Azure Solutions Architect

Job Title: Azure Solutions Architect - PART TIME (20 Hours/Week)


Job Location: Pierre, SD (100% REMOTE)


Duration: 12 Months Contract with possibility to Extension

Job Description:


Scope / Background :
Client is developing a publicly accessible, cloud-based Rural Health Data Atlas to address health data currently siloed across multiple systems. The platform will consolidate health data from South Dakota health agencies and public sources into a centralized environment with maps, charts, tables, and point-and-click analysis. It is intended to be a state-owned Microsoft Azure tenant cloud-based data visualization and distribution platform supporting advanced visualization, RBAC, real-time ingestion, and accessibility.


Project Overview:
Design, develop, implement, and support a self-service health data visualization/analysis platform. Major capabilities include multi-source data ingestion, public/restricted datasets, RBAC, SSO, interactive dashboards and geospatial maps, statistical analysis, search/discovery, sharing/embedding, collaborative workspaces, training/support, accessibility, and system sustainability.


Type of Project:

IT solution development / implementation - cloud-based Health Data Analytics, Data Integration, Data Visualization and Geospatial Analysis Platform. The project includes application/platform implementation, data integration, visualization, analytics, security, accessibility, training, testing, deployment, and ongoing support.


Job Summary:


Own the Year 1 solution and Azure architecture for a State-owned Rural Health Data Atlas, translating business, data, security and operational requirements into an implementable Azure PaaS design that supports the MVP and a sustainable five-year foundation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define logical, physical, deployment, data, integration and operational architecture for the State-owned Azure environment.
• Design environment structure, network/security boundaries, configuration portability and promotion pathways.
• Define layered/medallion data architecture and reusable ingestion/curation patterns.
• Design State SSO/OIDC, RBAC and State API Management integration patterns with the Security Lead.
• Define observability, logging, monitoring, backup, recovery, resiliency, scalability and performance patterns.
• Produce system, solution, data-flow, deployment and integration diagrams and architecture decisions.
• Coordinate Azure tenant, APIM, identity and environment dependencies with BIT.
• Guide developers/data engineers on implementation standards and review technical work products.
• Support technical readiness, performance, UAT and go-live reviews.
• Document architecture, configuration and transition information for State operations.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of solution/cloud architecture experience, including 4+ years with Microsoft Azure.
• Hands-on experience designing Azure PaaS architectures for secure enterprise or public-sector applications.
• Strong data-platform architecture experience, including data lakes/lakehouses, relational stores, ETL/ELT and API integration.
• Experience with OAuth/OIDC, RBAC, APIM, CI/CD, monitoring, backup/recovery and environment configuration.
• Ability to create clear logical/physical/data/security/integration diagrams and architecture decision records.
• Experience guiding delivery teams through architecture implementation and production readiness.
• U.S.-based and willing to support South Dakota onsite architecture sessions as needed.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• State/local government or healthcare data-platform architecture experience.
• Experience with Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Fabric, Databricks, Azure SQL, Storage/Data Lake, Key Vault, Monitor/Application Insights or comparable Azure services.
• Experience designing for Power BI, Esri, Tableau and standards-based APIs.
• Experience with Azure DevOps and infrastructure/configuration automation.