Position Summary

Lobel Financial is seeking an experienced Azure Solutions Architect to design, implement, secure, and optimize our Microsoft Azure cloud environment while contributing hands-on expertise across our core application portfolio. This hybrid architect and engineering role will operationalize an approved Azure roadmap, govern cloud cost, security, performance, and reliability, and build integrations for a modern React and microservices architecture. The ideal candidate combines enterprise Azure architecture, infrastructure automation, software development, API design, and cross-functional technical leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Azure Architecture, Governance, and Operations
• Execute and operationalize the company's Azure architecture according to the roadmap.
• Stand up landing zones, networking (VNETs', subnets, peering, NSGs), identity (Entra ID/RBAC), and core Azure services like APIM, AKS, Functions, Logic Apps, App Services etc. per the approved design.
• Serve as the primary internal technical point of contact for the Microsoft Partner engagement, translating business requirements into architecture decisions.
• Establish infrastructure-as-code practices (ARM/Bicep or Terraform) for repeatable, auditable environment provisioning.
• Define and enforce cloud governance standards: naming conventions, tagging, resource organization, and security baselines.

Azure Cost, Performance, Reliability, and Security
• Own ongoing cost management: monitor spending, right-size resources, and implement budgets, alerts, and reserved instance/savings plan strategies.
• Establish FinOps practices and regular cost-review reporting for leadership.
• Monitor and tune performance across compute, storage, database, and networking layers using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
• Design for scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery, including backup and failover strategies.
• Implement and maintain security, compliance, and patching practices across the Azure estate.

Application Development: React/Microservices Integration
• Design and build the integration layer connecting the database and applications to the new React/microservices architecture.
• Lead coding efforts across major product initiatives, starting with:
• OCR processing platform
• Risk software applications
• Decision Engine development and integration.
• Design and implement the ruleset/business-rules layer within the new architecture, ensuring rules are portable, testable, and maintainable.
• Develop RESTful/microservices APIs that expose the data from Azure Cosmos DB.
• Collaborate with front-end developers to ensure clean, well-documented contracts between React applications and backend/microservices.
• Write and maintain automated tests, participate in code reviews, and uphold coding standards across the platform.

The successful candidate will bring the following experience and technical capabilities:

Required Skills & Experience
• 7+ years of experience architecting and managing Microsoft Azure environments in a production enterprise setting.
• Hands-on experience partnering with a Microsoft Partner or Microsoft FastTrack team on cloud implementation.
• Strong background in Azure cost optimization, monitoring, and performance tuning (FinOps experience a plus).
• Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code (Bicep, ARM templates, or Terraform) and CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions).
• Strong programming skills in one or more of: C#, Node.js, or Python, plus experience building microservices.
• Experience with React or modern front-end frameworks sufficient to design clean API contracts and collaborate effectively with front-end teams.
• Experience designing or maintaining rules engines/decision engines and business ruleset frameworks.
• Solid understanding of API design (REST/GraphQL), authentication/authorization, and microservices best practices.
• Excellent communication skills; ability to work directly with external partners, business stakeholders, and engineering teams.

Preferred Qualifications
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
• Prior experience in OCR, risk management, insurance, or financial services software.
• Experience leading legacy-to-cloud modernization initiatives end-to-end.
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture and message brokers (e.g., Azure Service Bus, Kafka).