Solutions Architect, Azure

What's the Short Version?

The Solutions Architect, Cloud designs and helps implement scalable, highly available, and secure infrastructure solutions, with a primary focus on Microsoft Azure. This role brings deep expertise in cloud technologies, including migration tools, cost models, and Azure‑native services, and serves as a technical leader within the architecture function. Working closely with development, infrastructure, and operations teams, the Solutions Architect plans and guides architectures across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, optimizing for functionality, maintainability, and cost. The Solutions Architect, Cloud continuously improves solutions and processes across SanMar to ensure consistency, continuity, and scalability. They ideate, design, document, and support the implementation of technologies that meet both current and future business needs.

What Will You Be Doing?

• Act as the resident expert on Azure cloud & infrastructure implementations and options for SanMar IT.
• Develop and maintain the architectural roadmaps for cloud-based and hybrid infrastructure for SanMar IT.
• Help lead SanMar’s move to cloud-based and hybrid infrastructures.
• Coordinate with technical leaders and project managers to prioritize work, establish designs, and estimate timelines and cost for cloud & infrastructure projects.
• Articulate and mediate architecture tradeoffs related to business need, performance, scalability, manageability, testability, security, maintainability, usability, functionality, cost, and time.
• Translate business requirements and strategy into architecture designs usable by delivery teams.
• Perform architecture, design, and implementation reviews.
• Assist in finding solutions that overcome challenges and roadblocks in production and during project delivery.
• Understand SanMar’s strategic goals and assist in the evaluation and selection process for new technology ensuring it aligns with SanMar’s Architecture strategies.
• Lead Proof of Concepts as needed to evaluate technologies, validate designs, and increase team learning.
• Develop, communicate, and provide mentoring on architecture, strategies, guidelines, standards, governance, methodologies, design patterns, and best practices.
• Design, implement and govern Azure Landing Zones, management groups, and subscription strategies aligned to enterprise governance standards.
• Champion Azure Well-Architected Framework reviews across reliability, security, cost optimization, operational excellence, and performance efficiency pillars.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Comply with all policies and standards.

What Are We Looking For?

• Bachelor's Degree in Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience
• 7-9 years of relevant technical experience
• Deep hands-on expertise with Microsoft Azure (compute, networking, storage, identity, security, data)
• Strong experience with Azure AD / Entra ID and cloud security services
• Proficiency with Azure native tooling: Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Cost Management, and Azure DevOps
• Experience using infrastructure as code (ARM, Bicep, Terraform)
• Architecture experience across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments
• Knowledge of cloud migration tools, cost models, and operations
• Experience with large, complex cloud infrastructure implementation
• Hands-on experience with API integrations, data pipelines, and event-driven services (Service Bus, Event Grid, Data Factory)
• Azure certifications strongly preferred; AWS/GCP familiarity a plus
• Broad understanding of private, public and hybrid cloud architecture, networking, cloud operations and cost models and cloud migration best practices and tools
• Demonstrated long-term, strategic thinking with the ability to recognize and help others understand what must be done now and what can be improved later
• Demonstrated skills in gathering, clarifying, translating, explaining, and prioritizing system needs
• Demonstrated experience facilitating operations and infrastructure personnel processing through technical designs and implementations
• Demonstrated experience in building and optimizing mission-critical cloud & infrastructure solutions that support a large enterprise including performance, scalability, maintainability, business continuity and disaster recovery concerns
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal, allowing you to build rapport with roles at all levels of responsibility and articulate solutions to technical and non-technical people

What's Our Offer?

Salary Range: You`ll earn between $135,000 - $195,000 annually, depending on experience.

Bonus: You`ll be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus up to 15% of base salary.

Paid Time Off: You`ll accrue paid time off on a bi-weekly basis based on hours worked up to 152 hours per year to start. Employees also receive 8 paid holidays and 1 paid family day off.

Additional Benefits:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits
• 401k plan and matches $1 for $1 up to 4% of earnings, matched & vested at every pay cycle
• Life insurance
• Short/long-term disability coverage
• Paid maternity/paternity leave
• Pet insurance

What Should You Expect?

Hybrid: SanMar's Eastpointe office is located in Issaquah, WA in the Seattle metropolitan area. Employees are required to work in our offices Tuesday through Thursday each week and additional days may be added based on business needs. Our standard working hours are 8:00-5:00 PST. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to use hands to finger, handle or feel. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. Work environment is moderately quiet. Ability to work on computer for multiple hours with frequent interruptions. Quarterly travel may be required.