Azure Solution Architect

Primary Skills

• 8- 12 years in IT Infrastructure Services with hands-on Solution Architecture and Implementation.
• Proven experience designing end-to-end architectures across EUC, Service Desk, Datacenter (Compute/Storage/Network), and Cloud.
• Deep OS knowledge and recommendations covering server builds, networking, load balancing, HA/DR, storage & backup architectures.
• RFI/RFP response ownership: solution construct, estimations, pricing assumptions, risks & dependencies, and effort models.
• Create/review architecture & solution design artifacts (HLD/LLD, reference architecture, BOMs, SoWs, SLAs/SLOs).
• Define and enforce adherence to architectural standards, design principles, security baselines, and usability standards.
• Vendor engagement across hardware/software ecosystems; evaluate architectures and compatibility.
• Cloud proficiency (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP acceptable) across landing zones, identity, networking, storage, compute, security.
• Strong written & verbal communication; ability to work effectively with sales, delivery, and customer stakeholders.

Roles & Responsibilities

1. Own solution strategy for CogniX platform deals: discovery, blueprinting, HLD/LLD, and transition-to-delivery.

2. Lead customer workshops to capture requirements, non-functionals (availability, performance, security, compliance), and success metrics.

3. Design resilient architecture, HA/DR, backup & recovery, capacity planning, performance baselines, and observability.

4. Define migration approaches (rehost/replatform/refactor), cutover plans, and rollback strategies.

5. Create detailed BoM and cost models (cloud infra, licenses, support) with optimization levers (rightsizing, reservations, autoscaling).

6. Author SoWs/MSAs and governance models; establish RACI, cadence, and reporting templates.

7. Partner with delivery to establish implementation runbooks, test plans, and acceptance criteria.

8. Establish security architecture: identity & access, secrets, encryption, compliance (ISO27001, SOC2, GDPR where applicable).

9. Integrate toolchains: ITSM (ServiceNow), Observability (Prometheus/Grafana/Elastic), Automation (Terraform/Ansible), AIOps.

10. Drive risk management and dependency tracking across parallel projects; maintain architecture decision records (ADRs).

11. Contribute sales pursuits with demos/POCs; present solutions and value propositions to CXO stakeholders.

Tools & Technologies

• Cloud: Azure (landing zones, VNets, NSGs, ASR, Backup), AWS/GCP basics.
• Automation & IaC: Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell/Bash; CI/CD (GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps).
• Containers & PaaS: Docker, Kubernetes, AKS/EKS; API gateways and service mesh (optional).
• Observability: Prometheus/Grafana, Elastic Stack, Azure Monitor; Logging/Tracing (OpenTelemetry).
• Security: Azure AD/Entra ID, RBAC, Key Vault, Defender; vulnerability scanning and hardening baselines.
• ITSM: ServiceNow or equivalent; CMDB and change/release processes.

Certifications

• Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) or AWS/GCP equivalent.
• ITIL Foundation or higher.
• Security certification (AZ-500, CCSP, CISSP optional).

Secondary Skills

• Awareness of latest industry technology trends and platforms (observability, AIOps, automation, ITSM).
• Strategic thinking with business value articulation and TCO/ROI modeling.
• Experience with hybrid/multi-cloud patterns, zero-trust, SASE, SD-WAN, and edge.
• Working knowledge of AI-enabled operations (AIOps), LLM/RAG for knowledge search in ITSM contexts.