Paul Zgondea.
Principal Cloud & Data Architect
Paul Zgondea
Cloud & Data Consultant • SRE • DBA
I architect and scale enterprise cloud data platforms, high-availability database engines, and AI-native automation pipelines with over 18 years in enterprise data architecture, 8+ years dedicated to cloud architecture & SRE, and 2+ years in enterprise AI Ops & agentic systems. Based in Brașov, Romania, I partner with engineering leaders globally for high-impact fully remote strategic consulting, fractional architecture, and mission-critical cloud cutovers. Connect directly below, explore my vetted profile on Toptal, or engage my advisory practice at Keystone Cloud.
Work Experience.
18+ years architecting, deploying, and scaling mission-critical data and cloud environments.
Principal Cloud Architect & Co-Founder
- Co-founded enterprise advisory practice delivering multi-cloud infrastructure and day-one precision architecture.
- Architecting zero-downtime database cutovers, resilient high-availability topologies, and FinOps cloud cost recovery.
Cloud Architecture Consultant / SRE
- Architected and built end-to-end AWS production infrastructure from scratch, sustaining 99.99% service availability.
- Direct SRE ownership: VPC routing, Route53, ALB, ElastiCache, Active Directory, and mission-critical MS SQL Server clusters.
Cloud Architecture Consultant
- Architected high-scalability Azure API backend with SQL failover redundancy and enterprise security hardening.
- Engineered high-availability MongoDB Atlas NoSQL, containerization, and modern Azure AI capabilities.
Senior Data Architect
- Architected and deployed rapid GCP-to-Salesforce data pipeline to successfully decommission legacy CRM on an accelerated timeline.
- Engineered automated BigQuery pipelines with Dataform CDC models, serverless Cloud Run functions, and Salesforce Data Cloud.
Cloud and Data Consultant
- Architected distributed agent application ingesting financial data across thousands of client locations into centralized data warehouse.
- Engineered high-throughput processing workflows leveraging C#, PowerShell, SQL, AI technologies, and AWS.
DBA / Cloud Architect
- Designed and maintained enterprise Azure cloud infrastructure and high-throughput Snowflake data warehouse.
- Integrated Collibra enterprise data lineage, Azure Key Vaults, ADLS, and orchestrated complex ADF / Logic Apps pipelines.
DBA / Cloud Consultant
- AWS FinOps cost optimization, automated compute/storage right-sizing, and deep database performance tuning.
Cloud Architecture Consultant
- Consulted on product infrastructure and migration of large-scale AWS infrastructure to Switch data center facilities.
Team Lead and Senior DBA
- Led a specialized team of 6 database engineers across enterprise production environments; high-availability clustering and query optimization.
Credentials & Certifications.
Industry-standard certifications across Microsoft Enterprise Data, Amazon Web Services, and Snowflake.
Microsoft® Certified Solutions Expert: Data Platform
Microsoft Corporation • Enterprise Data Platform
Microsoft® Certified Solutions Expert: Data Management & Analytics
Microsoft Corporation • Analytics Architecture
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate
Amazon Web Services • Cloud Architecture
SnowPro® Core Certification
Snowflake Inc. • Cloud Data Platform
SnowPro® Advanced Data Engineer
Snowflake Inc. • Advanced Data Engineering
Toptal Vetted Cloud & Data Architect
Toptal Global Network • Verified Freelance Talent
Looking for Full-Scale Enterprise Cloud Architecture?
Explore Keystone Cloud Architects to see our methodology, multi-cloud solutions, and enterprise advisory offerings.
Ready to Architect Without Compromise?
I bring over 18 years of battle-tested enterprise data architecture, 8+ years dedicated to cloud platforms & SRE, and 2+ years in enterprise AI Ops. Based in Brașov, Romania, I partner with engineering leadership globally for fully remote strategic consulting, architecture reviews, and high-impact contractor engagements.