Job Description

Job Description and Duties

Under the administrative direction of the Division Chief (CEA), the Cloud Architect, Information Technology Specialist (ITS) III, is responsible for performing activities at the highest level in support of discovering, assessing, architecting, and delivering the most complex enterprise solutions. Assignments require an advanced level of organizational understanding to bridge the strategic intent and practical technical application. In addition, advise leadership on formulating IT strategy, policy, and governance for Caltrans's current and emerging Cloud technology portfolio.

The incumbent acts as a technical lead and solution architect, responsible for defining, designing, developing, documenting, coordinating, and integrating the products managed within the Division, implementing IT solutions to meet enterprise business objectives. The incumbent possesses a wide and deep practical technical knowledge base, which includes emerging “cutting-edge” technologies. The incumbent is recognized as a subject matter expert in their area of specialization, exhibits a mastery level of team leadership qualities and directs the most critical/complex projects.

The incumbent also performs duties related to the architecture, development, integration, operation, and maintenance of infrastructure and software systems including user research, user-centric design, development or configuration, testing, and implementation.

You will find additional information about the job in the .

Working Conditions

The incumbent may be required to work for extended periods of time in a computer room. This position may be eligible for telework. The amount of telework is at the discretion of the Department and based on Caltrans’s current telework policy. While Caltrans supports telework, in-person attendance may be required based on operational needs. Employees are expected to be able to report to their worksite with minimal notification if an urgent need arises, as determined by the Department. The selected candidate may be required to travel to the headquartered location. All expenses to travel to the headquartered location will be the responsibility of the selected candidate. The incumbent may be required to travel to other Caltrans offices to support and provide expertise for IT operations.

The incumbent may work after regular business hours and/or weekends to perform activities to support business operations and/or systems maintenance. If the incumbent has a Class C driver's license and utilizes their personal vehicle, they may be reimbursed for travel expenses. The incumbent must carry a cell phone and respond to calls after hours to lead multi-disciplinary IT professional team(s) in organizing, analyzing, troubleshooting and resolving IT system problems.

Special Requirements

Pursuant to California Code of Regulations § 549.90, this position will be filled via the California Department of Transportation Managerial Selection Program (MSP) process. 

This process provides for examination and job-selection specific to each position and consistent with the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the classification.
Please read the entire job posting before applying for this position.

This is an Open Examination. 

All applicants must meet the minimum qualifications by the final filing date to participate in the examination.

Minimum Qualifications:

One year of experience as an Information Technology Specialist II; or

Six years of information technology experience, two years of which shall include performance of highly specialized work in a lead or expert capacity on highly complex or specialized information technology systems or services in one or more of the major six domains or a closely related or emerging information technology field.

A master's or doctorate degree from an accredited college or university may substitute for four years of the required general information technology experience. A bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university may substitute for three years of the required general information technology experience. An associate's degree from an accredited college may substitute for one year of the required general information technology experience. Only one degree may be used for substitution.

When using education to meet minimum qualifications, education must include 15 semester units (or 22.5 quarter units) of information technology or closely related course work.

Examination Information:

This examination will utilize an evaluation of each candidate’s experience and education (E&E) compared to a standard developed from the class specification. For this reason, it is especially important that each candidate take special care in accurately and completely filling out his or her State application (STD. 678).  List all experience relevant to the “Minimum Qualifications” that are listed in the Class Specifications above. 

This process provides for examination and job-selection specific to each position and consistent with the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the classification.  All applicants must meet the minimum requirement for this examination by the final filing date.

This examination will not establish a civil service list; therefore, candidates will not have the ability to transfer their eligibility to other departments. Candidates will be notified in writing of their examination results .

Note: If using Out of Class (OOC) experience , you must submit a copy of your signed and approved Out of Class documentation. Failure to do so may result in your Out of Class experience not being considered during the evaluation process of this examination.

Education: If using your college education to meet the minimum qualifications, college transcripts must be submitted with your application and SOQ. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted for entrance into the examination, however, official transcripts may be required prior to appointment.

