Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery is a global organization hosting over 6,000 strategic sellers, industry and security experts, elite engineers, world-class data scientists and architects, consultants, and delivery specialists. Together with our partners, we help Microsoft’s most strategic customers worldwide to address their specific challenges and provide comprehensive and industry-specific solutions that meet their unique needs.
Our organization is at the forefront of innovation, driving value across the entirety of the customers’ digital and AI transformation journey through repeatable and customized cutting-edge solutions powered by Microsoft Cloud and AI. We take pride in embodying Microsoft's mission of empowerment, promoting a growth mindset, inspiring excellence, and fostering a culture of inclusivity where everyone is encouraged to share their unique perspectives and be their authentic selves. By joining our team, you'll have the opportunity to contribute to life-changing innovations that impact billions of people worldwide.
The Infrastructure & AI Architect is responsible for designing secure, scalable, resilient, and AI-ready enterprise platforms on Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Responsibilities
The architect works with customers, engineering teams, security teams, and delivery stakeholders to translate business and technical requirements into practical Azure architectures. The role combines strong Azure infrastructure architecture with modern AI platform, security, governance, automation, and operational design capabilities.
The architect is expected to provide technical leadership from discovery and architecture through implementation, governance, and operational readiness.
Qualifications
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND 14+ years experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain of Infra & AI.
o OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND 14+ years experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain (e.g., Security)
Azure Infrastructure Architecture
Design enterprise-scale Azure architectures using Azure Landing Zones and cloud adoption principles.
Define subscription, management group, resource organization, naming, tagging, and governance models.
Design hub-and-spoke and Virtual WAN architectures.
Architect hybrid connectivity using ExpressRoute, VPN, Azure Virtual WAN, and private connectivity.
Design Azure networking including VNets, subnets, routing, NSGs, Azure Firewall, Application Gateway, load balancers, NAT Gateway, Private Link, and Private Endpoints.
Define scalable DNS and private DNS architecture.
Design resilient solutions across Availability Zones and Azure regions.
Define business continuity, disaster recovery, backup, and high-availability strategies.
Identity, Security & Governance
Design identity architectures using Microsoft Entra ID.
Define managed identity, workload identity, role-based access control, privileged access, and least-privilege models.
Implement security architecture using Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Azure Policy, Key Vault, encryption, and customer-managed keys.
Design secure administrative and privileged-access patterns.
Define network segmentation and Zero Trust architecture.
Ensure architecture aligns with enterprise security, regulatory, data sovereignty, and compliance requirements.
Observability & Operations
Design centralized and distributed monitoring architectures using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, and Microsoft Sentinel.
Define logging, monitoring, alerting, operational dashboards, and telemetry strategies.
Design infrastructure that supports SRE and modern cloud operations.
Define operational readiness, service health, capacity management, incident response, and troubleshooting approaches.
Drive infrastructure automation and configuration consistency.
AI & AI-Ready Infrastructure
Design secure enterprise AI platforms using Microsoft Foundry/Azure AI services and supporting Azure capabilities.
Define networking, identity, compute, storage, data, security, and monitoring requirements for enterprise AI workloads.
Design private and controlled access patterns for AI environments.
Architect solutions supporting:
Generative AI
AI agents
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
Enterprise search
Vector and semantic search
Embeddings
Model endpoints and AI services
Define secure connectivity between AI applications, enterprise data sources, APIs, and business systems.
Establish AI platform governance, responsible AI, security, monitoring, and operational controls.
Support integration of AI solutions with the broader Microsoft cloud ecosystem.
Automation & Platform Engineering
Drive Infrastructure as Code using Bicep, ARM templates and/or Terraform.
Define reusable architecture patterns, templates, and platform components.
Support CI/CD and DevOps-based infrastructure deployment.
Promote policy-driven governance and automated environment provisioning.
Design self-service platform capabilities where appropriate.
Architecture Leadership
Lead customer architecture and technical design workshops.
Gather functional and non-functional requirements.
Develop High-Level Designs and detailed technical designs.
Produce architecture diagrams, decision documents, implementation guidance, and design standards.
Conduct architecture reviews and identify technical risks and dependencies.
Provide technical direction to engineering and implementation teams.
Troubleshoot complex architecture, networking, identity, security, and platform issues.
Conduct design reviews and ensure implementation remains aligned to the approved architecture.
Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
Act as a trusted technical advisor to customer architects and technology leadership.
Explain complex cloud and AI concepts in clear business language.
Present architecture options, trade-offs, risks, costs, and recommendations.
Collaborate with application, security, network, data, AI, governance, and operations teams.
Help customers establish cloud and AI adoption roadmaps.
Support solution estimation, implementation planning, risk management, and technical governance.
Required Technical Skills
Azure Infrastructure
Azure Landing Zones
Hub-and-Spoke / Virtual WAN
Azure networking and routing
ExpressRoute and VPN
Azure Firewall
Application Gateway / WAF
Private Link / Private Endpoints
Azure DNS / Private DNS
Azure Load Balancer
Azure compute and storage
Availability Zones and multi-region architecture
Backup and disaster recovery
Identity & Security
Microsoft Entra ID
Azure role-based access control
Managed identities
Key Vault
Customer-managed keys
Azure Policy
Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Sentinel
Zero Trust security principles
AI
Microsoft Foundry / Azure AI
Generative AI architecture
AI agents
RAG architecture
AI Search
Vector and semantic search
Model integration
Prompt and AI security
Responsible AI
AI monitoring and governance
Monitoring & Operations
Azure Monitor
Log Analytics
Application Insights
Microsoft Sentinel
Cloud operational models and SRE concepts
Automation
Bicep / ARM
Terraform
Azure DevOps / GitHub
CI/CD
PowerShell / Azure CLI
Architecture Competencies
The successful candidate should demonstrate the ability to:
Convert business requirements into end-to-end Azure architecture.
Make architecture decisions across infrastructure, networking, security, identity, data, operations, and AI.
Evaluate multiple technical approaches and clearly explain trade-offs.
Design for security, reliability, scalability, performance, manageability, and cost.
Lead complex enterprise architecture discussions involving multiple technology domains.
Balance Microsoft platform capabilities with customer constraints and existing enterprise environments.
Move comfortably between whiteboard architecture, detailed technical design, and implementation troubleshooting.
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field may substitute for the bachelor's degree
- 14+ years of experience in technology solutions, architecture, consulting, practice development, or a related technology domain
- Enterprise-scale Microsoft Azure infrastructure architecture experience
- Experience with Azure Landing Zones, hub-and-spoke or Virtual WAN architectures, Azure networking, ExpressRoute, VPN, firewalls, private connectivity, and DNS
- Experience designing Microsoft Entra ID, managed identity, RBAC, Zero Trust, Azure Policy, Key Vault, Defender for Cloud, and Microsoft Sentinel solutions
- Experience designing enterprise AI platforms, generative AI, AI agents, RAG, AI Search, vector search, model integration, and responsible AI controls
- Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, monitoring, SRE concepts, and cloud operations
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code using Bicep, ARM templates, or Terraform
- Experience with Azure DevOps or GitHub, CI/CD, PowerShell, and Azure CLI
- Ability to lead architecture workshops, create technical designs, evaluate trade-offs, and provide technical direction
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
Microsoft Insights
What We Do
At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.
