Senior Solutions Architect - Azure

We are looking for an experienced Azure Senior Solutions Architect to join our growing practice. In this role, you will be responsible for leading the end-to-end design, solutioning, and technical delivery of Microsoft Azure cloud solutions for our enterprise clients. You will work closely with customers to assess their on-premises and hybrid environments, develop compelling business cases, architect scalable and secure Azure solutions, and guide delivery teams through migration and transformation engagements. You will serve as a trusted technical advisor to clients while contributing to pre-sales, delivery excellence, and Cloud Kinetics' Azure practice growth.

The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:

Assessment and Discovery:

• Conduct comprehensive assessments of customer on-premises datacenter environments including compute, storage, networking, and application dependencies.
• Perform infrastructure discovery using agentless and agent-based tools to collect configuration data, performance metrics, and network dependency mappings.
• Analyse existing workloads to determine Azure readiness, migration complexity, and optimal migration strategies (re-host, re-platform, re-factor, re-architect).
• Develop directional business cases including TCO analysis, projected Azure cloud costs, right-sizing recommendations, and ROI projections.
• Assess application interdependencies, data flows, and integration patterns to define migration wave planning.
• Evaluate existing licensing models and recommend optimization strategies including Azure Hybrid Benefit, BYOL, and License Included options.
• Document current-state architecture, identify technical debt, and recommend Azure modernisation opportunities.

Solution Architecture and Design:

• Design and architect highly available, scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-optimised solutions on Microsoft Azure.
• Develop end-to-end Azure solution architectures aligned to the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) pillars: Reliability, Security, Cost Optimisation, Operational Excellence, and Performance Efficiency.
• Lead technical discovery workshops and architecture design sessions (ADS) with enterprise customers.
• Define Azure Landing Zone designs including management groups, subscriptions, policies, RBAC, and networking topology.
• Architect hybrid connectivity solutions using Azure ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Azure Virtual WAN, and Azure Arc.
• Design security architectures incorporating Azure AD/Entra ID, Conditional Access, Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, and Zero Trust principles.
• Create High Level Designs (HLDs), Low Level Designs (LLDs), solution reference architectures, and reusable delivery artefacts.

Technical Delivery:

• Lead the technical delivery of Azure cloud migration, modernisation, and transformation projects for enterprise clients.
• Own the solution design and delivery throughout the project lifecycle from discovery and planning to implementation and handover.
• Collaborate with project managers, delivery leads, and cross-functional teams to ensure smooth execution of engagements.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to delivery engineers and junior architects.
• Conduct architecture reviews, define best practices, and ensure adherence to Azure Well-Architected Framework principles.
• Develop Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) templates, reference architectures, and reusable delivery artefacts.
• Engage in pre-sales activities including solution scoping, effort estimation, and technical proposal development.
• Manage technical risks and escalations during project delivery.
• Drive continuous improvement in Azure delivery processes, tooling, and methodologies.

The core requirements for the job include the following:

On-Premises Datacenter and Assessment Expertise:

• Virtualisation Platforms: Strong hands-on experience with VMware vSphere/vCenter, ESXi, Hyper-V, and related hypervisor technologies.
• Physical Infrastructure: Knowledge of enterprise server hardware (Dell, HP, Cisco UCS), SAN/NAS storage (NetApp, EMC, Pure Storage), and datacenter networking (Cisco, Juniper, F5).
• Operating Systems: Deep expertise in Windows Server and Linux (RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu) administration in enterprise environments.
• CMDB and ITSM Tools: Familiarity with ServiceNow, BMC Helix, or similar CMDB tools for asset inventory and dependency mapping.
• Monitoring and Management: Experience with enterprise monitoring tools such as SolarWinds, Nagios, Zabbix, Datadog, or PRTG.
• Networking: Strong understanding of enterprise networking VLANs, firewalls, load balancers, DNS, DHCP, MPLS, SD-WAN, and VPN technologies.
• Databases: Knowledge of on-premises database platforms Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and their Azure migration considerations.
• Middleware and Applications: Understanding of enterprise middleware (WebLogic, WebSphere, Tomcat, IIS) and application server environments.

Assessment Tools and Services:

• Azure Migrate: Proficiency in using Azure Migrate for agentless and agent-based discovery, dependency mapping, and Azure readiness assessments for servers, databases, and web apps.
• Azure TCO Calculator and Pricing Calculator: Experience building TCO business cases, right-sizing analyses, and projected Azure cost models for enterprise customers.
• Azure Site Recovery (ASR): Experience using ASR for replication assessments and test failovers during migration planning.
• Microsoft Cost Management: Ability to analyse and optimise Azure costs using Cost Management, budgets, alerts, and commitment-based savings.
• Third-Party Discovery Tools: Experience with tools like RVTools, CloudAmize, Movere, Flexera, Device42 or Lakeside for on-premises inventory collection.
• Data Collection Methods: Ability to work with vCenter exports, SCCM data, CMDB extracts, and manual inventory data to build comprehensive assessments.

Azure Cloud Expertise:

• Experience: 8+ years of hands-on experience in designing and delivering solutions on Microsoft Azure.
• Azure Certifications: Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305/AZ-303) required; additional certifications such as Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, Azure Security Engineer Associate, or Azure Network Engineer Associate are preferred.

Core Azure Services:

• Compute: Azure Virtual Machines, Azure VMware Solution (AVS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Azure Batch.
• Storage: Azure Blob Storage, Azure Files, Azure Managed Disks, Azure NetApp Files, Azure Data Box, Azure Storage Tiers.
• Networking: Azure Virtual Network (VNet), ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Azure Virtual WAN, Azure Front Door, Azure CDN, Application Gateway, Azure Firewall, Private Endpoints.
• Database: Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Cache for Redis.
• Identity and Security: Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), RBAC, Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Azure Key Vault, Azure DDoS Protection.
• Management and Governance: Azure Policy, Azure Blueprints, Azure Management Groups, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure Automation, Azure Arc, Microsoft Cost Management, Azure Advisor.
• Migration: Azure Migrate, Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), Azure Data Box, Azure Import/Export.
• Developer and Integration: Azure DevOps, Azure API Management, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Grid, Azure Event Hub.
• Infrastructure as Code: Proficiency in Terraform, Azure Bicep, or ARM Templates for infrastructure automation.
• DevOps and CI/CD: Experience with Azure DevOps Pipelines, GitHub Actions, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes on AKS), and GitOps workflows.
• Scripting/Programming: Proficiency in PowerShell, Azure CLI, Python, or Bash for automation and operational tasks.

Delivery Experience:

• Demonstrated ability to lead end-to-end technical delivery engagements with enterprise customers.
• Experience managing Azure migration projects of 100+ servers across multiple waves.
• Proven track record of building and presenting business cases and Azure solution proposals to C-level stakeholders.
• Experience leading Azure Landing Zone deployments and cloud adoption framework (CAF) engagements.