We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Cloud Solution Architect – Azure Networking who combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership to accelerate Azure Networking adoption and customer success. This role focuses on developing and scaling Azure Networking intellectual property, influencing product direction through customer and partner engagement, supporting migration and implementation initiatives, and collaborating with engineering teams to resolve complex customer challenges.
The ideal candidate will serve as a trusted advisor across Microsoft, customers, partners, and engineering teams to drive best practices for networking modernization, hybrid connectivity, cloud migration, security, resiliency, and large-scale Azure networking deployments.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We foster a culture of innovation, inclusion, collaboration, and continuous learning where employees are encouraged to make a meaningful impact for customers and the wider technology community.
Responsibilities
Azure Networking Strategy and Intellectual Property Development
Develop, maintain, and guide the creation of Azure Networking intellectual property (IP), including reference architectures, migration frameworks, implementation guidance, design patterns, best practices, workshops, white papers, technical training, and reusable customer-facing assets.
Create and curate comprehensive guidance for customers migrating network architectures and workloads from on-premises environments and other cloud providers to Azure.
Educate internal teams, partners, and customers on Azure Networking capabilities, design principles, operational best practices, security, resiliency, performance, and governance.
Identify recurring customer challenges and industry trends and translate them into scalable guidance and enablement content that accelerates customer success.
Leverage AI-powered tools and automation to improve content development, architectural analysis, knowledge dissemination, and field enablement.
Product Advocacy and Engineering Engagement
Serve as a strategic liaison between customers, partners, field organizations, consulting teams, and Azure Networking product groups.
Represent customer and partner requirements to engineering teams and advocate for features, enhancements, and platform investments that improve customer outcomes.
Lead the collection and synthesis of customer feedback, implementation experiences, and market insights to influence Azure Networking product roadmaps.
Author and present technical depth papers, architectural recommendations, and customer-driven proposals that help shape future Azure Networking capabilities.
Act as the Voice of the Customer by identifying blockers, escalating systemic issues, and partnering with engineering teams to drive resolution.
Migration and Implementation Enablement
Support internal consulting, delivery, and migration execution teams in the design and implementation of Azure Networking solutions.
Provide architectural guidance for complex networking modernization efforts, hybrid cloud deployments, data center migrations, and multi-cloud networking scenarios.
Collaborate with delivery teams to validate designs and ensure alignment with Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and Well-Architected Framework principles.
Assist partners and field teams in overcoming technical barriers during large-scale migration and transformation engagements.
Develop repeatable migration methodologies, reference architectures, and deployment patterns that improve implementation consistency and customer outcomes.
Community and Technical Leadership
Serve as an Azure Networking evangelist across Microsoft, customer, partner, and community ecosystems.
Curate and deliver technical enablement through workshops, OpenHacks, LevelUps, conferences, and community engagements.
Maintain deep expertise in Azure Networking technologies, emerging cloud trends, competitive offerings, and industry best practices.
Foster collaboration across Microsoft teams to accelerate networking innovation, knowledge sharing, and technical excellence.
Other
Embody our culture and values.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 4+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
OR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements
Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role’s job duties.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and / or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire / transfer and every two years thereafter.
Additional or preferred qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 8+ years’ experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 6+ years’ experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
OR equivalent experience.
4+ years’ experience working in a customer-facing role (e.g., internal and/or external).
4+ years of hands-on experience designing and deploying core Azure Networking services (e.g., Virtual Network, ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Azure Firewall, Azure Virtual WAN, Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Front Door, and DNS), with strong command of network security, resiliency, and performance optimization
3+ years leading network modernization, data center migration, and hybrid or multi-cloud connectivity initiatives, including migrating network architectures and workloads from on-premises environments or other cloud providers to Azure.
Experience acting as a liaison between customers, partners, field teams, and product engineering groups — synthesizing customer feedback and market insights to influence product roadmaps and advocating for platform enhancements
Technical Certification in Cloud (e.g., Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, or security certifications).
Cloud Solution Architecture IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $137,600 - $222,600 per year.
- Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
- https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.
