Senior Associate Cloud Architect – Azure, Security & AI

Key Responsibilities

Azure Solution Architecture

Design Azure-based infrastructure and platform solutions for enterprise, commercial, and public sector customers.

Develop secure, scalable, highly available, and resilient cloud architectures aligned to Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework and Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Conduct cloud readiness assessments, workload discovery, architecture reviews, and solution recommendations.

Support Azure Landing Zone design and implementation initiatives.

Produce architecture diagrams, solution blueprints, technical design documents, and migration roadmaps.

Cloud Migration & Modernization

Assess customer environments and define migration and modernization strategies for applications, servers, databases, and workloads moving to Azure.

Support migrations using Azure-native tools including Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery.

Design hybrid cloud architectures integrating on-premises systems with Azure services.

Assist customers in modernizing workloads through containers, Kubernetes, serverless computing, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities.

Support business continuity, backup, disaster recovery, and resilience planning initiatives.

Pre-Sales & Customer Engagement

Participate in customer discovery sessions, architecture workshops, and technical assessments.

Contribute to RFPs, RFIs, proposals, Statements of Work (SoWs), and technical responses.

Present cloud, security, and AI solutions to technical, business, and executive stakeholders.

Support account teams in identifying Azure consumption growth opportunities and cloud transformation initiatives.

Assist customers in developing cloud adoption and digital transformation roadmaps.

Act as a trusted technical advisor throughout the customer engagement lifecycle.

AI & Data Platform Enablement

Support customers in designing cloud architectures that enable AI, analytics, automation, and data-driven transformation.

Assist in identifying and developing opportunities leveraging Azure AI Services, Azure OpenAI, Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Copilot technologies.

Support development of AI-ready data platforms and cloud-native architectures.

Collaborate with customers to evaluate AI readiness, governance requirements, and Responsible AI practices.

Design integrations between AI services, customer applications, business workflows, and enterprise systems.

Help customers understand the business value, risks, and opportunities associated with AI adoption.

Cost Optimization & Operational Excellence

Support Azure consumption reviews and optimization assessments.

Identify opportunities for cost savings through rightsizing, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and resource optimization.

Assist customers in implementing FinOps and cloud financial management best practices.

Recommend improvements related to performance, reliability, availability, operational efficiency, and scalability.

Support operational governance and resource lifecycle management initiatives.

Security, Governance & Compliance

Apply Microsoft security best practices across Azure environments covering identity, infrastructure, network, application, and data security.

Support implementation of Zero Trust security principles within customer environments.

Design and support solutions utilizing Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Purview, and related security services.

Implement governance frameworks using Azure Policy, Management Groups, Landing Zones, and security baselines.

Conduct cloud security assessments, architecture reviews, risk evaluations, and remediation planning activities.

Support compliance initiatives aligned to ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI-DSS, CIS Benchmarks, and industry-specific regulatory requirements.

Assist customers in strengthening cybersecurity posture through monitoring, threat detection, identity protection, and security operations best practices.

Managed Services Enablement

Support the design and transition of customer environments into managed service operational models.

Collaborate with delivery teams to establish cloud operational standards and support frameworks.

Assist in designing monitoring, alerting, backup, recovery, patching, and operational governance solutions.

Participate in service reviews, health checks, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Identify opportunities to expand customer engagement through managed services offerings.

Internal Collaboration & Enablement

Collaborate with cloud engineering, security, AI, data, and delivery teams to develop customer solutions.

Work closely with Microsoft account teams, specialists, and partner ecosystem stakeholders.

Support internal capability development and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Stay current with Microsoft’s cloud, security, AI, and data platform innovations.

Contribute to solution templates, architecture standards, methodologies, and best practices.

Knowledge & Skills

Azure Architecture

Strong understanding of Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

Knowledge of Azure Virtual Machines, Storage, App Services, Azure SQL, Kubernetes, Networking, and Identity Services.

Experience designing scalable, highly available, and secure cloud architectures.

Understanding of Azure Landing Zones and Cloud Adoption Framework principles.

Networking & Infrastructure

Experience with Azure Virtual Networks (VNets), NSGs, Azure Firewall, Load Balancers, Route Tables, DNS, and Traffic Manager.

Understanding of hybrid connectivity through VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute.

Knowledge of network segmentation, connectivity, routing, and enterprise infrastructure design.

Security & Identity

Understanding of Zero Trust architecture principles.

Familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID, Conditional Access, Identity Governance, and Privileged Identity Management.

Knowledge of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Purview, and cybersecurity best practices.

Understanding of security operations, vulnerability management, threat protection, and compliance frameworks.

AI & Data Technologies

Understanding of Azure AI Services, Azure OpenAI, Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Fabric, and modern data platform architectures.

Awareness of Responsible AI principles, governance controls, and AI security requirements.

Knowledge of analytics platforms, data lifecycle management, and data governance practices.

Ability to articulate AI use cases and business value propositions to customers.

Automation & DevOps

Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM Templates.

Understanding of CI/CD principles using Azure DevOps or GitHub.

Experience with PowerShell, Azure CLI, automation, and configuration management concepts.

Monitoring & Operations

Knowledge of Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, and operational monitoring frameworks.

Understanding of backup, disaster recovery, observability, and service management best practices.

Attributes

Strong customer-facing communication and presentation skills.

Ability to simplify complex technical concepts for business and executive stakeholders.

Strong consultative and problem-solving skills.

Commercial awareness with the ability to identify growth and optimization opportunities.

Detail-oriented, analytical, and proactive.

Collaborative team player with strong stakeholder management skills.

Passion for cloud technologies, cybersecurity, and AI innovation.

Commitment to continuous learning and professional development.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Preferred Certifications

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate

Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate

Advantageous Certifications

Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate

Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate

FinOps Certified Practitioner

Kubernetes and Container Platform Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate or Professional

Google Professional Cloud Architect

Experience

1-3 years of experience in cloud architecture, cloud engineering, systems engineering, infrastructure consulting, technical pre-sales, or related technology roles.

Experience designing, implementing, or supporting Microsoft Azure environments.

Exposure to cloud migration, modernization, governance, or optimization projects.

Experience supporting customer-facing technical engagements, workshops, solutioning activities, or consulting assignments is preferred.

Understanding of Azure infrastructure, networking, security, identity, and cloud operations concepts.

Exposure to cybersecurity, AI, analytics, automation, or data platform technologies will be an added advantage.

Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code, automation, scripting, or DevOps practices is desirable.

Experience collaborating with cross-functional technical and business teams.