Lead Cloud Azure Architect

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly skilled and visionary Lead Cloud Azure Architect to design and implement our next-generation cloud platform, focusing on scalability, resilience, and performance to meet our evolving needs over the next five years. This role requires an experienced technical leader who can guide the architecture of a modern, scalable, and secure Azure-based cloud infrastructure and data platform. The ideal candidate will work closely with cross-functional teams to modernize our systems, enabling seamless horizontal scaling, microservices architecture, and data modernization initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Architectural Leadership: Define and drive the architecture vision for our cloud and data platform, enabling scalability, security, and reliability.
• Develop a roadmap for the infrastructure capable of supporting our projected growth over the next five years.
• Platform Modernization: Lead the migration of legacy systems to a modern, microservices-based architecture in Azure, leveraging PaaS services, Kubernetes, Azure SQL, Functions, and event-driven architectures.
• Team Collaboration: Partner with engineering, DevOps, and data teams to create, develop, and optimize an enterprise-grade platform that supports high availability, performance, and security requirements.
• Horizontal Scaling and High Availability: Design and implement strategies for horizontal scaling to manage demand spikes and ensure high availability and disaster recovery across our services and databases.
• Data Infrastructure Management: Architect and oversee the infrastructure for data storage, analytics, and processing to support large volumes of structured and unstructured data, leveraging Azure SQL and other appropriate data services.
• Event-Driven and Microservices Architecture: Champion best practices for event-driven and microservices-based architecture. Implement Azure Functions, Event Grid, and Service Bus for efficient service communication.
• Technical Oversight and Mentorship: Provide hands-on technical guidance to the team, promote best practices, and mentor junior architects and engineers on cloud-native principles.
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Stay up-to-date with Azure and industry advancements. Implement strategies to ensure continuous improvement and efficient use of resources in alignment with business objectives.

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience in cloud architecture, with a minimum of 5 years in Azure environments.
• Strong experience in Azure PaaS offerings, with in-depth expertise in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure SQL Database, Azure Functions, and other critical Azure services.
• Proven experience designing and deploying event-driven architectures and microservices in a high-scale production environment.
• Hands-on expertise with Kubernetes and containerization strategies, managing large-scale, distributed applications.
• Strong proficiency in Azure Functions, Event Grid, and Service Bus to build scalable, event-driven applications.
• Expertise in horizontal scaling, high availability, and disaster recovery principles, with a track record of implementing these strategies in production environments.
• Demonstrated experience working with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Bicep), and automated deployment practices.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with a strategic and analytical mindset.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate complex technical requirements into practical and scalable solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Azure Solutions Architect certification or equivalent cloud architecture certification.
• Experience in data platform modernization, with knowledge of big data tools, data lakes, or Azure Synapse Analytics.
• Familiarity with serverless architectures, DevSecOps practices, and security best practices for cloud-native applications.
• Background in managing cross-functional technical teams in an Agile environment.