Solution Architect - Microsoft Azure (Public Sector)

About The Role

We seek an experienced Platform Architect to design and oversee the architecture and operational framework of JTC's Digital Factory Platform utilizing Microsoft Azure. This position requires expertise in cloud platform architecture, delivering reusable platform components, automated and governed self-service, and supporting enterprise-wide scale delivery.

The successful applicant will bridge business objectives with technical architecture decisions that optimize speed, control, costs, security, compliance, and accountability. Collaboration across platform engineering, cybersecurity, data, AI, finance, and leadership teams is essential to define architecture standards, implement guardrails, and establish platform services enabling rapid and secure deployment of digital and AI-enabled products.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and continuously enhance Azure platform architecture including landing zones, network design, identity/access management, policy enforcement, security guardrails, and environment segmentation (sandbox, QA, UAT, production).
• Create platform operating models that facilitate infrastructure-as-code, automation, CI/CD, GitOps, self-service provisioning, golden path templates, and consistent environment replicability.
• Interpret business needs and project goals to formulate architecture strategies balancing delivery speed, governance, cost efficiency, security, resilience, and accountability.
• Develop modular platform patterns that support system integrations, reusable APIs, and services across diverse product teams.
• Define standards and reference frameworks for cloud-native applications, shared platform capabilities, AI workloads, containerization, and managed Azure services.
• Advise on governed data platform and AI/ML architectures focusing on data product management, AI service deployments, application security hardening, model access controls, and production readiness.
• Integrate observability, incident response, reliability, and operational transparency into platform designs that track costs, usage, performance, security compliance, and service ownership.
• Lead FinOps and total cost of ownership architecture practices emphasizing tagging strategies, cost allocation, budgeting controls, dashboard reporting, showback, and fiscal accountability.
• Collaborate closely with platform engineers, product owners, security, audit, finance, and leadership to align architecture practices with business objectives and governance standards.
• Document architecture decisions, reusable patterns, principles, trade-offs, and processes to foster knowledge sharing and continuous architectural improvement.

Required Skills and Experience

• More than 10 years of experience in solution, platform, enterprise, or cloud architecture, especially designing Microsoft Azure platforms in regulated or large enterprise settings.
• Deep knowledge of Azure cloud architecture components such as Landing Zones, hub-and-spoke and virtual WAN networking, identity/access models, subscription and management group structuring, Azure Policy enforcement, and multi-environment design.
• Experience constructing platform operations that enable infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, automated provisioning, GitOps workflows, reusable deployment templates, golden path frameworks, and platform product lifecycle management.
• Skill in translating complex business requirements and policy constraints into actionable architecture principles, roadmaps, and pragmatic trade-offs.
• Strong background in designing secure, compliant, and governable environments applying policy-as-code, least-privilege access, network segmentation, secrets management, secure release governance, and audit trails.
• Proficiency with modern software delivery pipelines, including release governance, rollback mechanisms, quality assurance practices, and developer experience enhancement.
• Understanding of data platform and AI/ML architectural designs with governed data products, managed AI services, Azure AI integration, application hardening, and responsible AI adherence.
• Experience implementing observability architecture using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, dashboarding, service health metrics, incident management, and relevant platform KPIs.
• Expertise in cloud financial operations including tagging strategies, cost tracking, budget enforcement, usage dashboards, optimization, and cost accountability.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management capabilities to convey architecture decisions clearly to technical and non-technical audiences including senior leadership.
• Ability to thrive in agile, product-oriented settings delivering incremental platform capabilities with continuous feedback and improvement.

Preferred Skills

• Familiarity with Government Commercial Cloud, public sector cloud platforms, or regulated enterprises.
• Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, GitHub, ShipHATS, Terraform, Azure Bicep, API Management, Azure Container Apps, App Service, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, or comparable technologies.
• Exposure to Microsoft Fabric, Azure OpenAI, Synapse analytics, lakehouse architectures, data governance frameworks, and AI model operationalization or governance.
• Experience designing developer portals, internal platforms, platform APIs, service catalogs, self-service workflows, or reusable engineering solutions.
• Knowledge of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices including incident automation, reliability engineering, SLIs/SLOs, and operational readiness assessments.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture methodologies, decision documentation, capability mapping, technology roadmapping, and governance processes.

Successful Outcomes

• A clearly defined Azure platform architecture comprising landing zones, networking, identity, policies, security measures, and operational mechanisms.
• Provision of governed platform services through reusable templates, golden paths, and self-service options to product teams replacing bespoke implementations.
• Architecture frameworks that enable rapid delivery while maintaining cost efficiency, security compliance, and robust governance.
• Design and deployment of data and AI solutions featuring governed data products, managed AI services, secure integrations, and readiness for production environments.
• Comprehensive platform transparency through dashboards and operational routines reflecting costs, health, usage, incidents, and compliance.
• A modular and scalable platform that supports multiple teams, business areas, and future product initiatives.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The perfect match is a pragmatic architect able to integrate business needs, platform strategy, and engineering execution effectively. They should excel at defining direction, balancing trade-offs, creating reusable patterns, and steering teams towards secure, automated, and cost-aware platform delivery. They must communicate clearly with both technical teams and senior stakeholders and be driven by enabling faster delivery, stringent governance, resilience, and ethical AI deployment.