Lead Multi-Cloud & Disaster Recovery Architect

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Contract Duration: 6 Months

Work Arrangement: Hybrid

About the Project

Our client is seeking an experienced Lead Multi-Cloud & Disaster Recovery (DR) Architect to lead the assessment and design of a comprehensive Disaster Recovery strategy for Qiddiya’s technology estate.

The project will assess and define resilience and disaster recovery capabilities across a complex technology environment, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, SaaS, on-premises infrastructure, networking, integration/API platforms, and edge/OT environments.

GCP is a particularly significant component of the production estate, comprising approximately:

• 300+ Compute Engine instances
• 12 Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters
• 54 Cloud SQL instances

The successful candidate will serve as the overall technical authority for the strategy and design workstream, translating business continuity requirements into practical, cost-effective and resilient architecture recommendations.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the technical assessment of Qiddiya’s existing technology estate across GCP, Azure, AWS, SaaS, on-premises, network, integration/API and edge/OT environments.
• Assess application criticality and validate achievable Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).
• Evaluate and recommend suitable disaster recovery options, including cloud-to-cloud and on-premises-to-cloud recovery models.
• Define the target-state multi-cloud and hybrid DR architecture, including High-Level Designs (HLDs).
• Develop the overall backup, replication and recovery strategy across infrastructure, platforms, databases and applications.
• Provide technical recommendations covering resilience, availability, data protection, data residency, security, cost and vendor lock-in considerations.
• Define the DR operating model, governance framework, roles and responsibilities, and ongoing operational requirements.
• Ensure alignment with applicable regulatory, security and data-residency requirements.
• Develop a costed implementation roadmap, technical requirements and recommendations for the subsequent DR implementation and operations RFP.
• Independently lead client-facing technical workshops with cloud, infrastructure, security, network, application and operations teams.
• Coordinate domain architects and subject-matter experts, challenge proposed solutions and drive technical decisions through to stakeholder agreement.
• Present architecture options, technical trade-offs, risks and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Required Skills & Experience

• 15+ years of experience in enterprise infrastructure, cloud architecture, technology strategy or disaster recovery.
• Strong expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), particularly enterprise-scale architecture, infrastructure resilience and disaster recovery.
• Demonstrated experience designing multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures involving GCP, Microsoft Azure and AWS.
• Deep knowledge of disaster recovery, business continuity, backup, replication, failover and recovery architecture.
• Hands-on architectural understanding of GCP services, particularly:
• Compute Engine
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
• Cloud SQL
• Cloud storage, backup and replication capabilities
• Experience assessing complex enterprise technology estates, including SaaS, on-premises infrastructure, networking, APIs and integration platforms.
• Strong understanding of application criticality assessments and the definition and validation of RTO/RPO requirements.
• Experience developing DR strategies, target-state architectures, HLDs, operating models and implementation roadmaps.
• Knowledge of enterprise networking, infrastructure security, data protection and regulatory/data-residency requirements.
• Ability to assess and compare DR solutions, clearly articulating technical, operational and financial trade-offs.
• Experience preparing technical requirements and contributing to RFPs for large-scale technology implementation and managed services.
• Strong client-facing consulting experience, including independently leading technical workshops and engaging senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to coordinate architects and technical SMEs across multiple technology domains.

Leadership & Communication Requirements

• Strong technical leadership and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Ability to operate as the overall technical authority for the architecture and strategy workstream.
• Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation and documentation skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear recommendations for business and technology stakeholders.

Ideal Candidate Profile: A senior multi-cloud and disaster recovery architect with deep GCP expertise, a strong track record in enterprise-scale resilience strategy and architecture, and the consulting leadership skills to independently drive workshops, technical decisions and stakeholder alignment.