Manager IT Architecture - Enterprise & Cloud

Position Summary

 

The Manager IT Architecture (Enterprise & Cloud) will stand up Architecture Office from greenfield; establishing the operating model, standards, and team needed to govern enterprise and Microsoft Azure architecture.  This leader manages a small team and partners closely with Operations, Service Delivery/PMO, and GRC to ensure designs meet non‑functional requirements for availability, performance, recoverability (RTO/RPO), and scalability.  The ideal candidate blends deep Azure and hybrid networking experience with an enterprise mindset, strong stakeholder communication, and a bias toward pragmatic, reusable patterns.

 

Essential Position Duties

• Stand up the Architecture Office from greenfield: define mission, scope, engagement model, and success metrics; establish design intake, review gates, and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).
• Recruit, lead, and coach a high‑performing team of up to 2 architects; set objectives, mentoring plans, and career paths.
• Own the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) program from greenfield: define the data model and critical CIs/services, quality thresholds, discovery and service‑mapping approach, and post‑change update processes; integrate CMDB with change, incident, and problem management.
• Publish and maintain enterprise and platform roadmaps (identity, integration/data flows, networking, compute, storage/backup, observability) and synchronize with Service Delivery.
• Define and govern non‑functional requirements (availability, performance, recoverability/RTO‑RPO, scalability); align with SLAs and validate through DR testing.
• Establish Azure landing zone guardrails and baseline templates (IaaS/PaaS).
• Design hybrid connectivity and segmentation patterns with Operations (e.g., SD‑WAN, VPN, Private DNS, Private Link, ExpressRoute as applicable).
• Serve as design authority for PMO‑led projects; ensure solution designs meet standards, compliance inputs, and cost targets prior to build; clarify Ops‑led vs PMO‑led expectations.
• Partner with Service Delivery on demand intake and prioritization to prevent wrong‑team handoffs and keep backlogs prioritized.
• Collaborate with GRC on policy mapping and risk input; security architecture remains under GRC ownership while enterprise/cloud designs meet policy requirements.
• Drive FinOps governance with Operations/Finance (tagging, budgets, rightsizing, reservations) and report cloud cost variance to forecast.
• Maintain the technology debt register and publish modernization recommendations with owners and time horizons.
• Evangelize architecture: publish reference architectures, playbooks, and roadmaps; host office hours and education sessions for engineers and stakeholders
• Measure and report architecture KPIs (e.g., design review cycle time, standards adoption, CMDB data quality, DR test pass rate, cloud cost variance).
• Handover: Ensure runbooks, support models, monitoring/alerting, and CMDB updates are defined before service transition

Education, Experience & Skills

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent experience. Master’s Degree or MBA preferred 10+ years across enterprise/platform/cloud architecture with 3+ years leading architects or principal engineers.  Proven Azure depth: landing zones; identity (Entra ID); networking (VNets/VWAN/peering); PaaS (SQL MI, App Services, APIM); cost management; DR/resiliency patterns.  Strong understanding of integration patterns (API, ETL, event-driven), data flows, service modeling, and system-of-record design.  Experience defining/enforcing NFRs and leading design reviews across multi-subsidiary or multi-site environments.  Demonstrated experience launching/owning a CMDB program (tool-agnostic) and integrating it with ITSM processes.  Excellent communication and stakeholder management; translates architectyre into business outcomes and clear decisions Framework awareness is a plus; certifications such as AZ-305/Azure Solutions Architect Expert are desirable.

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions   The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.   Individuals must sit or stand throughout the workday as needed to perform essential functions.  May require walking primarily on a level surface for periodic periods throughout the day. Reaching above shoulder heights, below the waist or lifting as required to file documents or store materials throughout the work day. Proper lifting techniques required. May include lifting up to 25 pounds for files, computer printouts on occasion. Ability to concentrate, read and comprehend complex data.  Frequent handling of documents and use of computer and telephone.  Primary environment: ambient room temperatures, lighting and traditional office equipment as found in a typical office environment.