Azure Platform Architect — Remote (IaC, Security & Governance)

hyperiongrp; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Life Assurance up to 4x salary

Income protection

Company pension contribution

Healthcare benefits

Job summary

Howden is a global insurance group with a remote-first approach, seeking a Technical Architect to lead Azure cloud platform architecture and governance. You will work across Cloud Engineering & Architecture to define scalable, secure services, patterns, and self‑service capabilities, shaping the standards used by product teams.

The role requires hands‑on depth in Azure, IaC (Bicep), and CI/CD, with a focus on reliability, cost efficiency, and compliance.

Qualifications

• Strong experience designing, building, and operating cloud platforms in Microsoft Azure.
• Deep understanding of cloud platform architecture, including identity, networking, security, monitoring, and governance.
• Hands‑on experience with Infrastructure as Code, ideally using Bicep.
• Strong working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, including platform‑level templates and guardrails.
• Experience designing and evolving Azure Landing Zones or equivalent enterprise‑scale foundations.
• Clear understanding of cloud security principles, including identity design, least‑privilege access, and platform hardening.
• Experience working within governance and compliance frameworks, and embedding these into platform design.
• Ability to create and validate reference architectures, patterns, and reusable components.
• Comfortable reviewing release plans and translating new workload demands into platform enhancements.
• Experience operating and supporting live cloud platforms, not just designing them.
• Strong observability mindset, including logging, metrics, alerts, and operational insight.
• Ability to identify areas suitable for self‑service enablement and automation.
• A pragmatic approach to architectural decision‑making, balancing ideal design with delivery reality.
• Experience producing and maintaining architectural decision records (ADRs).
• Strong documentation skills, including diagrams, design notes, and onboarding guidance.
• Confident communicator who can influence without authority and explain complex topics simply.
• Collaborative approach, working effectively across engineering, security, and delivery teams.
• Curiosity and drive to stay current with evolving Azure capabilities and platform practices.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the core cloud architecture that enables product and delivery teams.
• Design and implement reusable platform components and self‑service capabilities.
• Review platform demands and introduce new services and patterns for business value.
• Collaborate with Cloud Engineers, DevOps and Delivery teams to ensure secure, scalable workloads.
• Shape platform standards, governance, and guardrails while maintaining compliance and security.
• Explain architectural decisions clearly to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Operate and support live cloud platforms, not just design them.

Skills

Azure design and implementation

Cloud platform architecture

Identity & security design

CI/CD pipelines

Infrastructure as Code (Bicep)

Azure Landing Zones

Platform observability

Governance & compliance

Stakeholder communication

ADR documentation

Cost efficiency & optimization

Self-service pattern design

Tools

Azure DevOps

Bicep

Job description

Howden is a global insurance group with a remote-first approach, seeking a Technical Architect to lead Azure cloud platform architecture and governance. You will work across Cloud Engineering & Architecture to define scalable, secure services, patterns, and self‑service capabilities, shaping the standards used by product teams.

The role requires hands‑on depth in Azure, IaC (Bicep), and CI/CD, with a focus on reliability, cost efficiency, and compliance.