Infrastructure Cloud Architect (Chicago)

Job Title: Infrastructure Cloud Architect

Primary Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid – 3 days onsite / 2 days remote)

Position Type: Full-Time, Direct Hire

Must Be Citizen or Green Card

OVERVIEW:

An Infrastructure Cloud Architect. This is a full-time, direct hire role in Chicago, IL, working a hybrid schedule of three days onsite and two days remote. This senior, hands-on technical leadership role exists to guide our client's Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation as they exit legacy data centers and expand their Azure footprint. This is an infrastructure-focused position — not application architecture or DevOps — spanning Azure, traditional enterprise infrastructure, networking, security, compute, storage, virtualization, resiliency, and governance. You'll set architectural direction while staying hands-on enough to design, build, troubleshoot, and support the infrastructure yourself.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE ROLE. (IDEAL EXPERIENCE)

10+ years of progressive experience across enterprise infrastructure, engineering, or architecture, with a strong foundation in traditional on-premises infrastructure that has evolved into Azure and hybrid cloud

Deep, hands-on Microsoft Azure infrastructure experience, including significant Azure/on-premises hybrid-cloud work

Strong Azure networking expertise: VNets, routing, DNS, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, firewalls, load balancing, and segmentation

Solid understanding of networking and security dependencies across a complex hybrid environment

Experience with compute, servers, virtualization (VMware, Azure VMware Solution), and storage architecture

Working knowledge of identity, RBAC, security controls, and cloud governance

Infrastructure as Code experience

Proven infrastructure resiliency, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills in large-scale, complex environments (scale and complexity matter more than industry)

Ability to build architecture diagrams, standards, and patterns and clearly explain technical decisions to leadership

A true hands-on track record — you can say I designed it, I built it, I configured it, I supported it, I troubleshot it.” Candidates whose experience is primarily coordinating migrations, managing implementation partners, or reviewing others' work are unlikely to be a fit

Either a senior Infrastructure/Cloud Engineer ready to step into architecture, or a current Architect who has stayed close to the technology

WHAT YOU'LL DO. (SKILLS USED IN THIS POSITION)

Provide architectural direction and technical leadership for an Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation, including the exit of legacy primary data centers

Help transition workloads to new colocation facilities located closer to Azure regions

Leverage Azure VMware Solution (AVS) during the transition while gradually reducing VMware dependency

Move additional workloads toward Azure IaaS

Establish infrastructure standards, patterns, and governance for the future hybrid environment

Personally design, build, configure, and support infrastructure across networking, security, compute, storage, and virtualization — roughly 60% architecture/strategy and 40% hands-on implementation and operational support in Year 1

Serve as a senior technical escalation point, joining critical incidents to quickly assess what changed, identify dependencies, determine where to start, and drive the technical investigation

Develop and maintain architecture diagrams and documentation, and communicate technical decisions to leadership

Participate in the on-call rotation (primary or secondary roughly every 6–7 weeks) for after-hours emergencies