.NET Technical Architect (Hands-on) - Azure Cloud & Modernisation

Role Summary

We are looking for a hands-on .NET Technical Architect to lead the evolution of secure Legacy and cloud-native platforms within a highly regulated environment.

This is not a governance-only architecture role. You will be Embedded within delivery teams, working across development, DevOps, and data layers to ensure solutions are scalable, resilient, and operationally excellent.

You will combine deep technical expertise with pragmatic decision-making - balancing delivery speed, reliability, cost, and security using Azure Well-Architected principles and modern DORA performance metrics.

What You'll Be Doing:

Architecture & Engineering

• Design scalable and resilient Azure cloud architectures using Microsoft .NET technologies.
• Apply the Azure Well-Architected Framework across reliability, security, cost optimisation and operational excellence.
• Stay hands-on by reviewing:
  • Application code
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Infrastructure-as-Code
  • Database design and performance

DevOps & Delivery Excellence

• Drive DevOps maturity and improve DORA metrics:
  • Lead Time for Changes
  • Deployment Frequency
  • Change Failure Rate
  • Mean Time to Restore (MTTR)
• Define and evolve CI/CD pipeline architecture and Git workflows.
• Collaborate with developers and automation testers to improve delivery flow.

Data & Integration

• Guide enterprise database architecture decisions:
  • Relational and NoSQL solutions
  • Performance optimisation and indexing strategies
• Define modern integration patterns:
  • APIs and microservices
  • Event-driven architecture
  • Distributed systems

Security, Risk & Stakeholder Engagement

• Lead architecture and threat modelling reviews.
• Design for secure and regulated environments.
• Engage directly with stakeholders to explain trade-offs, risks, and long-term impacts.
• Identify opportunities to modernise Legacy platforms.
• Establish and promote coding, configuration and architecture standards.
• Document architecture decisions in SharePoint/Wiki/Git.

Required Skills & Experience

• Extensive hands-on experience with C# and modern .NET (.NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET 6+)
• Proven experience as a hands-on Technical Architect in cloud environments
• Strong expertise in Microsoft Azure (AWS experience is a plus)
• Deep understanding of Well-Architected Framework principles
• Experience improving engineering performance using DORA-aligned practices
• Strong knowledge of:
  • DevOps pipelines and Git workflows
  • Infrastructure automation and CI/CD
  • Distributed systems and API-driven architectures
  • Enterprise database design and optimisation
• Experience working in secure or regulated environments
• Knowledge of security frameworks and compliance standards
• Excellent communication and documentation skills
• Pragmatic approach balancing innovation, stability and risk

Desirable Experience

• Modernising Legacy systems to cloud-native architectures
• Containerisation and orchestration (Docker, AKS, EKS)
• Infrastructure as Code (Bicep, Terraform)
• Observability and monitoring (logging, tracing, metrics)
• High-availability or citizen-facing systems
• DevOps/DevSecOps practices
• Hybrid cloud and on-prem integration