Senior Cloud Architect

Job Title: Senior Cloud Architect
Location: Bangalore

About Unilever:
Be part of the world’s most successful, purpose-led business. Work with brands that are well loved around the world and that improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We promote innovation, both big and small, to help our business grow and succeed, and we believe in business as a force for good.

Unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas, and disrupt processes. Use your energy to help make this happen. Our business leaders and colleagues provide mentorship and inspiration so you can be at your best.

Every day, nine out of ten Indian households use our products to feel good, look good, and get more out of life, giving us a unique opportunity to build a brighter future.

At Unilever, individuals are encouraged to bring their purpose to life through their work. Join us and you’ll be surrounded by inspiring leaders and supportive peers. Among them, you’ll channel your purpose, bring fresh ideas to the table, and simply be yourself. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you.

Business Context and Main Purpose of the Role:
Cloud is a critical enabler of Unilever’s digital future. It not only changes how we store and access data but will also fundamentally improve how our business operates. Cloud enables innovation and delivery at cost-effective scale and pace, removing barriers and providing the foundation for digital business transformation.

The Cloud Platform Services (CPS) team, part of the Global Digital & Technology function, has a vision to accelerate cloud adoption and drive a future-fit model for innovation and growth across Unilever.

The goal of the Senior Cloud Architect is to support CPS customers in transforming business problems into effective cloud architecture solutions. You will assist engagement teams and delivery teams by analyzing business requirements and ensuring alignment with enterprise technology architecture while delivering high-quality solutions and communicating progress to customer engagement teams.

You will demonstrate in-depth technical capabilities and professional knowledge. The Senior Cloud Architect works as a leading subject matter expert, focusing on the optimization of enterprise cloud platforms for manageability, scalability, security, reliability, and cost efficiency. The role works closely with Product Managers and engineering teams to define and evolve cloud products and services.

The architect is also responsible for identifying industry best practices while providing technical expertise and leadership during the design, build, and maintenance of PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS cloud product services. The role also supports modern engineering practices such as DevOps automation, infrastructure-as-code, platform engineering approaches, intelligent automation, and emerging agentic capabilities that improve engineering productivity and operational efficiency.

Finally, this individual should be committed to mentoring colleagues and sharing knowledge on emerging cloud technologies within the wider technical community.

Main Accountabilities:
You will work alongside the CPS Product team to identify and implement optimal cloud-based solutions for our customers.

• Advise customers on leading cloud technologies and architectural approaches that enhance applications and user experiences.
• Develop and coordinate cloud architecture artefacts across diverse areas including application development, identity and access management, networking, data management, and security aligned to industry best practices.
• Deliver architecture solutions through all phases of the product lifecycle, including requirements definition, architecture design, implementation, and testing using proven agile methodologies.
• Provide comprehensive designs and technical guidance for engineers on how to deliver programmatic elements of the implementation as part of defined product services.
• Architect cloud-native, hybrid, or multi-cloud solutions to meet customer needs.
• Contribute to the evolution of reusable cloud platforms and shared capabilities that enable engineering teams to build, deploy, and operate services consistently across the organisation.
• Support engineering teams in adopting cloud-native practices including DevOps workflows, CI/CD automation, and scalable deployment models.
• Create and own technical content and lead workshops on technical topics with customers.
• Engage with technical stakeholders within customer teams and third parties to understand how their systems work and highlight where efficiencies or cloud-native services could improve their environment.
• Coordinate with various departments and roles to ensure that all changes align with the overall direction of the CPS team from functional, technical, and support perspectives.
• Provide technical expertise to troubleshoot complex problems and design scalable solutions.
• Assist teams in solving complex technical challenges and build automation to eliminate repetitive operational tasks.
• Document developed processes, procedures, and architectural decisions.
• Demonstrate understanding of the current technology environment and industry trends.
• Ensure architecture decisions align with defined GDT and CPS strategies, identifying and communicating any deviations from standards.
• Stay abreast of industry trends by researching current and emerging technologies and proposing where they may benefit Unilever and CPS customers.
• Explore opportunities to leverage AI-assisted engineering tools, AI-driven automation, and agent-based capabilities to improve development productivity and operational efficiency.
• Provide mentorship and coaching to technical team members.

Key Skills and Relevant Experience Skills and Experience:

• 5+ years of experience architecting, designing, developing, and implementing cloud solutions on GCP or equivalent cloud platforms.
• Deep understanding of cloud computing technologies and systems, with experience designing and migrating applications to the cloud.
• Experience with cloud-native technologies including the design and automation of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployments using deployment strategies such as blue-green.
• Experience designing Platform as a Service (PaaS) capabilities to improve new or existing environments.
• Skilled in creating and reviewing designs based on code that deploys virtual networks, virtual machines, cloud services, container services, operating system services, web services, and data services.
• Previous ownership of the technical solution architecture.
• Product or project experience architecting, implementing, and optimising core infrastructure, networking, and cloud-based services for business teams or consumers.
• Experience implementing DevOps and Agile practices including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and automated deployment patterns.
• Experience configuring and tuning cloud-hosted solutions and platforms.
• Experience with microservices, serverless functions, event-driven architectures, or other cloud-native design patterns.
• Experience mentoring development teams in adopting new technologies associated with evolving architectures.
• Strong analytical, prioritisation, interpersonal, problem-solving, presentation, budgeting, project management (from conception to completion), and planning skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including analysis, interpretation, and reasoning.
• Strong communication skills and ability to translate complex technical topics for senior stakeholders.
• Excellent knowledge of cloud computing technologies and current computing trends.
• Understanding of and experience with well-architected frameworks.
• Proven ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of Product Managers, Architects, Scrum Masters, and Subject Matter Experts.

Minimum qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• One Cloud Architect certification in GCP or equivalent cloud platforms.
• One or more Associate-level cloud certifications in GCP and/or equivalent cloud platforms.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS

• CARE DEEPLY: We care about how consumers experience our brands, the growth and development of our people, and their impact on the planet. We emphasize the importance of performance and care, moving from ambiguity about success to fairness and transparency. 

• FOCUS ON WHAT COUNTS: We prioritize what truly matters, setting clear and stretching goals. We aim to shift from having everything as a priority to focusing on fewer, bigger things that are delivered to conclusion and are being rewarded. 

• STAY THREE STEPS AHEAD: We encourage bold and creative thinking to make breakthroughs in performance. We focus on anticipating and staying ahead of consumer needs and external trends, shifting from reacting to leading, shaping, and disrupting the market. 

• DELIVER WITH EXCELLENCE: The emphasis is on delivering everything with excellence and pace, taking personal ownership, and holding each other accountable. We aim to shift from pride in thinking to pride in execution, developing breakthrough solutions and ensuring the best outcomes. 

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion 

• Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life! This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.