Solution Area Lead-Infrastructure/Azure Platform

The Solution Area Lead Apps & Infrastructure drives growth, delivery excellence, and capability-building for Avanade’s Microsoft-powered application modernization and cloud infrastructure portfolio. You will shape strategy, build high-performing teams, lead complex client engagements, and partner closely with Microsoft to deliver measurable outcomes across cloud adoption, app modernization, DevOps, security, and operations. Key Responsibilities Practice & Portfolio Leadership Define and execute the Apps & Infra practice strategy aligned to Microsoft Cloud (Azure) and Avanade offerings. Own the portfolio across App Modernization, Cloud Infrastructure, Platform Engineering/DevOps, Cloud Operations, and Security-by-design. Build repeatable offers, accelerators, reference architectures, and playbooks for faster, consistent delivery. Establish governance for quality, risk, compliance, delivery assurance, and reusable IP. Client Advisory & Architecture Leadership Act as senior advisor to CIO/CTO/Heads of Engineering on: Application modernization (rehost/refactor/replatform/rebuild) Cloud landing zones and enterprise-scale platform design Resiliency, performance, security, and compliance frameworks Lead architecture and design reviews for large programs (multi-team, multi-region, regulated environments). Drive best practices across Azure Well-Architected, SRE principles, and modern engineering standards. Growth, Sales & Microsoft Partnership Own practice-level pipeline: identify opportunities, shape pursuits, and close deals. Lead pre-sales activities: solutioning, estimates, SoWs, proposals, and executive presentations. Build and maintain strong relationships with Microsoft stakeholders; co-sell and co-innovate. Develop industry-specific value propositions and demonstrate ROI (cost optimization, time-to-market, resilience, security posture). Delivery & Program Oversight Provide executive oversight for key accounts and programs; ensure delivery to scope, schedule, budget, and outcomes. Establish delivery metrics (velocity, quality, stability, availability, cost) and continuously improve. Sponsor complex migrations and transformations: Datacenter exit / cloud migration Hybrid/multi-cloud connectivity Enterprise DevSecOps rollouts People Leadership & Capability Building Build, mentor, and scale multi-disciplinary teams (architects, engineers, SRE, DevOps, cloud ops). Create career paths, skills matrices, learning plans, and certification targets. Drive hiring strategy and talent planning; build a strong bench and partner ecosystem. Microsoft-Centric Technical Scope (What you’re expected to be strong in) You don’t need to hands-on code daily, but you must be able to lead design decisions, challenge teams, and speak credibly with senior client stakeholders. Azure Cloud & Infrastructure Azure Landing Zones / enterprise-scale design (identity, network, security, governance) Hub-spoke, vWAN, Private Link, DNS, connectivity patterns Azure compute (VMs, AKS), storage, Azure SQL, PaaS patterns Resilience and DR patterns, multi-region architecture, observability Application Modernization Modernization strategies (6Rs), domain-driven modernization, microservices and event-driven design .NET modernization, containerization, API management patterns Integration with Microsoft ecosystem (Entra ID, Key Vault, Service Bus/Event Hubs, Functions, Logic Apps) DevSecOps & Platform Engineering GitHub / Azure DevOps, CI/CD, IaC (Terraform/Bicep), policy-as-code Secure SDLC, secrets management, supply-chain security Developer platform concepts (golden paths, reusable templates, inner-source . Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering (or equivalent experience). 15–20+ years in technology consulting, delivery, or engineering leadership with significant Microsoft/Azure depth. Proven leadership of large transformation programs and multi-million-dollar pursuits. Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills. .