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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Azure Architect

💰 $120,000 - $200,000

Cloud ArchitectureAzureSolutions ArchitectureDevOpsInfrastructure

🎯 Role Definition

As an Azure Architect you will own the design and technical direction of cloud-native and hybrid solutions on Microsoft Azure. You will partner with product owners, engineering teams, security, and operations to translate business requirements into robust, maintainable, secure, and cost-effective architectures. This role requires hands-on experience with Azure services, infrastructure-as-code, cloud migration strategies, application modernization, and enterprise governance to deliver repeatable patterns and platform capabilities at scale.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Cloud Engineer / Senior Azure Engineer
  • Solutions Architect (cloud-focused)
  • Senior DevOps Engineer / Platform Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Principal Cloud Architect / Head of Cloud Architecture
  • Chief Cloud Officer / Director of Cloud Engineering
  • Enterprise Architect / CTO (cloud domain)

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Platform Engineering Lead
  • DevOps / SRE Practice Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design end-to-end Azure architectures that meet business and technical requirements, including high availability, disaster recovery, security, compliance, performance, and cost targets; produce architecture diagrams, standards, and runbooks for implementation and operations.
  • Lead cloud migration strategies and execution plans (rehost, refactor, replatform, replace) for complex on-premises, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments; estimate migration effort, dependencies, and phased cutover approaches.
  • Define and implement governance frameworks on Azure (management groups, subscriptions, RBAC, policy, resource locks) to enforce compliance, security baseline, cost control, and environment isolation across multiple teams and tenants.
  • Architect and validate network topologies for Azure (VNET peering, VPN, ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Application Gateway, NSGs) to ensure secure, performant connectivity between on-prem, cloud, and third-party services.
  • Design identity and access management solutions using Azure AD, conditional access, managed identities, role-based access control (RBAC), and integration patterns with on-premises AD and identity providers.
  • Specify and implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) standards using Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, and/or Pulumi to enable repeatable, tested, and auditable deployments across environments.
  • Build secure platform baselines and security controls (Azure Security Center / Defender, Sentinel, Key Vault, encryption at rest/in transit) and work with security teams to remediate findings and harden workloads.
  • Define CI/CD patterns and pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, pipelines-as-code) for infrastructure, platform, and application delivery enabling automated build, test, and release flows.
  • Design and operationalize platform services for containers and orchestration (AKS, ACR, containerized workloads) and provide recommendations for microservices, service mesh, and event-driven architectures.
  • Architect data platform solutions on Azure (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Data Lake Gen2, Synapse, Databricks) addressing scalability, retention, security, and analytics consumption patterns.
  • Lead cost optimization and cloud financial management initiatives: tagging strategies, right-sizing, reserved instances, savings plans, governance guardrails, and reporting to reduce waste and optimize spend.
  • Create fault-tolerant and disaster recovery architectures using Azure Site Recovery, geo-redundant storage, multi-region deployments, and runbook-driven failover procedures, with SLA and RTO/RPO validations.
  • Drive proof-of-concepts and technical evaluations for new Azure services and third-party integrations; present trade-offs, TCO, and implementation plans to stakeholders and architecture review boards.
  • Collaborate with development and operations teams to design secure application architectures (data protection, secrets management, secure CI/CD, logging, and monitoring) and establish observability using Azure Monitor and Application Insights.
  • Establish platform guardrails, blueprints, and reusable reference architectures to accelerate cloud adoption while enforcing enterprise standards and reducing technical debt.
  • Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineers, conduct architecture reviews, and ensure implementation fidelity to architectural intent through code reviews and automated compliance checks.
  • Lead cross-functional design sessions and architecture workshops with product owners, engineering leads, security, and operations to gather requirements, align priorities, and produce actionable architecture artifacts.
  • Define SLAs, SLOs, and runbook playbooks; work with SRE/ops teams to implement monitoring, alerting, capacity planning, and incident response for production Azure services.
  • Ensure regulatory and compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2) are addressed in architecture decisions, including data residency, encryption, auditability, and logging requirements.
  • Drive modernization efforts for legacy applications, recommending cloud-native patterns, containerization, serverless (Functions), and platform services that reduce operational overhead and increase agility.
  • Create and maintain architecture documentation, decision records, and migration/implementation roadmaps; present executive summaries and technical deep-dives tailored to audience.
  • Engage with Microsoft account teams, Azure technical specialists, and third-party vendors to influence roadmaps, obtain architecture reviews, and secure support for enterprise initiatives.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist procurement and vendor evaluation for Azure managed services and ISV solutions; provide architecture impact analysis and integration guidance.
  • Train internal teams on Azure best practices, security posture, and operational playbooks to build cloud competency across the organization.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Expert knowledge of Microsoft Azure services and architecture patterns (Virtual Networks, Storage, Compute, AKS, App Services, Functions, Key Vault, Cosmos DB, Synapse).
  • Infrastructure-as-code proficiency using Terraform, Bicep, and/or ARM templates with modular, testable patterns and CI-driven deployments.
  • Strong experience with Azure networking (ExpressRoute, VPN, VNET peering, Application Gateway, Azure Firewall, NSGs) and network security design.
  • Deep understanding of identity and access management (Azure AD, Conditional Access, RBAC, managed identities, federation).
  • Hands-on experience designing and operating container platforms (AKS), container registries (ACR), and CI/CD for microservices.
  • Expertise in cloud security and compliance controls: Azure Defender, Sentinel, Key Vault, encryption strategies, secure secrets management.
  • Proven track record in cloud migration methodologies and tools (Azure Migrate, Database Migration Service, lift-and-shift vs rearchitect approaches).
  • Experience with PaaS data services (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Data Lake Gen2, Synapse, Databricks) and designing data pipelines and analytics architectures.
  • Familiarity with monitoring, observability, and logging stacks (Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics) and designing SLO/SLA frameworks.
  • Cost management and FinOps skills: tagging strategies, budgeting, cost reporting, reserved instances, and automation for cost control.
  • Proficiency with CI/CD tools and DevOps platforms (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, pipelines-as-code) and building automated testing and release pipelines.
  • Knowledge of hybrid cloud technologies and integration patterns (on-premises connectivity, identity sync, data replication).
  • Experience with automation and scripting (PowerShell, Azure CLI, Python) to build repeatable operational runbooks.
  • Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF, Zachman) and architectural governance practices.
  • Experience integrating SaaS, third-party APIs, and vendor-managed services into Azure ecosystems.

Soft Skills

  • Strong stakeholder management and executive communication; able to translate technical trade-offs into business impact and ROI.
  • Leadership and mentoring: guide engineering teams, lead architecture reviews, and build cross-functional alignment.
  • Strategic thinking and roadmap planning with a focus on business outcomes, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement.
  • Problem-solving and analytical mindset with the ability to decompose complex technical challenges into actionable plans.
  • Collaboration and facilitation skills to run design workshops, capture requirements, and negotiate cross-team priorities.
  • Customer-focused approach with a bias for delivery and operational excellence.
  • Adaptability and learning orientation to stay current with rapidly evolving Azure capabilities and cloud-native patterns.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to balance strategic architecture work with hands-on delivery.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Computer Science, Cloud Computing, Information Systems, or an MBA for architecture leadership roles.
  • Professional certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, CISSP, or TOGAF are highly desirable.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Cloud Computing
  • Network Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5–12 years of IT experience with at least 3–5 years focused on cloud architecture and Azure platform design.

Preferred:

  • 8+ years of enterprise architecture, cloud engineering, or solutions architecture experience with a proven track record of delivering large-scale Azure solutions, leading migrations, and establishing cloud governance and platform services.
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