Remote Azure Technical Architect – Platform & Governance

Howden Group Holdings; England; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life Assurance 4x salary

Income protection

Contributory pension

Healthcare cashplan

Discounts & benefits

Employee Assistance Programme

Job summary

Howden Group Holdings is seeking a Technical Architect (Azure) to join the Cloud Engineering & Architecture team remotely. You will build, operate, and improve the Azure cloud platform, defining core architecture and reusable components for product teams.

You will work with engineers, DevOps, and delivery teams to implement self‑service capabilities, ensure security and cost efficiency, and shape platform standards and guardrails. Strong Azure design and IaC skills required.

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 core cloud architecture for product teams.
• Design reusable platform components and self‑service capabilities.
• Review upcoming platform demands and introduce new services where value is clear.
• Collaborate with Cloud Engineers, DevOps, and Delivery teams to implement patterns.
• Ensure security, governance, and cost efficiency in cloud platforms.

Skills

Azure cloud design

IaC with Bicep

CI/CD pipelines

Azure Landing Zones

Security & governance

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Azure DevOps

Bicep

Job description

Howden Group Holdings is seeking a Technical Architect (Azure) to join the Cloud Engineering & Architecture team remotely. You will build, operate, and improve the Azure cloud platform, defining core architecture and reusable components for product teams.

You will work with engineers, DevOps, and delivery teams to implement self‑service capabilities, ensure security and cost efficiency, and shape platform standards and guardrails. Strong Azure design and IaC skills required.