Principal Full-Stack Architect (.NET & Cloud)

Project description

Own and build the Azure platform that engineering, data, and business teams rely on. This is a hands-on senior role: you write production code for platform services and AI capabilities while holding design authority over how the wider estate is built and governed, in a regulated investment-management environment. You set the paved road — reference architectures, reusable components, and platform standards — and you build on it yourself.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture for the Azure platform: design authority, architecture reviews, technology selection, and trade-off decisions across speed, scalability, security, and cost.
• Establish cloud and platform operating models — governance frameworks, security standards, landing zones, reference architectures, and reusable platform components.
• Design and build platform services in .NET (C#) and Python through the full SDLC: planning, requirements, development, testing, and quality assurance.
• Develop RESTful APIs, microservices, and event-driven components (Service Bus, Event Hubs) to secure-integration standards (OAuth2/OIDC, managed identities).
• Design and deliver AI-enabled capabilities — document intelligence, retrieval/search (AI Search), and Azure OpenAI workloads over structured and unstructured data — and define the reference patterns other teams build from.
• Design and operate container-based platforms (Docker, AKS) and cloud-native data stores (Azure Cosmos DB, SQL), including secure data access patterns for AI use cases.
• Build and optimise CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code (Bicep/ARM, Terraform) across environments; enable self-service engineering capabilities, and own platform reliability, incident management, and root cause analysis.
• Partner with senior IT and business stakeholders on the platform narrative, adoption strategy, and delivery roadmap; mentor cross-functional teams on cloud-native and AI best practice.

SKILLS

Must have

• 12+ years IT experience, including 5+ years in a cloud architecture or platform leadership role.
• 7+ years hands-on Microsoft Azure — App Services, Functions, Logic Apps, AKS/Container Apps, APIM, Service Bus / Event Hubs, AI Search, AI Services / Azure OpenAI, Storage, Key Vault, Entra ID, Application Insights, Monitor.
• Demonstrated architecture ownership at enterprise scale — solution and platform architecture defined and delivered end-to-end, including presenting architectural strategy to senior leadership, while remaining hands-on in delivery. Single-application or purely project-level experience does not qualify.
• .NET / C# — 8+ years, currently hands-on. ASP.NET Core / Web API, Entity Framework Core, async and concurrency patterns, .NET Framework → .NET 8 migration. Production code on a current LTS version within the last 12 months is expected. Legacy-only profiles (.NET Framework, WebForms) do not qualify.
• Python — 2+ years production, service-level and current. Service frameworks (FastAPI or equivalent), packaging and dependency management, async patterns, testing, containerised deployment. Scripting-only experience does not qualify.
• 5+ years Docker and Kubernetes / AKS in production.
• 5+ years Azure DevOps, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code across multiple environments (Dev / SIT / UAT / Prod). Bicep/ARM mandatory; Terraform preferred.
• Production AI / GenAI delivery on Azure within the last 24 months — Azure OpenAI, AI Search, document intelligence, or equivalent. Proof-of-concept-only or pre-2024 experience does not qualify.
• Cloud security and identity — OAuth2/OIDC, managed identities, private networking, secrets management, and data classification and access control in a regulated context.
• Deep database expertise — relational SQL and NoSQL (Azure Cosmos DB), including data access patterns for AI use cases across structured and unstructured data.
• Experience in regulated environments — financial services, investment management, or comparable.
• Senior stakeholder engagement — proven track record presenting architecture and platform strategy to executive leadership and driving adoption.
• Certifications (screening gate) — Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (required, or obtainable within 90 days), plus at least one of: Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, Azure Security Engineer Associate.

Nice to have

• AWS and/or GCP exposure (multi-cloud evaluation experience) • Terraform in production • Python • Databricks (recent, Unity Catalog-era experience) or comparable data/AI platforms; Palantir exposure • Azure Security Engineer Associate • Experience establishing self-service platforms for citizen developers