Solution Area Lead-Infrastructure/Azure Platform

About this role

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
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• .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
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• 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.
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