Infrastructure Cloud Architect Azure

Job Title: Infrastructure Cloud Architect Azure
Primary Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid 3 days onsite / 2 days remote)
Position Type: Full-Time, Direct Hire
COMPENSATION INFORMATION - Expected salary range for this position is $160K - $200K per year, depending on experience and qualifications.

A partner is casting a line for an Infrastructure Cloud Architect. This is a full-time, direct hire role in Chicago, IL, working a hybrid schedule of three days onsite and two days remote. This senior, hands-on technical leadership role exists to guide our client's Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation as they exit legacy data centers and expand their Azure footprint. This is an infrastructure-focused position - not application architecture or DevOps - spanning Azure, traditional enterprise infrastructure, networking, security, compute, storage, virtualization, resiliency, and governance. You'll set architectural direction while staying hands-on enough to design, build, troubleshoot, and support the infrastructure yourself.

• 10+ years of progressive experience across enterprise infrastructure, engineering, or architecture, with a strong foundation in traditional on-premises infrastructure that has evolved into Azure and hybrid cloud
• Deep, hands-on Microsoft Azure infrastructure experience, including significant Azure/on-premises hybrid-cloud work
• Strong Azure networking expertise: VNets, routing, DNS, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, firewalls, load balancing, and segmentation
• Solid understanding of networking and security dependencies across a complex hybrid environment
• Experience with compute, servers, virtualization (VMware, Azure VMware Solution), and storage architecture
• Working knowledge of identity, RBAC, security controls, and cloud governance
• Infrastructure as Code experience
• Proven infrastructure resiliency, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills in large-scale, complex environments (scale and complexity matter more than industry)
• Ability to build architecture diagrams, standards, and patterns and clearly explain technical decisions to leadership
• A true hands-on track record - you can say "I designed it, I built it, I configured it, I supported it, I troubleshot it." Candidates whose experience is primarily coordinating migrations, managing implementation partners, or reviewing others' work are unlikely to be a fit
• Either a senior Infrastructure/Cloud Engineer ready to step into architecture, or a current Architect who has stayed close to the technology

• Provide architectural direction and technical leadership for an Azure-first hybrid infrastructure transformation, including the exit of legacy primary data centers
• Help transition workloads to new colocation facilities located closer to Azure regions
• Leverage Azure VMware Solution (AVS) during the transition while gradually reducing VMware dependency
• Move additional workloads toward Azure IaaS
• Establish infrastructure standards, patterns, and governance for the future hybrid environment
• Personally design, build, configure, and support infrastructure across networking, security, compute, storage, and virtualization - roughly 60% architecture/strategy and 40% hands-on implementation and operational support in Year 1
• Serve as a senior technical escalation point, joining critical incidents to quickly assess what changed, identify dependencies, determine where to start, and drive the technical investigation
• Develop and maintain architecture diagrams and documentation, and communicate technical decisions to leadership
• Participate in the on-call rotation (primary or secondary roughly every 6 7 weeks) for after-hours emergencies