Azure Cloud Solution Architect

Solution Architect

Total Experience:10 years (software development cloud/DevOps architecture)

Relevant Experience:8 years in cloud/DevSecOps; 4 years as Application/Solution Architect

Primary Cloud Platform:Microsoft Azure

Additional Platforms:AWS Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Engagement Type:Enterprise production multi-region regulated environments; pre-sales & discovery

Required Certification:

• Azure Solutions Architect Expert (must);
• DevOps Engineer Expert AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert (minimum);

ABOUT THE ROLE & ORGANISATION

Together with our client we are building an enterprise-grade Azure platform that supports critical business operations where reliability security and delivery speed directly impact outcomes.

The DevOps team owns the infrastructure lifecycle including IaC CI/CD Kubernetes observability and close collaboration with development security and operations teams.

KEY SKILLS & TECHNOLOGY STACK

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Solution Architecture & Pre-Sales

• Lead discovery client workshops proposal input estimation scope decomposition risk assessment and architecture documentation.
• Design scalable solutions across Azure-first multi-cloud microservices event-driven serverless and domain-driven architecture patterns.
• Create prototypes proofs of concept technical specifications architecture diagrams risk registers and system requirements.
• Guide implementation evaluate technology options support decision-making and transfer knowledge to engineering teams.
• Partner with customer business product security operations and engineering stakeholders throughout delivery.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead and mentor engineers and technical leads while establishing engineering standards ownership and continuous improvement practices.
• Improve developer experience through practical documentation reusable patterns and collaboration across engineering product and business teams.
• Contribute to cloud architecture practices and community knowledge sharing.

Cloud Architecture & Platform Ownership

• Own the Azure cloud and DevOps architecture roadmap standards and reusable reference patterns.
• Design Terraform-based environment-separated production-grade multi-region infrastructure.
• Architect and govern core Azure services including AKS API Management Application Gateway Front Door VNet Private Link Key Vault Service Bus and Event Hub.
• Standardize configuration environment parity cost optimization and reliability across production staging and development.

CI/CD & Delivery Engineering

• Build and improve GitLab CI/CD and Azure DevOps pipelines reusable templates runners registries and multi-environment deployments.
• Integrate security controls such as SAST secret scanning and container image scanning into delivery workflows.
• Implement auditable Kubernetes delivery using appropriate CI/CD tooling.

Kubernetes & Container Platform

• Manage AKS clusters and containerized workloads - from ingress configuration and autoscaling to service mesh adoption.
• Maintain Helm chart libraries and containers build pipelines for multi-environment application delivery.
• Investigate and remediate Kubernetes infrastructure issues; perform root-cause analysis and implement scalable long-term fixes.

Observability & Reliability

• Drive observability with Dynatrace Azure Monitor and Log Analytics including tracing dashboards SLOs alerts and error budgets.
• Lead incident management on-call triage root-cause analysis and post-incident reviews.
• Improve reliability and deployment efficiency through proactive monitoring and automated remediation.

Security & Compliance (DevSecOps)

• Embed DevSecOps controls across secrets identity RBAC network policies and cloud governance.
• Manage security posture using Entra ID Managed Identities Azure Policy Defender for Cloud NSG Private Endpoints and Key Vault.
• Support vulnerability remediation public-access findings and regulatory compliance using Qualys and related platforms.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience & Background

• 10 years of technology experience across software development cloud infrastructure DevOps and solution architecture.
• 5 years in DevOps Cloud or SRE roles including at least 2 years in a lead or architect capacity.
• Experience in application or solution architecture pre-sales proposal input estimation scope decomposition and client workshops.
• Readiness for business travel up to 4 weeks per year.

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Strong Azure experience across AKS API Management Application Gateway Front Door VNet Private Link Key Vault Service Bus Event Hub Entra ID RBAC Managed Identities Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud.
• Working knowledge of AWS and GCP for multi-cloud design and evaluation.
• Proficiency in Terraform Kubernetes on AKS Helm containers and cloud networking including subnets NSG DNS Private Endpoints and load balancing.

Software Development & Architecture

• 10 years of hands-on development using /C# Java or comparable modern stacks.
• Deep knowledge of SOA microservices event-driven CQRS serverless and domain-driven design patterns.
• Skilled in scalable system design quality attributes technical drivers design patterns and architecture documentation.

CI/CD Observability & Security

• GitLab CI/CD end-to-end: pipelines runners environments container registries and reusable pipeline templates.
• Proficiency in scripting with Bash PowerShell or Python.
• Strong troubleshooting root-cause analysis and production support skills in enterprise multi-region environments.

Soft Skills & Communication

• Strong leadership stakeholder management customer engagement and presentation skills.
• Ability to collaborate across teams without direct reporting lines.
• Upper-intermediate English or above; comfortable presenting to multidisciplinary audiences.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• FinOps experience: cloud cost optimization resource rightsizing reserved capacity planning.
• Familiarity with different CI/CD tools.
• Experience with Dynatrace or similar APM and full-stack observability platforms.
• Experience with Qualys or similar vulnerability management platforms.
• Exposure to regulated or financial services environments.
• Knowledge of service mesh technologies (Istio Linkerd).
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps pipelines (complementary to GitLab CI/CD).
• Graduate or postgraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering or equivalent.
• Experience supporting global cross-functional operational teams across multiple time zones.

CERTIFICATIONS

Required (Senior Level)

• AZ-400 -- Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert (minimum for this role)

Strongly Recommended

• AZ-305 -- Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (highly aligned with SA responsibilities)
• AZ-104 -- Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate
• CKA -- Certified Kubernetes Administrator

Advantageous

• AWS Solutions Architect Associate or Professional
• Google Professional Cloud Architect
• Dynatrace Professional Certification
• HashiCorp Terraform Associate or Professional
• GitLab Certified CI/CD Associate or Professional

Required Experience:

Staff IC