Senior Azure Architect_ Houston, Texas - Onsite

Floga Technologies; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Floga Technologies seeks a Senior Azure Architect to design and govern the Azure platform across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. You will balance innovation with safety, compliance, and reliability for remote/offshore sites and very large data volumes.

The role requires 12-16 years in IT with 8+ years Azure hands-on architecture, plus experience in asset-heavy industries such as energy. You will lead enterprise landing zones, SAP on Azure, and data-centric platforms.

Qualifications

• 12-16 years in IT infrastructure or cloud engineering with 8+ years Azure architecture.
• Proven delivery of enterprise Azure environments: multi-subscription landing zones and large migrations.
• Experience in energy, oil & gas or asset-heavy industries with IT/OT risk understanding.
• Deep expertise across Azure compute, networking, storage, identity and security services.
• Strong IaC skills (Terraform and/or Bicep) and CI/CD experience.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the Azure reference architecture and multi-year cloud roadmap.
• Design landing zones, networking, and policy baselines with strategic segmentation.
• Lead architecture reviews and sign-off on major workloads.
• Evaluate new Azure services and third-party tools; advise build-vs-buy decisions.
• Architect data platforms for seismic and energy data, including ERP/OT integrations.
• Design high-performance compute and storage for large datasets and simulations.
• Build SAP on Azure with HA/DR designs; ensure scalable, compliant deployments.
• Enable data analytics and AI use cases with modern data tooling.
• Ensure secure IT/OT connectivity and zero-trust identity models.
• Mentor engineers and present decisions to senior leadership.

Skills

Azure architecture

Enterprise IT governance

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD pipelines

Security design

Stakeholder communication

Azure security services

Azure networking

Energy sector knowledge

Tools

Terraform

Bicep

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

Azure Monitor

Grafana

Job description

Good morning, I'm

Hello, Good morning, I'm Rahul from Floga Technologies. We are a growing IT services organization delivering scalable technology solutions and are expanding our team with qualified talent. We have an immediate opening for a Senior Azure Architect with strong hands‑on experience to support a long‑term engagement with our client. Must collaborate effectively with cross‑functional teams to deliver high‑quality solutions.

Job Title

Senior Azure Architect

Experience Required

12-16 years (8+ years of hands‑on Azure architecture, with at least 3 years in energy, oil and gas, or other asset‑heavy industries)

Location

Houston, Texas

Employment Type

Long Term

Positions

2

Role Summary

The Senior Azure Architect designs and governs the Azure platform that supports the company's upstream, midstream and downstream operations. This covers subsurface and seismic data, SAP and enterprise systems, operational data from fields, pipelines, terminals and refineries, and the secure connection between IT and operational technology (OT). The role balances innovation (analytics, AI, digital twins) against the realities of the industry: remote and offshore sites with limited connectivity, safety‑critical systems, strict cyber and regulatory requirements, and very large data volumes.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the Azure reference architecture and multi‑year cloud roadmap, aligned to the company's operational and digital transformation goals.
• Design enterprise landing zones using the Cloud Adoption Framework, with management group and subscription strategy, hub‑and‑spoke or Virtual WAN networking, and policy baselines. Include separate zones for IT, OT‑adjacent and regulated workloads.
• Lead architecture reviews and give formal sign‑off on major workloads and changes.
• Evaluate new Azure services and third‑party tools and make build‑vs‑buy recommendations.
• Architect subsurface and E&P data platforms, including OSDU‑based environments and Microsoft Energy Data Services, for seismic, well and reservoir data.
• Design high‑performance compute and storage for seismic processing and reservoir simulation, including burst‑to‑cloud patterns and tiered storage for multi‑petabyte datasets.
• Architect SAP landscapes on Azure (S/4HANA and related systems) with the HA/DR designs these workloads need.
• Build data platforms for production, asset and operations analytics using Data Factory, Databricks, Synapse or Fabric, and integrate with historian systems such as AVEVA PI.
• Enable predictive maintenance, production optimisation, digital twin and emissions/ESG reporting use cases with the data and AI teams.
• Design secure IT/OT connectivity between operational sites (wells, platforms, pipelines, terminals, refineries) and Azure, following Purdue‑model segmentation and DMZ patterns.
• Architect edge and hybrid solutions for remote and offshore locations using Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Operations, Azure Arc and Azure Stack, designed to keep operating when connectivity drops.
• Design for constrained links (satellite, microwave, low bandwidth), with local buffering and store‑and‑forward.
• Work with OT engineering and control‑systems teams so cloud changes never put safety or process control at risk.
• Architect identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID, conditional access, privileged identity management and strict RBAC, including third‑party and contractor access models common in the industry.
• Embed security by design: Defender for Cloud (including Defender for IoT/OT), Key Vault, private endpoints, segmentation, encryption and Zero Trust.
• Align designs to relevant frameworks and regulations, such as IEC 62443, NIST CSF, ISO 27001 and applicable pipeline and critical‑infrastructure cyber regulations, as well as data residency and export‑control requirements.
• Design HA and DR for business‑critical and operations‑adjacent systems, with defined RTO/RPO targets and tested failover.
• Set observability standards using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and Grafana, integrated with the operations centre.
• Own FinOps practices, including cost governance, tagging, reservations, and storage and compute optimisation for data‑heavy workloads.
• Provide architectural escalation support on Sev1/Sev2 incidents and drive design fixes after major events.
• Set standards for Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and/or Bicep), CI/CD (Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions) and policy‑as‑code.
• Define reusable modules and secure deployment patterns for engineering and application teams.
• Mentor cloud engineers and junior architects, and partner with Security, Network, OT, Data, Application and Finance stakeholders.
• Present architecture decisions and trade‑offs to senior leadership, and to business owners in exploration, production, supply and trading, or refining.
• Maintain architecture documentation, decision records and diagrams.

Required Qualifications

• 12-16 years in IT infrastructure or cloud engineering, with 8+ years of hands‑on Azure architecture experience.
• Proven delivery of enterprise Azure environments: multi‑subscription landing zones, hybrid connectivity (ExpressRoute, VPN) and large migrations.
• Experience in oil and gas, energy, utilities, mining or other asset‑heavy industry, with understanding of how OT and IT differ in risk, change control and availability expectations.
• Deep expertise across Azure computer, networking, storage, identity and security services.
• Strong Infrastructure as Code skills (Terraform and/or Bicep) and CI/CD experience.
• Experience designing for large‑scale data platforms and for HA/DR of mission‑critical systems.
• Working knowledge of OT security principles (Purdue model, network segmentation, IEC 62443 concepts).
• Excellent communication, ability to work credibly with both IT and operations stakeholders.
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) or equivalent hands‑on credibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with OSDU, Microsoft Energy Data Services, or subsurface/seismic data platforms.
• SAP on Azure experience, ideally with an Azure for SAP Workloads specialty certification.
• Experience with historian and industrial data platforms (AVEVA PI, Aspen, or similar), SCADA integration, and Azure IoT or Azure Arc edge deployments.
• Familiarity with HPC on Azure (CycleCloud, Batch, or similar) and high‑performance storage.
• DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) and Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500).
• Exposure to digital twins, predictive maintenance, emissions monitoring, or Azure OpenAI/AI platforms in an industrial setting.
• Multi‑cloud exposure (AWS or GCP) and TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification.
• Experience supporting remote, offshore or international operations across multiple jurisdictions.