Director Technology Solutions - Azure Cloud

Practice Lead – Azure

Responsibilities

• Be the deepest technical expert within the Azure practice and the final authority on architecture decisions
• Review and provide guidance on solutions designed by Azure Architects and Sr. Architects
• Resolve critical technical escalations from ongoing Azure project engagements
• Define and enforce technical standards, best practices, and guardrails across all Azure engagements
• Drive cloud-native and well-architected approaches consistently across the practice
• Identify skill gaps and execute upskilling and Azure certification plans across the team
• Define career progression paths and build a high-performance, learning-driven culture within the practice
• Ensure all Azure projects follow defined technical quality standards and architecture principles
• Define and execute the Azure practice roadmap, including new capabilities, service offerings, and technology focus areas
• Build reusable assets, including reference architectures, accelerators, templates, and runbooks
• Lead and contribute to RFP/RFI responses and participate in client conversations and workshops as the Azure practice SME
• Identify and support upsell and cross-sell opportunities within existing accounts
• Represent the Azure practice in leadership reviews and governance forums
• Report Azure practice health metrics—utilization, certifications, project quality, bench strength—to the Cloud & DevOps Entity Head
• Track Azure ecosystem trends and proactively introduce emerging services into the practice

Requirements

• 22–26 years of overall IT experience with significant depth in Azure cloud architecture and practice leadership
• Proven experience owning or building an Azure Cloud Practice or Center of Excellence (CoE) in a services or consulting environment
• Strong hands-on expertise in Microsoft Azure across networking, identity and security, infrastructure, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), Azure DevOps CI/CD and container orchestration
• Proficiency in networking solutions including VNet, NSG, Azure Firewall and ExpressRoute
• Solid understanding of identity and security tools such as Azure AD, Key Vault, Defender, Sentinel and Azure Policy
• Deep knowledge of infrastructure strategies including IaaS, PaaS, Azure Landing Zones and hybrid architectures
• Practical experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform, Bicep and ARM Templates
• Expertise in implementing Azure DevOps pipelines and managing tools like PowerShell and Azure CLI
• Advanced skills in container solutions using AKS, Kubernetes, Helm and GitOps workflows
• Demonstrated experience in leading and mentoring large multidisciplinary teams across multiple seniority levels
• Proven success in pre-sales activities such as RFPs, technical proposals, client workshops and CXO-level presentations
• A strong foundation in application modernization including legacy assessment, replatforming, containerization, microservices and API-first transformation on Azure
• Ability to develop technical standards, governance frameworks and oversee architecture review processes
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate with and engage confidently with CXO-level stakeholders
• Nice to have
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) — strongly preferred
• Additional certifications — TOGAF, ITIL, or CKA
• Exposure to multi-cloud or hybrid environments (Azure Arc, AWS, GCP)
• Microsoft MVP recognition or active Azure community presence
• Thought leadership — blogs, conference speaking, or open-source contributions
• Exposure to FinOps and Azure cost governance practices