Lead Solutions Architect – Automation Architecture

Job Posting: Since 1953, Ferguson has been a source of quality supplies for a variety of industries. Together We Build Better infrastructure, better homes and better businesses. We exist to make our customers’ complex projects simple, successful, and sustainable. We proactively solve problems, adapt and grow to continuously serve our customers, communities and each other. Ferguson, a Fortune 500 company, is proud to provide best-in-class products, service and capabilities across the following industries: Commercial/Mechanical, Facilities Supply, Fire and Fabrication, HVAC, Industrial, Residential Trade, Residential Building and Remodel, Waterworks and Residential Digital Commerce. Ferguson has approximately 36,000 associates across 1,700 locations. Ferguson is a community of proud associates who operate with the shared purpose of building something meaningful. You will build a career that you are proud of, at a company you can believe in.LeadSolutions Architect – AutomationArchitectureWe are looking for an experienced and driven LeadSolutions Architect to lead the design and delivery of automation solutions across our on-premises and cloud environments. In this role, you will architect end-to-end automation frameworks, streamline operational workflows, and build the foundational tooling that enables our engineering teams to move faster with greater consistency and reliability. You will serve as a key technical leader, bridging the gap between business needs and technical execution across a hybrid enterprise landscape.Location: This role is approved to be fully remote and can be based anywhere in the United States.Duties and Responsibilities:Design, build, and maintain scalable automation solutions that span on-premises data centers and multi-cloud environments (Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, GCP).Build comprehensive automation frameworks spanning provisioning, configuration management, deployment pipelines, and operational runbooks.Develop and enforce Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) standards and practices to ensure consistent, repeatable, and auditable environment builds.Partner with platform, security, and application teams to identify manual processes and deliver automated replacements that reduce toil and risk.Lead the evaluation and adoption of automation tooling, establishing governance and best practices for their use across the organization.Design and implement CI/CD pipelines that support automated testing, deployment, and rollback capabilities across hybrid environments.Create and maintain comprehensive documentation, runbooks, and standards for all automation solutions and frameworks.Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers building and consuming automation solutions.Conduct architecture reviews and ensure automation designs meet security, compliance, and performance requirements.Collaborate with multi-functional business customers to translate business requirements into automated, scalable technical solutions.Monitor automation health, identify failure patterns, and drive continuous improvement across the automation ecosystem.Stay ahead of emerging automation technologies, tools, and industry trends to recommend and implement innovative solutions.Qualifications and Requirements:7+ years of experience in enterprise IT operations, systems engineering, or infrastructure architecture, with a strong emphasis on automation. Experience as an SRE is a plus.4+ years of hands-on experience designing and implementing automation solutions across hybrid and/or multi-cloud environments (Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, GCP, VMWare Cloud Foundation 9.0+).Deep expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation, puppet, chef for provisioning and configuration management.Strong programming and scripting skills in Python, PowerShell, Bash, or ARM templates for building automation workflows and system integrations.Proven background in crafting and managing CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.Experience with container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes, Docker) and microservices architecture in automated deployment contexts.Solid understanding of on-premises infrastructure including Windows and Linux operating systems, networking (routing, load balancers, VPNs), and security infrastructure (firewalls, IDS/IPS).Familiarity with configuration management, event-driven automation, and self-healing infrastructure patterns.Knowledge of DevOps and agile methodologies with a track record of embedding automation into software delivery lifecycles.Experience with identity and access management automation, including AD integration and role-based access control provisioning.Proficiency in cost management and optimization strategies for cloud-based automation workloads.Relevant certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, HashiCorp Terraform Associate, or similar is a plus.Bachelor's degree in C