Desirable Qualifications

In addition to evaluating each candidate's relative ability, as demonstrated by quality and breadth of experience, the following factors will provide the basis for competitively evaluating each candidate:

Highly Desirable Qualifications

• Extensive experience in cloud infrastructure architecture Proven ability to design, implement, and manage secure, scalable, and resilient cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

•Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) Hands-on experience with tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or Pulumi to automate cloud deployments.

• Strong understanding of cloud security and governance Familiarity with IAM, encryption, and secure design principles.

•Proficiency in designing and managing cloud-based data pipelines Experience with tools such as Apache Airflow, AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory, or equivalent.

• Mastery of system development lifecycle (SDLC) and DevSecOps practices Demonstrated ability to lead projects through planning, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance phases.

• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for executive leadership and cross-functional teams.

• Experience with cloud-native container orchestration Proficiency in Kubernetes, Docker, or similar platforms for managing distributed workloads.

•Leadership in cross-functional technical teams Proven track record of guiding diverse teams through architecture decisions, risk assessments, and strategic planning.

Desirable Qualifications

•Experience with cloud cost optimization and financial modeling Ability to design cost-efficient architectures and forecast cloud spend across programs.

•Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks Experience with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar tools.

• Experience with monitoring and observability tools Familiarity with Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, or equivalent.

• Advanced scripting and automation skills Proficiency in Python, Bash, or PowerShell for infrastructure automation and tooling.

•Cloud certifications from major providers Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect.

Benefits

Statement of Qualifications

A Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) is required and must be submitted along with your State application. The SOQ is a discussion of how an applicant’s education and experience meet the evaluation criteria below and qualify them for the position.

Responses to the SOQ must be submitted on the Department of Transportation's MSP Statement of Qualifications Form (PM-0504). Any SOQ responses that are not submitted on the PM-0504 will not be scored. Each box provided for your response has been limited to 2000 characters.

Each question will be scored individually, therefore, candidates must provide detailed and specific examples , from their professional experience, education, and training, that directly answer each of the SOQ questions. The SOQ will be utilized as screening criteria for the hiring interview only and will not be used for the purposes of examination. Additional documents to supplement the PM-0504 will not be reviewed during the SOQ scoring. To learn about the Statement of Qualifications form (PM-0504) and screening process, click here: 
The PM-0504 SOQ Form can be found in the Required Application Package Documents section of this advertisement. If you have difficulty opening the form, please try using Mozilla Firefox. Please make sure the number of SOQs on the Form are the same as the number of SOQs below.

The Statement of Qualifications must address the applicant’s qualifications relative to the following:

1. Describe your Information Technology (IT) education and experience (place of work, duration, position title) that have prepared you for this position.

2. How have you architected and managed scalable, secure cloud environments in your previous roles? Provide examples of specific cloud platforms and tools you've used.

3. Describe your experience leading cloud migration projects. What were the key challenges you faced, and how did you ensure minimal disruption during the migration?

Required Application Package Documents

The following items are required to be submitted with your application. Applicants who do not submit the required items timely may not be considered for this job:

• Current version of the State Examination/Employment Application STD Form 678 (when not applying electronically), or the Electronic State Employment Application through your Applicant Account at All Experience and Education relating to the Minimum Qualifications listed on the Classification Specification should be included to demonstrate how you meet the Minimum Qualifications for the position.
• Resume is optional. It may be included, but is not required.
• Statement of Qualifications -

  Candidates must provide detailed and specific examples from their professional education, experience, and training that directly answer each of the SOQ questions. Each question will be scored individually, therefore, candidates must provide specific examples to each question. Responses to the Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) must be submitted on the Department of Transportation's MSP Statement of Qualifications Form (PM-0504).

  Submit your competed PM-0504 in the “Additional Documents” section. Select “Other” from the drop-down menu for Type of Document and enter SOQ for the Description. Upload your completed PM-0504, then Save & Review Application.

  - 25MSP101 PM-0504

Job Tags

Remote work, Weekend work,

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