Senior Cloud Architect

Company Overview

Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that integrate into enterprise operations and deliver measurable results for our clients. We're all in on AWS, combining deep UX capability with senior engineering talent to get AI into production fast and keep it there.

We’ve earned the trust of leaders across Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing and more, and earned a reputation as the nimble alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Founded in 2009, with delivery centers in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, we are smaller, faster, and more senior by design. Our teams average 15+ years of experience. We move fast, sweat the details, and build things that actually ship.

Position Overview

We’re looking for a Senior Cloud Architect to contribute to the design and delivery of complex, multi-domain systems spanning cloud, data, and AI. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer growing into architectural ownership — someone who enjoys hands‑on development, contributes to system design decisions, and is ready to take on larger pieces of the architecture.

In this role, you will work as a delivery‑embedded contributor on a cross‑functional team, helping shape architecture across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and AI/ML workloads. You’ll collaborate closely with senior architects, engineers, and product partners to deliver solutions that are scalable, secure, and maintainable, and develop the technical instincts that come from shipping things that matter.

Why This Role Matters

At Robots & Pencils, we design AI systems for a human world. Our name says it all. Robots and pencils means engineering paired with creativity, because every agent we ship has to work for real people in real workflows. That balance is baked into how we operate.

Every role here contributes directly to that mission. Here, you shape how AI systems integrate into enterprise operations, how teams move at real velocity, and how products create measurable impact for clients and the people they serve. We ship production‑ready AI in 30 to 45 days. That pace demands people who take ownership, lead with craft, and care deeply about what they put their name on.

What You’ll Do

Craft & Delivery

• Contribute to architectural design across cloud, data, and AI/ML systems, taking ownership of meaningful components


• Build and integrate cloud‑native solutions including microservices, serverless, and containerized workloads (e.g., AWS, Kubernetes, Docker)


• Implement infrastructure as code and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation, GitHub Actions)


• Design and contribute to data architectures including pipelines, warehouses, and modeling (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Airflow, dbt)


• Support AI/ML system design, including model serving, MLOps pipelines, and integration of LLM‑based capabilities (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, MLflow)


• Implement monitoring, logging, and observability across deployed systems (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch)


• Bring an AI‑forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude, Cursor, and other modern AI assistants to ship higher‑quality work at pace

Collaboration & Communication

• Collaborate with engineers, data, AI, and product teams to translate requirements into sound technical solutions


• Communicate technical tradeoffs and design decisions clearly across functions


• Maintain architecture documentation that supports reproducibility, onboarding, and shared understanding


• Participate actively in design reviews, raising concerns and offering constructive feedback

Leadership & Influence

• Take ownership of system components end‑to‑end with growing scope of architectural responsibility


• Contribute to architectural standards and best practices that lift the quality of work across the team


• Begin mentoring more junior engineers, sharing knowledge and supporting their growth

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with exposure to architectural decision‑making


• Working knowledge of AWS cloud platforms and cloud‑native architectures


• Proficiency in Python and at least one other language commonly used in modern stacks (e.g., Java, Scala, TypeScript)


• Hands‑on experience with containerization and orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)


• Experience with infrastructure as code and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation, GitHub Actions)


• Working knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases, plus data pipelines and ETL/ELT concepts (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Airflow, dbt)


• Familiarity with AI/ML system design, including model deployment, MLOps, and LLM integration (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, MLflow, Hugging Face)


• Understanding of microservices, serverless, and event‑driven architectures


• Awareness of security, compliance, and observability fundamentals (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2)


• Strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to navigate ambiguous technical challenges


• Demonstrable usage of AI‑forward tools such as Claude and Cursor

Helpful Extras And Unique Skills

• Working knowledge of other cloud platforms such as Azure or GCP is a plus

You’ll Do Well Here if You Are

• A doer. You see something broken and fix it. You'd rather move on clarity than wait for certainty.


• A fast learner who knows you don't know everything. The AI landscape changes weekly. You're senior enough to know better and curious enough to keep learning anyway.


• Direct in a way that makes the work better. You give honest feedback. You'd rather have the hard conversation than blow smoke.


• Obsessed with craft. You know genius is in the details. You ship exceptional, not perfect, and you don't put your name on work you wouldn't stand behind.


• Built for ownership. You honor commitments, admit mistakes fast, and back your teammates when a decision costs something. No handoffs, no finger‑pointing.


• All in. You treat clients' businesses like your own. You take the work seriously without taking yourself seriously.


• Resourceful when the budget, timeline, or team is tight. Constraints don't slow you down. They sharpen you.


• Glad to be in the room with people who care as much as you do. Our teams average fifteen-plus years of experience. We hire people who push each other to do better work.

The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue‑based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role is $110,000. - $151,000. USD per hour.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.

An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission. We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job‑related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.