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.

Experience
8-12 yrs