Cloud Capability Lead - Azure

Colibri Digital; Greater London; Remote; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary Sacrifice Pension plan

Remote-first within the UK

25 days annual leave plus birthday

Private Medical Insurance

Job summary

Colibri Digital is seeking a senior Azure architect to lead design, build and delivery on our most complex Azure engagements. You will stay hands-on and billable while owning the Azure capability, including standards, presales support and growth of the team.

This is a remote-first, UK-based role with travel to client sites and Colibri offices in central London; you will act as technical authority without line management responsibility, shaping the Microsoft practice from an early stage.

Qualifications

• Senior technical authority on Azure engagements able to influence technical and commercial decisions.
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification or equivalent with security/networking/landing zones focus.
• Direct experience in presales, solutioning, estimating and contributing to SOWs.
• Track record growing a technical capability's standards and reputation without formal line management.
• Existing relationships with the Microsoft partner ecosystem.
• Excellent stakeholder, communication and technical-writing skills for senior client/partner interactions.

Responsibilities

• Client delivery: lead design, build and implementation on complex Azure engagements with senior technical leadership.
• Technical quality: architecture decisions, security baselines, design/build docs, QA, and escalation point.
• Azure technical standards: architecture principles and tooling choices grounded in current delivery.
• Presales and commercial input: scoping, estimating, solutioning and SOW contributions.
• The Microsoft partnership: competencies, specialisations and co-sell relationships.
• Capability growth: mentoring and input into recruitment for the Azure team.

Skills

Senior technical authority

Azure Engagements

Presales & Proposals

Capability standards growth

Microsoft partner ecosystem

Stakeholder communication

Job description

Description

Department: Services

Location: Remote, UK

Lead Azure delivery for our clients, and shape how we build the capability around it.

Remote, UK (travel required).

This is first and foremost a delivery role. You will be the senior, hands-on Azure architect on our most complex client engagements, personally leading design, build and delivery work rather than directing it from a distance. You will remain substantially billable throughout the year.

Alongside that delivery work, you will own the Azure capability itself: technical standards, presales support, and the growth of the wider Azure team. That ownership grows out of your own delivery work, not instead of it. This is an individual contributor role, you won't carry line management responsibility, but you will be the technical authority everyone else looks to.

Why this role is worth a conversation

• You lead by doing, not by stepping back. A lot of "capability lead" or "practice lead" titles turn into full-time internal roles, three steps removed from client work within a year. This one is built deliberately not to. You stay on the tools, on the most technically demanding Azure engagements we run.
• You get to build the capability, not just staff it. Azure is a growing capability for Colibri as we scale out our Microsoft practice across Cloud, Data, AI, AppDev and Managed Services. The standards, the presales approach, the certifications roadmap, the shape of the team, you're defining those from a genuinely early stage, not inheriting someone else's framework.
• Technical authority without the management overhead. You won't be managing people day to day, our POD Leads own that. What you own is the technical bar: architecture decisions, design standards, and being the person clients and colleagues turn to when an Azure problem is genuinely hard. If you want deep technical scope without the admin of formal line management, this is that role.

Key Responsibilities

• Client delivery. Personally lead design, build and implementation work on our most complex Azure engagements, providing senior technical leadership within engagement teams.
• Technical quality. Architecture decisions, security best practice, design and build documentation, and QA on solutions built on the engagements you're staffed on, and as an escalation point elsewhere in the Azure capability.
• Azure technical standards. Architecture principles, security baselines and tooling choices for the capability, grounded in your own current delivery experience rather than written from the sidelines.
• Presales and commercial input. Scoping, estimating and solutioning Azure-aligned opportunities, proposals and tender responses, and contributing to Statements of Work with appropriate commercial protection.
• The Microsoft partnership. Competencies, specialisations and co-sell relationships that help Colibri get the most from its Microsoft partnership.
• Capability growth. Mentoring and technical input into recruitment for the Azure team, working alongside our POD Leads who own the people management side.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

You'll have spent the majority of a 10–15+ year career in cloud/infrastructure consulting designing and delivering Microsoft Azure solutions at architect level, and you'll still want to be hands-on rather than purely advisory.

We're particularly interested in evidence that you have:

• Operated as a senior technical authority on Azure engagements, able to influence technical and commercial decisions with clients, partners and internal stakeholders.
• A current or recent Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification (or equivalent), ideally with relevant specialisations such as security, networking or landing zones.
• Direct experience of presales, solutioning, estimating and contributing to commercial proposals or SOWs.
• A track record of growing a technical capability's standards, skills and reputation within a consultancy, MSP or systems integrator without necessarily holding formal line management responsibility.
• Existing relationships with, or credible experience working within, the Microsoft partner ecosystem.
• Excellent stakeholder, communication and technical-writing skills, with the gravitas to operate at senior client and partner level.

Benefits

• A very competitive salary
• Salary Sacrifice Pension plan
• 25 days annual leave + your birthday day
• Remote-first within the UK. This is a senior client-facing role, so travel to client sites and to Colibri offices in central London will be required.
• Private Medical Insurance