Azure Cloud Architect

Role Overview

Role: Azure Cloud Architect

Location: Boston, MA/ NYC, NY (Hybrid role)

Duration: Long Term/ Contract to hire

Core Technical Requirements

The following skills are essential for this role. Candidates must demonstrate strong proficiency across these areas:

Infrastructure & Automation

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) — Terraform (primary and non-negotiable) ★ Mandatory
• CI/CD pipeline automation: Bitbucket, Jenkins, XLR, AWS CodePipeline, GitHub Actions

Azure Architecture

• Strong Azure architecture experience: compute, storage, networking, and platform services
• Enterprise-scale Azure landing zones: management groups, subscriptions, and governance models
• Compute platforms: Azure VMs, App Services, Azure Functions, AKS (architecture-level understanding)

Identity & Security

• Identity & access management using Entra ID (Azure AD), RBAC, PIM, and managed identities
• Security architecture: Zero Trust principles, Azure Defender, and secure baseline controls
• Secrets & encryption: Azure Key Vault, certificate and key lifecycle management
• Policy & compliance: Azure Policy, initiatives, and governance enforcement at scale

Networking

• Azure networking (hands-on): hub-spoke VNETs, subnets, NSGs, UDRs, and routing
• Private connectivity: Private Endpoints, Azure DNS (public/private), name resolution patterns

Observability & Resilience

• Observability & operations: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerting and diagnostics
• High availability & DR design: availability zones, regional failover, and backup strategies

Database Experience

Candidates should have experience with one or more cloud database platforms:

• PostgreSQL (preferred) — managed cloud PostgreSQL (Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server) ★ Mandatory
• Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, or equivalent cloud-native database services
• Database security, encryption at rest/transit, and backup/restore strategies
• Performance tuning and query optimization on cloud database platforms

GOOD TO HAVE

The following are not mandatory but will strengthen a candidate's profile:

• Experience migrating on-premises or AWS/Google Cloud Platform workloads to Azure cloud ✓ Good to have
• Familiarity with Azure Migrate, Azure Site Recovery, or lift-and-shift patterns ✓ Good to have
• Knowledge of FinOps practices and Azure Cost Management ✓ Good to have
• Exposure to containerization strategies and AKS production operations ✓ Good to have
• Experience working in regulated financial services environments ✓ Good to have

Architect Profile & Soft Skills

• Ability to own end-to-end architecture: from whiteboard design to hands-on implementation
• Strong communication skills — able to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Collaborative mindset with experience working across engineering, security, and compliance teams
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, client-facing delivery environments
• Hands-on coder: does not just design, but actively builds and validates solutions