The Cloud Resiliency Architect will support customers through focused technical engagements aimed at improving the reliability, continuity, and recoverability of their cloud environments. The architect will combine deep technical expertise in Microsoft Azure with a strong command of disaster recovery, business continuity, and operational resiliency processes, including the design and evaluation of Major Incident Response Plans (MIRPs).
This role requires the ability to assess both cloud infrastructure and resiliency processes end-to-end, identifying risks, aligning to best practices, and delivering clear, actionable recommendations that strengthen the customer’s ability to withstand and recover from disruptions.
Key responsibilities
* Assess the resiliency posture of customer environments from both technical and operational perspectives.
* Evaluate the effectiveness of disaster recovery (DR) plans, business continuity (BC) strategies, and Major Incident Response Plans (MIRPs).
* Conduct in-depth technical analysis of cloud infrastructure, application dependencies, observability configurations, and failover capabilities.
* Review and enhance MIRPs, including escalation protocols, incident communication plans, recovery sequencing, and impact containment strategies.
* Identify risks, vulnerabilities, and single points of failure across workloads and operational processes.
* Recommend improvements aligned with the Azure Well-Architected Framework, SRE principles, and ITIL practices.
* Engage customer teams to understand RTO/RPO targets, recovery workflows, and coordination models for major incidents.
* Deliver professional, customer-facing documentation summarizing technical findings and process maturity recommendations.
Required Qualifications
Good of hands-on experience in the following areas:
* Deep experience with high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) design in Microsoft Azure.
* Solid understanding of Azure architecture, including infrastructure, Availability Zones, backup/recovery, and monitoring services.
* Familiarity with cloud-native resiliency patterns and site reliability engineering (SRE) methods.
* Proven ability to assess and design effective Major Incident Response Plans (MIRPs) that align with operational SLAs and business risk tolerances.
* Experience in business continuity planning, incident response coordination, and process maturity assessments.
* Excellent communication and documentation skills for technical and executive stakeholders.
* Background in technical consulting or assessment-based delivery engagements.
Preferred qualifications
* Experience contributing to or leading the development of enterprise-wide MIRP and DR testing programs.
* Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, or SOC 2 Type II in the context of operational resilience.
* Prior experience supporting regulated industries (e.g., finance, healthcare, government) with stringent uptime, data protection, or continuity mandates.
* Hands-on experience with Azure BCDR tools such as Azure Site Recovery, Backup Vaults, Azure Automation, or Service Health Alerts.
* Working knowledge of multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environments and related resiliency implications.
* Familiarity with chaos engineering or resilience testing tools and practices.
* Experience integrating DevOps pipelines with resiliency validation steps (e.g., backup validation, DR simulation, alerting thresholds).
* Exposure to incident simulation platforms, runbook automation, or response coordination tooling (e.g., Microsoft Sentinel, ServiceNow).
Certifications
Required
* Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
* ITIL Foundation Certification
* Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Preferred
* Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (Recommended)
* BC/DR certifications such as CBCP, MBCI, ISO 22301 Lead Implementer, or equivalent industry-recognized certifications
* Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert
At Cognizant you will experience an exciting mix of innovation by design, creativity, collaboration, and efficiency within a framework of stimulating objectives and a passion for delivering the best to our customers.
You will be joining a network of some of the most creative, innovative, and dedicated people in the industry with ample opportunities to learn and develop your career.
Our Associates are chosen for their attitude, skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm but above all, their belief that anything is possible.
Cognizant is an equal opportunities employer, and we welcome all applications regardless of race, colour, gender, ethnic origin, nationality, religion or beliefs, disability, age, sexual orientation, political opinions, or trade union membership.