Cloud Platform Senior Consultant

As a Cloud Platform Senior Consultant within the Cloud Platform and Security Team, you will lead the design, implementation, and ongoing management of Azure platform solutions for our clients. You will take a senior technical lead on engagements, covering the full breadth of the Azure platform from landing zones, networking, and identity through to security, governance, cost optimisation, and operations, and ensuring that client environments are well-architected, secure, and operationally resilient.

You will guide clients on platform design decisions, lead discovery and implementation engagements, and work closely with internal data platform and security colleagues to deliver end-to-end solutions. As part of a data-focused consultancy, you will often design and manage the Azure infrastructure that underpins clients’ data and AI workloads, but your expertise and remit will span the Azure platform as a whole.

You will bring a strong mix of technical depth and consultancy skills, with the ability to engage senior client stakeholders, translate complex platform concepts into practical recommendations, and take ownership of delivery quality. You will contribute to the growth of the Cloud Platform and Security Team, mentor and support colleagues, and help develop reusable accelerators, patterns, and internal guidance.

Skills and Attributes Required

• Experience leading client engagements as the senior technical consultant, owning delivery quality from discovery through to handover.
• Able to explain platform design decisions clearly, in writing and in person, to both technical teams and senior business stakeholders.
• Able to run several engagements at once and keep them moving without close day-to-day oversight.
• Must hold, or be able to obtain, SC and NPPV3 clearance.

Advantageous Qualifications and Skills

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305).
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104).
• Microsoft Certified: Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (SC-500), or the Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) it replaces.
• Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300).
• Experience with Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Purview, or other Microsoft data platform and governance technologies.
• Experience with Microsoft Sentinel and the wider Microsoft Defender suite.
• Presenting skills and confidence speaking in front of an audience.
• Experience working with NHS, police, local government, or regulated private sector clients.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Platform and Infrastructure

• Lead the design and implementation of Azure infrastructure solutions, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security across a range of client environments.
• Design and build Azure landing zones for clients, including management group hierarchy, subscription design, and policy-driven governance.
• Build and maintain infrastructure as code and automated deployment pipelines for client environments.
• Design client network architectures, including hybrid connectivity to on-premises environments.
• Implement and maintain identity and security controls across client Azure estates.
• Manage and optimise Azure resources for performance and cost efficiency, applying FinOps principles.
• Lead Azure migration and modernisation engagements, including assessment, planning, and execution.
• Design and manage the Azure infrastructure that underpins the data and AI solutions delivered by the wider Simpson Associates team.
• Monitor and troubleshoot cloud infrastructure to ensure high availability and performance, contributing to managed service operations where required.
• Once security clearance is in place, join the team's paid on-call rota, taking turns with colleagues to support managed service customers.

Client Delivery and Stakeholder Management

• Lead client engagements with confidence, taking ownership of delivery quality and managing client relationships throughout the engagement lifecycle.
• Plan and facilitate discovery workshops, technical design sessions, and stakeholder reviews, adapting communication style to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Produce high-quality client-facing deliverables including architecture documentation, implementation plans, and technical guidance.
• Support pre-sales activity, including scoping and estimating work and contributing to proposals and bid responses.
• Contribute to the development of reusable accelerators, delivery frameworks, and internal knowledge across the Cloud Platform and Security Team.
• Mentor and support the development of other consultants within the team, providing technical guidance and reviewing delivery quality.

Technical Requirements

• Strong hands-on experience designing and implementing Azure infrastructure solutions in client-facing or complex enterprise environments.
• Experience designing and deploying Azure landing zones, with working knowledge of the Cloud Adoption Framework and Azure Well-Architected Framework.
• Proficiency with infrastructure as code using Azure Bicep and/or Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Strong knowledge of Azure networking including hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, private DNS zones, VNet peering, VPN, and ExpressRoute.
• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID including managed identities, service principals, Entra groups, and RBAC for Azure and Microsoft 365 workloads.
• Experience implementing Azure security controls including Azure Policy, Key Vault, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
• Understanding of Azure storage architecture (Azure Blob Storage, ADLS Gen2, Azure Files) including resilience, backup, and recovery options.
• Familiarity with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics for operational monitoring, alerting, and troubleshooting.
• Scripting and automation skills using PowerShell and/or the Azure CLI.

Benefits

Annual leave, starting at 25 days, increasing to 28 at 3 years and 30 at 5 years
Matched 4% salary pension contribution
Healthcare cashplan
Private medical cover (following successful completion of probation)
Wellbeing platform
Life assurance, paying 4x basic salary
Income protection insurance (after your first year)
Car salary sacrifice purchase scheme
Personal development through a structured and empowering approach
Flexible working schedules
Gifts on your birthday and Christmas
Cycle to Work salary sacrifice scheme
Tech salary sacrifice scheme

Originally posted on Himalayas