Senior Enterprise Architect - AWS, Istio, Containerization, Service Mesh

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

We are seeking a seasoned Enterprise Architect with deep expertise in AWS, Istio, and containerization technologies to lead the design and implementation of our cloud-native architecture. This role requires a problem solver who can lead the transformation of enterprise applications into scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient cloud solutions. The ideal candidate will have strong technical expertise in microservices, container orchestration, service mesh (Istio), and AWS cloud services, as well as experience leading large-scale architectural initiatives.

Cloud Architecture & AWS Expertise:

• Design, implement, and manage cloud architectures leveraging AWS services such as EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, and more.

• Develop and maintain AWS infrastructure best practices, including security, performance optimization, and cost efficiency.

• Ensure alignment with cloud governance, monitoring, and compliance frameworks.

Istio &ServiceMesh:

• Lead the implementation and optimization of service mesh architectures using Istio.

• Manage traffic routing, observability, security, and resiliency across microservices in distributed systems.

• Collaborate with development teams to integrate Istio with Kubernetes clusters for effective service discovery and policy management.

• Architect scalable and resilient containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes.

• Optimize container orchestration strategies to improve application performance and reliability.

• Oversee the deployment, scaling, and monitoring of containerized workloads in cloud environments.

• Define and communicate the enterprise architecture vision and roadmap in alignment with business objectives.

• Drive the integration of cloud-native solutions with legacy systems, ensuring seamless interoperability.

• Lead efforts to modernize infrastructure, focusing on decoupling monolithic systems into containerized microservices.

• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations, including data privacy, security, and operational resilience.

• Establish IAM (Identity and Access Management) policies and multi-factor authentication strategies within cloud environments.

• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including DevOps, development, and IT operations, to deliver cohesive and innovative solutions.

• Mentor and guide engineering teams on best practices for cloud-native architectures and service mesh technologies.

• Proven experience as an Enterprise Architect with deep expertise in AWS (Amazon Web Services).

• Hands-on experience with Istio and managing service mesh architectures in production environments.

• Strong knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and container orchestration.

• Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform, CloudFormation.

• Experience in designing and securing microservices architectures.

• Solid understanding of networking, security, and observability in distributed systems.

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to manage complex cloud and infrastructure challenges.

• AWS certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect).

• Experience with additional service mesh tools (e.g., Linkerd, Consul).

• Familiarity with other cloud platforms like GCP or Azure.

• Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger) in service mesh environments.

#LI-ZARD

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

How to apply: apply online

Full-time Regular Positions(FT classification, standard working hours = 40)

This is a full-time, regular position that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

The University is an equal opportunity employer.All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.