Principal Azure Cloud Architect / Principal Engineer

Job Title : Principal Azure Cloud Architect / Principal Engineer (20+ Years Experience)

About the Role

We are seeking a technical visionary Principal Azure Cloud Architect with 20+ years of experience to lead the transformation, shaping and executing the end-to-end cloud strategy. This role involves cross-functional collaboration with engineering, security, product management, and business stakeholders to drive a roadmap that powers the organization's next version of the cloud platform.

Key Responsibilities

Lead and design delivery of enterprise-grade Azure solutions, ensuring they are scalable, secure and resilient.

Assess the organization’s current infrastructure, applications, and business requirements to determine the optimal cloud architecture.

Lead the development process and operations and identify setbacks and shortcomings that need to be improved and mentor the team to promote a culture of engineering excellence.

Develop and execute cloud migration strategies with minimal operational disruption.

Participate in architectural reviews, threat modelling and risk mitigation planning.

Deep analytical skills to identify issues and develop innovative solutions.

Manage proof of concepts, exploratory projects to identify, evaluate and eventually adopt most suitable Cloud Computing (Public Clouds, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) model for the customer with respect to the customer’s business context.

Collaborate with cloud computing colleagues inside and outside the industry to define Cloud Computing adoption models, best practices, use cases, guidance documents.

Create architectures that can scale seamlessly to accommodate growth and fluctuating workloads, leveraging services like auto-scaling, serverless computing, and distributed databases.

Design architectures with redundancy, fault tolerance, and high availability to minimize downtime and ensure continuous service delivery.

Evaluate the offerings of cloud service providers (CSPs) such as Azure, AWS, GCP selecting services like compute instances, storage options, databases, and networking components that best suit the organization’s needs.

Develop Self-Service APIs, CI / CD Pipelines, Terraform Code for Infrastructure as a Code and Terraform Modules for Azure Support Service and Business Units Application Service Automation.

Azure Cloud Infrastructure (IAAS, PAAS and SAS) Support, Consultations, Services Onboarding, Innovations and Cost Optimization initiatives.

Security integration of every aspect of the infrastructure, including identity and access management (IAM), encryption, network security, and compliance controls.

Key Requirements

20+ years in IT, with at least 5+ years architecting and deploying large-scale Azure solutions.

Good Knowledge to Conduct comprehensive analysis of current organization’s infrastructure, applications, and business requirements to design optimal cloud architecture

Designing scalable solutions to accommodate growth and fluctuating workloads, ensuring reliability and resiliency.

Design architectures with redundancy, fault tolerance, and high availability to minimize downtime and ensure continuous service delivery.

Good Knowledge and hands-on experience to evaluate and select appropriate cloud services that best suit the organization’s needs.

Hands-on experience to Collaborate with teams to identify optimal cloud solutions and designing cloud-based systems and train internal teams on cloud technologies and best practices.

Good Knowledge to Understand customer requirements and hands-on experience to design cloud services IAC modules for deployment and Integrate resource deployments using CI / CD pipelines.

Design cloud services such as computing, storage, networking, databases etc., according to best practices.

Develop and maintain the overarching Azure cloud architecture roadmap, aligning with business objectives and industry best practices.

Establish and enforce cloud governance policies focused on cost management, security, and performance optimization.

Lead the design of complex cloud solutions leveraging Azure services (e.g., Azure App Services, Azure Kubernetes Service, Storage, Azure Policy, Azure OpenAI, Azure Arc etc.).

Oversee and enhance continuous integration / continuous deployment pipelines for reliable automated deployments.

Integrate security best practices into every layer of the stack, leveraging the Azure Security Center, Azure Key Vault, Azure Policy etc.

Drive initiatives for high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity in Azure.

Establish performance monitoring and logging strategies using Azure Monitor and Application Insights.

Collaborate with executive leadership and key stakeholders to ensure alignment on cloud strategies and priorities.

Represent the cloud architecture function in client discussions and other customer-facing initiatives.

Keep abreast of emerging Azure services and industry trends, evaluating their potential for adoption within the platform.

Spearhead proof-of-concept projects to assess new technologies, frameworks, and architecture.

Deep understanding of Azure services including Compute, Networking, Storage, Azure DevOps, AKS, App Services, Serverless Functions, etc.

Proficiency with IaC (Terraform, ARM or Bicep) and cloud-native DevOps practices.

Knowledge of microservices architecture and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).

Hands-on experience in Code Reviews and Design Reviews.

Proficiency with Azure AD and RBAC for identity and access management.

Proficiency with software development and project management tools like Azure DevOps and Jira or similar.

Deep expertise in CI / CD tools like Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions or similar.

Skilled in scripting and automation using ASP.Net, C#, Python, PowerShell, Go language or similar.

Experience on designing and Implement Advance Hub and Spoke Networking modules, VWAN’s, Virtual Hubs, Express Routes, Application Gateways and User Defined Routings.

Comfortable working in agile environments, with strong collaboration and communication skills.

Experience on designing and Implement IaC using tools like Terraform, API, ARM Templates, or Bicep.

Experience in CI / CD pipeline tools like YAML, Python, Shell scripting (Bash) or similar.

Experience on Developing Self Service APIs using tools like ASP.Net, C#, Swagger, Kusto Query Language or similar.

Experience on Testing and Auditing tools like Chef InSpec, Terratest, Go or similar.

Preferred to have AWS Architectural design and implementation experience.

Nice to Have

Azure Certifications such as :

Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Azure Devops Engineer Expert

Azure Security Engineer Associate

Good Knowledge of security frameworks like Zero Trust, SSO, and OAuth.

Experience with Azure DevOps workflows and progressive delivery strategies.

Understanding of networking principles and technologies (DNS, Load Balancers, Reverse Proxies), Microsoft Active Directory and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).