Role Title: Technical Specialist Architect
Duration: contract to run until 31/03/2027
Location: Bristol. Remote
Rate: up to £617.32 p/d Umbrella inside IR35
Clearance: UK Passport Holder
Role purpose / summary
Specialist Skills & Deep Subject Matter Knowledge Required:
The Azure Architect role requires deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, networking, identity, and security.
Key areas of expertise include:
* Hybrid Networking and Connectivity: Experience with ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN, VNet Peering, Private Link, Azure DNS, and designing secure, scalable hybrid and hub-and-spoke network architectures.
* Azure Well-Architected Framework: Applying best practices for security, reliability, operational excellence, performance efficiency, and cost optimisation.
* Azure Compute Platforms: Strong experience designing and governing workloads across Azure App Services, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Container Apps, and serverless services (e.g. Azure Functions), with the ability to select appropriate platforms and ensure solutions are operated securely and at scale.
* Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): Preferable experience designing and governing Azure Virtual Desktop environments, including host pool design, identity integration, FSLogix profile management, networking, resiliency, and secure remote access architectures.
* Azure Data Platforms: Experience designing data architectures using services such as Azure Storage Accounts, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Azure Data Lake, and Azure Files, with strong understanding of data security, resilience, governance, and access controls at scale.
* Azure Security and Governance: Proficiency in Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Policy, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Key Vault, RBAC, Managed Identities, and related services to define and enforce guardrails, compliance, and security standards.
* Architecture Governance: Experience working within an architecture practice to define standards, patterns, reference architectures, landing zone designs, and to provide architectural assurance across programmes and portfolios.
* Architecture Documentation and Decision Making: Strong experience producing High-Level Designs (HLDs), Low-Level Designs (LLDs), options papers, patterns, and ensuring designs are proportionate, well-reasoned, and aligned to platform standards.
* Azure Governance & Multi-Subscription Management: Experience with Management Groups, Azure Landing Zones, Azure Policy, RBAC, subscription governance, and enterprise-scale platform management best practices.
Responsibilities:
* Act as a senior member of the Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE), helping to define and govern how Azure is used across Defra.
* Own and evolve Defra’s Azure platform architecture, including landing zones, shared services, connectivity, and core platform capabilities.
* Define, maintain, and publish architecture standards, patterns, guardrails, and reference architectures for Azure.
* Design and document internal CCoE platform services and capabilities, producing High-Level Designs (HLDs), Low-Level Designs (LLDs), and options papers for services such as landing zones, networking, identity, security, monitoring, and shared platform services.
* Provide architectural assurance across programmes and projects, ensuring solutions align with Defra’s cloud standards and strategic direction.
* Attend and contribute to Cloud Design Review Boards, technical governance forums, and design authorities, providing constructive recommendations.
* Work with delivery teams to advise, guide, and unblock them on complex Azure architecture decisions.
* Shape and communicate target architectures and platform roadmaps for Azure in line with organisational strategy.
* Present architecture patterns, platform designs, and standards to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.
All profiles will be reviewed against the required skills and experience. Due to the high number of applications we will only be able to respond to successful applicants in the first instance. We thank you for your interest and the time taken to apply!