Azure Architect

Azure Architect

Location: Remote Duration: Long Term

Job Descriptions and Justification

We’re designing a modern cloud platform template using Microsoft Azure to accelerate product delivery, reduce risk, and improve reliability. You’ll lead architecture for Azure landing zones, core platforms, and reference patterns enabling product teams to ship secure, resilient solutions at speed.

What you’ll do:

• Strategy & Reference Architecture
  • Define and socialize Azure reference architectures aligned to CAF and Well-Architected Framework (networking, identity, data, app, SecOps).
  • Translate business capabilities into cloud services & patterns (APIs, events, data, containers, serverless).
• Landing Zones & Governance
  • Design/iterate Enterprise-Scale Landing Zones (hierarchy, subscriptions, policy, RBAC, PIM, tagging, budgets).
  • Implement policy-as-code (Azure Policy), guardrails, blueprints, and automated compliance baselines (HIPAA/HITRUST/SOC2 as relevant).
• Platform Engineering & DevSecOps
  • Partner with Platform/Engineering to deliver golden paths and reusable modules (Terraform/Bicep, GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps).
  • Enable multi-stage CI/CD, secrets via Key Vault, artifacts via ACR, and environment promotion with approvals.
• Application & Integration Architecture
  • Guide product teams on AKS, App Service, Functions, Logic Apps, APIM, Event Grid/Event Hubs/Service Bus, Front Door/App Gateway/WAF.
  • Establish API/event standards, versioning, and schema governance; promote event-driven and zero-trust patterns.
• Data & Analytics
  • Advise on Databricks, Synapse/Microsoft Fabric, Data Factory, Purview (catalog/lineage), Cosmos DB, SQL MI, and secure data zones.
• Security, Resiliency & Observability
  • Embed Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, Conditional Access, private endpoints/Private Link, and network isolation patterns.
  • Design for HA/DR (Availability Zones, paired regions, ASR/Backup, RTO/RPO); mature Azure Monitor/Log Analytics/App Insights dashboards and SLOs.
• FinOps & Performance
  • Implement tagging/chargeback, rightsizing, reservation planning, autoscale & performance testing; drive unit economics and cost KPIs.
• SAFe Enablement & Coaching
  • Provide runway views before PI Planning; decompose enabler epics/features; mentor architects/engineers; run architecture clinics/guilds.

What you’ve done:

10+ years in architecture/engineering with 6+ years hands-on Azure in large enterprises. Delivered enterprise landing zones, network/identity baselines, and automated guardrails at scale. Production experience with AKS (or App Service), APIM, Functions/Logic Apps, Event Grid/Hubs/Service Bus, Key Vault, Front Door/App Gateway/WAF, Cosmos/SQL, Storage, private networking. Built secure CI/CD with Terraform/Bicep, GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps, and policy gates; strong IaC code review discipline. Proven security & compliance grounding (Zero Trust, MFA/PIM/CAP, Defender, Sentinel; HIPAA/HITRUST/SOC2/PCI as applicable). Designed for resiliency (zones/regions), performance, and cost; fluent with WAF pillars. Comfortable operating in SAFe and a product operating model; coaching teams and influencing execs.

Nice to have:

Microsoft certifications (e.g., AZ-305, AZ-400, AZ-500, DP-203, SC-100). Containers/mesh (e.g., AKS, Dapr, service mesh), API design at scale, event modeling. Regulated industry experience (healthcare/finance). Observability expertise (OpenTelemetry, SLO error budgets). BizzDesign experience.

Success looks like (first 6-12 months): Enterprise landing zones live with automated guardrails; 90% resource deployments via IaC. Reference architectures & golden paths adopted by 70% of product teams. Mean time to first deploy on new products down 30%; critical incidents tied to cloud misconfigurations reduced 50%. Cost per tenant/workload visibility with monthly variance 10% vs budget; top 5 cost drivers optimized.

Responsibilities (day to day): Author ADRs and solution blueprints; run design reviews and threat modeling. Pair with engineers to codify patterns as reusable modules/templates. Create executive and engineering views (runway, dependencies, risks, trade-offs). Partner with Security/Networking/Data to standardize interfaces and controls. Track and report platform KPIs (reliability, performance, cost, risk).