Azure Cloud Architect - W2 Contractor

Who We Are 

Burwood Group is not your average technology consulting firm. We are an innovative, culture-driven, industry leader and we are growing our team by leaps and bounds. Founded in 1997 in Chicago (and still headquartered here), we've grown to be a 200+ employee firm with people and offices spread from Southern California to North Carolina.

Our specialty is closing the gap between business strategy and technology solutions. Our clients view Burwood as a trusted advisor and partner who can help them select the best technology for the job, manage and execute a first-rate implementation, and measure project success by the business outcomes achieved.

Role Type:  W2 Contract 

Work Status: US Citizen, Green Card holder 

Term: 6 months 

Hourly Rate: $90 to $110/hour

Start: Mid-end of June 

Location: Remote-based, U.S. limited travel 

What You’ll Do 

As a non-exempt/hourly employee at Burwood, we are seeking a Cloud Architect with demonstrable experience in designing and implementing projects throughout the full project lifecycle, particularly in production environments.

You will lead efforts in large-scale migrations and cutover processes, showcasing your strong cloud background and solution architecture skills. This role requires a deep understanding of Azure and a proven ability to navigate complex environments, ensuring successful transitions to the cloud for our client’s acquired locations.

Cloud Skillset (Azure)

• Ability to translate business and technical requirements and integrate into a holistic architecture design.
• Discover/Design/Plan/Execute multiple parallel Azure Migrate projects end-to-end, working with the team through all phases to migrate client resources from existing local or cloud-hosted environments into the designated new Azure landing zones.
• Conducting discovery sessions with stakeholders to identify and plan for the migration of all on-premises server resources to the new Azure landing zones.
• Requirements analysis, design, and assisting with deployment, configuration, and management of Azure and tenant-level resources.
  • Entra ID / Subscriptions
  • Virtual Machines
  • Virtual Networks, Subnets, NSGs, User-Defined Routes
  • Storage Accounts
  • Azure Backups and Monitoring
  • Azure PaaS NVAs: VPN, Firewall
  • Azure PaaS VWAN+VHUB hands-on experience required
  • Establishing S2S connectivity using Azure VWAN and Azure VPN
  • Write and utilize Azure Log Analytics queries (KQL)
• Work with a team for the deployment of new subscriptions, including all infrastructure, following established designs for the generation of new landing zones as migrations require.
• Work with a team to deploy the Azure Migrate appliances to multiple endpoint platforms (Physical, Virtual: HyperV, vSphere, Proxmox, VirtualBox, etc.) and to install the mobility agent on all source migration systems, establish and monitor replication.
• Work with a team to execute (night and weekend) cutovers of the source systems to Azure using Azure Migrate, troubleshooting and resolving any resulting errors, and validating system health before handoff to other teams to continue migration procedures.
• Provide advanced troubleshooting support for Azure Firewall ACL, Networking, Routing, and Connectivity within Azure as well as Identity and Access issues in Entra ID.
• Ability to develop and roll out time-saving automation for resource management, standardizing system deployments, and to improve delivery team operational quality and turnaround time for migrations:
  • Languages: PowerShell or Python, and Terraform or ARM/Bicep
• Extensive demonstrable project delivery experience, including acting as a delivery lead in customer-facing roles.
• Supervisory or team leadership experience is highly sought, as the Architect role serves as a leader from the front for the delivery of services that fall under the cloud practice within the scope of the project.

Who You Are

The ideal candidate for this Cloud Architect role will possess a broad architecture, system, and network skillset, including experience in designing, deploying, configuring, and managing large enterprise-scale environments within Azure, as well as tracing and troubleshooting complex issues involving multiple technology stacks across Azure, M365, and on-premises hosted.

Having a solid understanding of routing and switching is essential, with CCNA or similar certification considered a strong advantage. The role also involves implementing Site-to-Site (S2S) VPN tunnels and managing DNS configurations across Microsoft AD DNS, Azure DNS, and external DNS.

This role centers on the need to plan for and then work with a team to execute complex site migrations under tight deadlines and high expectations, and requires extensive experience in successfully delivering environment migrations to Azure using Azure Migrate.

The TECH Stuff 

Network Skillset (Azure: Routing, Firewall, VPN)

• Deploy, configure, and manage Azure PaaS networking components
• Trace and Troubleshoot traffic through Azure networks and devices
• Understanding of Routing/Switching (CCNA or similar network experience is a big plus)
• Implement S2S VPN tunnels using Azure PaaS VPN
• DNS (Microsoft AD DNS, Azure DNS, External DNS)
• Familiarity with L2TP/PPTP and typical client VPN solutions (ZScaler familiarity is a big plus)

Server Skillset (Windows Server, Hypervisors)

• Deploy, configure, and manage Windows Server IaaS VMs

EUC Skillset (Azure Virtual Desktop, Intune)

• Deploy, configure, and manage Azure Virtual Desktop
• Experience with Hybrid or Entra joined workstation environments
• Understanding of VDI concepts
  • Static vs. Dynamic Hosts
  • Roaming user profiles
  • Published Application vs. Published Desktop
• Familiarity with Windows 10/11 Client OS for supporting VDI infrastructure
• Conceptual familiarity with Intune or other MDM tools
• Conceptual familiarity with Nerdio or other CMP tools

Automation Skillset

• PowerShell and/or Python
• Terraform
• ARM or Bicep
•  
• Windows Active Directory
• Familiarity with both VMware and Hyper-V
  • Ability to deploy VMs / appliances
• Extensive cloud migration experience using Azure Migrate
• On Premise Physical/Virtual to Azure

The PERKS 

As a W2 Contractor who consistently works more than 32 hours weekly. Burwood offers the following benefits:  

• Health, dental, and vision insurance 

• 401(k) savings plan 

Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion 
 
We are not intent on being the largest company; but rather, the best. These are the words we live by. This means we welcome all the best talent - regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and age.  

Being open to all cultural backgrounds, life experiences, thoughts, and ideas not only strengthens company culture but also encourages different-in-kind thinking and promotes economic success.