of GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted software development.
• Ability to evaluate AI technologies for enterprise engineering productivity and governance.

Observability & Platform Analytics

• Monitoring and observability of DevOps platforms and pipelines.
• Platform metrics, reporting, dashboards, and engineering analytics.
• Ability to identify performance and reliability improvement opportunities.

Required Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of relevant professional experience in areas such as:

  • DevOps Engineering
  • Cloud Engineering
  • Platform Engineering
  • Solution Architecture
  • CI/CD Engineering
  • Infrastructure Automation
  • Software Delivery Engineering

• Significant experience working within enterprise-level technology environments .

• Strong experience with Azure Cloud technologies .

• Strong experience designing and supporting CI/CD platforms and automation .

• Strong experience with GitHub and GitHub Actions .

• Demonstrated technical leadership across multiple teams and technology disciplines.

• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture, cloud governance, security, and software delivery.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical teams and senior leadership.

• Comfortable presenting recommendations and technical strategy to Director-level and executive stakeholders .

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with GitHub Enterprise.
• Experience architecting GitHub Actions Runner infrastructure.
• Azure identity and access-management experience.
• Infrastructure-as-Code and configuration-management experience.
• Kubernetes and container-platform experience.
• DevSecOps architecture and security automation experience.
• Enterprise observability and monitoring experience.
• Experience implementing or governing GitHub Copilot or other AI-assisted development technologies.
• Experience working within utilities, energy, highly regulated industries, or other large enterprise environments is a plus.

Location & Work Requirements

Atlanta Area Candidates

Candidates located in the Atlanta, GA area must be able to work from the corporate office as required.

The current hybrid schedule operates on approximately a 2-day/3-day office rotation , although business requirements may increase onsite expectations to approximately 4 days per week .

Candidates Outside Atlanta

Candidates located outside the Atlanta area must:

• Reside within Southern Company's operational footprint or near an approved corporate office location.
• Be willing to travel to Atlanta approximately 15% of the time .
• Be able to report to a designated corporate office when requested.

Flexibility regarding onsite work is required as business needs evolve.

Interview Process

Qualified candidates should expect a multi-stage panel interview process:

• Panel Interview 1: DevOps technical team
• Panel Interview 2: DevOps management and DSS leadership

Candidates should be prepared for both detailed technical discussions and senior-level architectural and leadership conversations.

Ideal Candidate

The strongest candidate will combine deep hands-on DevOps and cloud expertise with enterprise architecture and technical leadership experience .

This position is best suited for someone who has moved beyond simply administering DevOps tools and has experience designing enterprise platforms, establishing technical standards, leading cross-functional initiatives, and advising senior leadership on technology strategy .

Key Skills:
DevOps | Solution Architecture | Azure | GitHub | GitHub Actions | CI/CD | Platform Engineering | Cloud Engineering | DevSecOps | Kubernetes | Containers | Infrastructure Automation | Azure Identity | Cloud Governance | GitHub Copilot | Observability | Enterprise Architecture | Technical Leadership