Sr. Azure Solutions Architect

Position Summary

Lobel Financial is seeking an experienced Azure Solutions Architect to design, implement, secure, and optimize our Microsoft Azure cloud environment while contributing hands-on expertise across our core application portfolio. This hybrid architect and engineering role will operationalize an approved Azure roadmap, govern cloud cost, security, performance, and reliability, and build integrations for a modern React and microservices architecture. The ideal candidate combines enterprise Azure architecture, infrastructure automation, software development, API design, and cross-functional technical leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Azure Architecture, Governance, and Operations

• Execute and operationalize the company's Azure architecture according to the roadmap.

• Stand up landing zones, networking (VNETs', subnets, peering, NSGs), identity (Entra ID/RBAC), and core Azure services like APIM, AKS, Functions, Logic Apps, App Services etc. per the approved design.

• Serve as the primary internal technical point of contact for the Microsoft Partner engagement, translating business requirements into architecture decisions.

• Establish infrastructure-as-code practices (ARM/Bicep or Terraform) for repeatable, auditable environment provisioning.

• Define and enforce cloud governance standards: naming conventions, tagging, resource organization, and security baselines.

Azure Cost, Performance, Reliability, and Security

• Own ongoing cost management: monitor spending, right-size resources, and implement budgets, alerts, and reserved instance/savings plan strategies.

•Establish FinOps practices and regular cost-review reporting for leadership.

•Monitor and tune performance across compute, storage, database, and networking layers using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.

•Design for scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery, including backup and failover strategies.

•Implement and maintain security, compliance, and patching practices across the Azure estate.

Application Development: React/Microservices Integration

• Design and build the integration layer connecting the database and applications to the new React/microservices architecture.

• Lead coding efforts across major product initiatives, starting with:

◦ OCR processing platform

◦ Risk software applications

• Decision Engine development and integration.

• Design and implement the ruleset/business-rules layer within the new architecture, ensuring rules are portable, testable, and maintainable.

• Develop RESTful/microservices APIs that expose the data from Azure Cosmos DB.

• Collaborate with front-end developers to ensure clean, well-documented contracts between React applications and backend/microservices.

• Write and maintain automated tests, participate in code reviews, and uphold coding standards across the platform.

The successful candidate will bring the following experience and technical capabilities:

Required Skills & Experience

• 7+ years of experience architecting and managing Microsoft Azure environments in a production enterprise setting.

• Hands-on experience partnering with a Microsoft Partner or Microsoft FastTrack team on cloud implementation.

• Strong background in Azure cost optimization, monitoring, and performance tuning (FinOps experience a plus).

• Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code (Bicep, ARM templates, or Terraform) and CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions).

• Strong programming skills in one or more of: C#, Node.js, or Python, plus experience building microservices.

• Experience with React or modern front-end frameworks sufficient to design clean API contracts and collaborate effectively with front-end teams.

• Experience designing or maintaining rules engines/decision engines and business ruleset frameworks.

• Solid understanding of API design (REST/GraphQL), authentication/authorization, and microservices best practices.

• Excellent communication skills; ability to work directly with external partners, business stakeholders, and engineering teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.

• Prior experience in OCR, risk management, insurance, or financial services software.

• Experience leading legacy-to-cloud modernization initiatives end-to-end.

• Familiarity with event-driven architecture and message brokers (e.g., Azure Service Bus, Kafka).