Senior Azure Cloud Architect

AHU Technologies•Washington, DC

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The client is seeking a hands-on Azure Cloud Architect to lead the continued build-out of its multi-cloud environment, centered on Microsoft Azure with supporting AWS workloads. The architect serves as the technical lead for the cloud team and the cloud architecture subject matter expert across DC government. The role designs secure, well-governed environments for client and partner agencies, delivers infrastructure through code, plans and executes workload migrations, and provides architectural oversight for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) deployments. The architect works closely with agency IT leaders, security teams, vendor partners, and the on-premises virtualization team, and provides technical direction to an Azure Cloud Engineer. The position is onsite in Washington, DC, is offered as a W-2, 1099, or C2C contract, and pays $80.00–$85.00 per hour.

Requirements

At least 8 years conveying technical and functional concepts for a technical specialty.
At least 8 years preparing complex technical documentation.
At least 8 years of infrastructure engineering, including at least 5 years designing and building in Microsoft Azure.
At least 5 years of hands-on production Terraform experience, including reusable modules and remote state management.
At least 3 years building infrastructure CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps, or GitHub Actions with transferable skills.
At least 3 years planning or leading migrations of on-premises virtualized workloads, such as VMware, to Azure.
At least 3 years leading or mentoring engineers, including code review.
Bachelor’s degree in IT or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At least 11 years to meet the stated Senior Level position requirement.
Onsite work in Washington, DC.
Contract engagement through W-2, 1099, or C2C.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting AWS workloads at an operational level.
Hands-on experience with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and/or Nerdio Manager for Enterprise.
Microsoft Certified Azure certification(s).

Responsibilities

Translate agency business requirements into cloud solution designs and explain technical concepts, options, costs, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
Improve project standards for Infrastructure as Code, change management, and cloud documentation.
Define and apply Microsoft Azure best practices, including the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework and Well-Architected Framework, landing zone design, naming and tagging, Azure Policy, and role-based access control (RBAC).
Design and support integrations between cloud technologies and on-premises systems and networks, including hybrid connectivity, hub-and-spoke networking, private endpoints, firewall integration, and Microsoft Entra ID identity integration.
Engage agency leadership, security teams, technical experts, and vendor partners to scope requirements, communicate status, and support decisions.
Provide authoritative cloud architecture guidance on Azure services, security baselines, cost management, and AWS operations.
Lead complex cloud implementations, including assessment, design, and migration of on-premises virtualized workloads to Azure, from discovery and dependency mapping through target design, sizing, cost modeling, and migration waves.
Design, mature, and own the Azure landing zone, including management groups, subscriptions, policy, RBAC, and security baselines using Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Ensure production changes are delivered through code and pull requests rather than manual portal changes.
Provide architectural oversight of Azure Virtual Desktop environments, including the boundary between Terraform-managed infrastructure and the Nerdio management platform.
Define monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery standards for Azure workloads, and track and optimize cloud spending for agency chargeback reporting.
Support existing AWS workloads operationally.
Provide technical direction, code review, and mentoring to the Azure Cloud Engineer, and ensure each critical system has a primary and backup owner.
Maintain architecture diagrams, design decisions, and runbooks as reviewed deliverables.
Track work in Azure DevOps boards and track incidents and changes in ServiceNow.