Azure Colocation Solutions Architect

Job Description

Job Description

J ob Title :  Azure Colocation Solutions Architect

Location : Onsite in Buffalo, NY required

Hire Type :  Contingent / W2 only

Pay Rate : $75/HR (DOE)

Work Model :  Hybrid Schedule (1 Day WFH, 4 Days Onsite)
Sponsorship: No H-1B, 1099, TN Sponsorship available for this position 

Recruiter:  Amanda Neudeck  I View email address on ziprecruiter.com

Nature & Scope:
Positional Overview

We are seeking a visionary Solutions Architect to help lead the design of resilient, scalable, and operationally supportable infrastructure solutions spanning data centers, colocation environments, and Azure, with a primary emphasis on data center architecture rigor (availability, resiliency tiers, capacity planning, disaster recovery, lifecycle, and operational readiness).  This position requires a deep understanding of banking compliance and U.S. Federal regulations, as well as expertise in designing and implementing cloud solutions that align with the bank's operational and security standards.

Role & Responsibility:

Tasks That Will Lead  To Your Success

• Solution Design: Translate business and technical requirements into end-to-end solution architectures across enterprise data centers, colocation environments, and Microsoft Azure.
• Data Center & Colocation Architecture: Define hosting patterns, fault domains, redundancy assumptions, and DR posture aligned to RTO/RPO expectations.
• Azure Platform Foundation Alignment: Ensure designs align to core Azure landing zone design areas (identity and access, resource organization, network topology and connectivity, security, governance, and operations).
• Connectivity, Network & Segmentation: Define secure connectivity and segmentation patterns between Azure and colo/data center environments in partnership with network teams.
• Operational Readiness: Architect for supportability with monitoring/telemetry expectations, runbooks, ownership models, maintenance windows, and lifecycle plans.
• Standards & Governance: Develop reusable reference architectures and patterns; review solutions through architecture governance checkpoints for standards and compliance alignment.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Communicate architecture decisions clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders and guide delivery teams through execution.

Skills that will  Lead  To   Your S uccess

• Enterprise solution architecture experience with data center and colocation hosting models.
• Strong architectural knowledge of availability, resiliency, disaster recovery, and operational readiness patterns.
• Azure platform architecture fundamentals, including identity and access, network topology, governance guardrails, and operations management concepts.
• Strong documentation and visualization skills (architecture diagrams, dependency maps, data flows, and decision records).
• Leadership and collaboration skills in Agile/DevOps environments; ability to guide delivery without becoming an implementation bottleneck.
• Analytical problem-solving for complex infrastructure constraints (performance, latency, reliability, and cost).
• Data Center / Colocation: Redundancy concepts, fault domains, hosting models, capacity planning considerations, and operational support practices.
• Disaster Recovery: Failover/failback concepts, recovery objectives, testing expectations, and resiliency trade-offs.
• Azure Landing Zone Concepts: Identity and access as a primary security boundary; subscription and resource organization impacts; network topology and connectivity foundations; security, governance, and operational management baselines.
• Monitoring Foundations: Understanding of telemetry (logs, metrics, traces, events) required to support early detection and effective incident response.

Education And Experience Required:

• Education: Bachelor’s/Master’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience: 5+ years in solution architecture, infrastructure architecture, or platform engineering roles with demonstrated data center/colo responsibilities.
• Preferred Certifications: Azure Solutions Architect (or equivalent Azure architecture credential).
• Preferred: Experience in financial services or other regulated environments with strong operational rigor and compliance awareness.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.

Preferred Qualifications  

• Solution Designs: Documented target-state architectures for Azure and colo/data center deployments, including resiliency and operational models.
• Reference Architectures & Patterns: Reusable patterns for common workload types and hosting approaches in Azure and colo/data center environments.
• Connectivity & Segmentation Designs: Standard approaches for secure connectivity, routing, and segmentation between environments.
• Operational Readiness Package: Monitoring approach, runbooks, ownership model, lifecycle/patching approach, and DR posture aligned to architecture decisions.
• Decision Records & Documentation: Architecture decisions, trade-offs, dependency maps, and implementation guidance for delivery teams.