We are looking for an experienced Azure Cloud Architect with around 10 years of experience in designing, implementing, and managing scalable, secure, highly available, and cost-effective cloud solutions on Microsoft Azure.
The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in Azure architecture, cloud infrastructure, networking, security, migration, DevOps, and governance. The candidate will work closely with engineering, infrastructure, security, and business teams to define cloud strategies and deliver enterprise-grade Azure solutions.
Key Responsibilities
Azure Cloud Architecture
- Design and implement enterprise-scale Azure cloud architectures aligned with business and technical requirements.
- Define cloud architecture standards, reference architectures, and best practices.
- Design highly available, scalable, resilient, and cost-optimized Azure environments.
- Evaluate existing infrastructure and recommend appropriate Azure cloud solutions.
- Prepare architecture diagrams, technical designs, solution blueprints, and documentation.
Azure Infrastructure
Strong hands-on experience with core Azure services including:
- Azure Virtual Machines
- Azure App Services
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Azure Storage
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Functions
- Azure Key Vault
- Azure Monitor
- Azure Load Balancer / Application Gateway
- Azure Virtual Network
- Design and manage hub-and-spoke / enterprise network architectures.
- Implement VNets, subnets, NSGs, route tables, private endpoints, VPN, and ExpressRoute.
Cloud Migration & Modernization
- Lead migration of on-premises applications and infrastructure to Azure.
- Define migration strategies such as Rehost, Re platform, Refactor, and Modernize.
- Assess workloads for cloud readiness, dependencies, performance, and security.
- Develop migration plans, architecture, and execution roadmaps.
- Support application modernization using Azure PaaS and cloud-native services.
- Plan and execute large-scale data migration to Azure using services such as Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), Azure Data Factory (ADF), and Azure Migrate, ensuring data integrity, minimal downtime, and secure cutover.
Security & Governance
- Design secure Azure architectures following Cloud Adoption Framework and Well-Architected Framework principles.
- Implement Azure security controls, identity management, network security, and data protection.
- Strong understanding of Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), RBAC, Managed Identity, Key Vault, Defender for Cloud, and Azure Policy.
- Define security baselines and governance standards.
- Implement appropriate compliance, auditing, monitoring, and logging mechanisms.
DevOps & Infrastructure Automation
- Define and implement CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions.
- Strong understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and/or ARM/Bicep.
- Automate cloud infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
- Implement deployment strategies such as Blue-Green, Canary, and Rolling deployments.
- Promote DevSecOps and automation best practices.
Data Migration & Data Streaming
- Design and set up end-to-end data migration pipelines to Azure using Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Migrate for databases, files, and application data.
- Design and implement real-time data streaming architectures using Azure Event Hubs, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Bus, and Kafka on Azure (HDInsight / Confluent Cloud).
- Build and manage ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming workloads, ensuring scalability, low latency, and fault tolerance.
- Define data governance, security, and monitoring practices for migrated and streamed data.
Monitoring, Reliability & Cost Optimization
- Design monitoring and observability solutions using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, and related tools.
- Define disaster recovery, backup, and business continuity strategies.
- Perform capacity planning and performance optimization.
- Identify opportunities for Azure cost optimization and resource utilization improvements.
- Establish cloud operational and reliability best practices.
Technical Leadership
- Lead technical discussions with architects, developers, infrastructure, security, and business stakeholders.
- Review technical designs and provide architectural guidance.
- Mentor engineering and cloud teams on Azure best practices.
- Identify technical risks and provide appropriate mitigation strategies.
- Participate in architecture reviews, POCs, and technology evaluations.
Required Technical Skills
- 10+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, cloud architecture, or technology architecture.
- 6+ years of strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure.
- Strong expertise in Azure Cloud Architecture and Infrastructure.
- Azure Networking: VNet, Subnets, NSG, VPN, ExpressRoute, Private Link, Application Gateway, Load Balancer.
- Azure Compute: VMs, VM Scale Sets, App Services, Functions, AKS.
- Azure Storage and Database services.
- Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, Managed Identity, Key Vault.
- Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights.
- Terraform / Bicep / ARM templates.
Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions and CI/CD.
- Hands-on experience setting up Azure data migration services — Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), Azure Data Factory (ADF), and Azure Migrate.
- Hands-on experience setting up Azure data streaming services — Azure Event Hubs, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Bus, and Kafka on Azure.
- Strong understanding of containers, Docker and Kubernetes.
- Experience with cloud migration and modernization.
- Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, backup, and business continuity.
- Strong understanding of cloud security, governance, and compliance.
- Excellent knowledge of networking, Linux/Windows infrastructure, and enterprise IT architecture.
Good-to-Have Skills
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
- Experience with Azure Landing Zones and enterprise-scale architecture.
- Experience with Azure Well-Architected Framework.
- Knowledge of AWS or GCP.
- Experience with FinOps and Azure cost optimization.
- Experience with hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Knowledge of PowerShell, Azure CLI, or Python scripting.
- Experience with enterprise security and compliance frameworks.
- Experience with big data streaming/analytics tools such as Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, or Apache Kafka.
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
- Relevant Azure/cloud certifications are an added advantage.