Infrastructure Cloud Architect

Gulf Coast Automation Group•Chicago, IL

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

This full-time, direct-hire role is based in Chicago, Illinois, with a hybrid schedule of three days onsite and two days remote. It is a senior, hands-on technical leadership position guiding an Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation as the client exits legacy data centers and expands its Azure footprint. The role focuses on infrastructure rather than application architecture or DevOps, spanning Azure, enterprise infrastructure, networking, security, compute, storage, virtualization, resiliency, and governance. The architect will set technical direction while remaining directly involved in designing, building, troubleshooting, and supporting the infrastructure. In Year 1, the work is expected to be approximately 60% architecture and strategy and 40% hands-on implementation and operational support. The role participates in an on-call rotation, serving as primary or secondary approximately every six to seven weeks for after-hours emergencies.

Requirements

10 or more years of progressive experience across enterprise infrastructure, engineering, or architecture.
Strong foundation in traditional on-premises infrastructure that has evolved into Azure and hybrid cloud.
Deep, hands-on Microsoft Azure infrastructure experience, including significant Azure/on-premises hybrid-cloud work.
Strong Azure networking expertise, including VNets, routing, DNS, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, firewalls, load balancing, and segmentation.
Solid understanding of networking and security dependencies across complex hybrid environments.
Experience with compute, servers, virtualization (VMware and Azure VMware Solution), and storage architecture.
Working knowledge of identity, RBAC, security controls, and cloud governance.
Infrastructure as Code experience.
Infrastructure resiliency, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills in large-scale, complex environments.
Ability to create architecture diagrams, standards, and patterns and clearly explain technical decisions to leadership.
A hands-on track record designing, building, configuring, supporting, and troubleshooting infrastructure.
Authorization to work in the U.S. without current or future visa sponsorship.
Successful completion of required background checks, which may include reference, education, and employment verification; drug testing; criminal records checks; and any required certifications or compliance checks.

Responsibilities

Provide architectural direction and technical leadership for an Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation, including the exit of legacy primary data centers.
Help transition workloads to new colocation facilities located closer to Azure regions.
Leverage Azure VMware Solution during the transition while gradually reducing VMware dependency.
Move additional workloads toward Azure IaaS.
Establish infrastructure standards, patterns, and governance for the future hybrid environment.
Personally design, build, configure, and support infrastructure across networking, security, compute, storage, and virtualization.
Serve as a senior technical escalation point during critical incidents, assessing changes and dependencies and driving technical investigations.
Develop and maintain architecture diagrams and documentation, and communicate technical decisions to leadership.
Participate in the on-call rotation for after-hours emergencies.