Location: UK-wide| Business Area: Digital| Salary Details: Competitive basic salary based on experience
You will provide strategic and technical leadership across large-scale Azure deployments, focusing on architecture, governance, security, automation, and migration. The role bridges technical delivery with stakeholder advisory, ensuring Azure solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned to enterprise cloud strategy.
agreat place to work, a great place to be a customer
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead design and implementation of Azure landing zones, subscription governance, and management group hierarchy.
- Define and enforce Azure Policies, RBAC, and identity models (including Entra ID design, PIM, Conditional Access, and hybrid integration).
- Architect and oversee infrastructure modernisation: networking, compute, storage, PaaS, and Kubernetes.
- Design and implement Bicep / Terraform infrastructure-as-code templates and DevOps pipelines.
- Advise on and configure Azure networking architectures (vWAN, hub-spoke, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, NSGs, Azure Firewall).
- Provide guidance on security and compliance frameworks (CIS, NIST, CAF, Well-Architected Framework).
- Drive cost optimisation (Azure Cost Management, reserved instances, right-sizing).
- Collaborate with SOC, SecOps, and App teams to integrate Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, and security baselines.
- Mentor engineers and review technical documentation, runbooks, and design artefacts.
Key Skills & Experience:
- 5+ years in enterprise-scale Azure (multi-subscription, or regulated environments).
Deep understanding of:
- Azure resource governance and subscription strategy.
- Azure security stack (Defender, Key Vault, Policy, RBAC).
- Experience with migrations and hybrid architecture (Azure Migrate, ASR).
- Strong background in cost management and FinOps principles.
- Excellent documentation, project planning and stakeholder communication skills.
- Azure certifications (e.g., AZ-305, AZ-500, SC-100, AZ-104) highly desirable.
More about you:
- Strong analytical and architectural mindset.
- Confident engaging C-level and technical stakeholders.
- Passionate about governance, automation, and continuous improvement.
- Self-starter who can lead solution design from concept to delivery.
What's in it for you?
Competitive basic salary plus additional benefits and growth opportunities.
Your Benefits at Chess:
- Private healthcare (free after 1 year)
- Eye tests, flu jabs, and on-site health checks
- Mental health support from trained First Aiders
- A Wellbeing Day after 1 year
- Hybrid working support with a home office allowance
- 20 days holiday (rising to 24 with service) plus bank holidays
- Buy or sell up to 5 holidays twice a year
- Perkbox discounts on shopping, travel, fitness, and more
- Points-based rewards from year 2
- Charity donation matching (up to £100)
- Recognition platform to celebrate your wins
- EE SIM offers for you and your family
- Learn 2 Earn scheme to boost your salary
- Team socials and celebrations
- Bespoke onboarding and leadership training
- Dedicated Culture Team to support you
A standard week is 37½ Monday to Friday
Flexible, hybrid position with a home-first working policy. Allowing you to enjoy the flexibility of working from home whilst also having the option to work from one of our many local hubs spread throughout the UK. Ad-hoc travel to offices within the group and other locations may be required on occasion.
Why Join Chess?
Chess is one of the UK's leading independent and trusted technology service providers, employing over 280 skilled people across the UK, supporting over 18,000 UK businesses.
Diversity, equality, and inclusion is at the heart of our Chess culture, and we are passionate about our One Team spirit.
We're extremely proud that our people voted us No.1 in 'The 100 Best Companies to Work for' list 2018, and we continue to celebrate more than 17 years in the top 100.
Our continued focus on growth creates opportunity for everyone to progress their career, to develop knowledge and skills, to gain reward and recognition and to maximise their potential. The growth and success of our people ensures the growth and success of our business.
At Chess ICT, we value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workforce. We want to make sure everyone has a fair chance and opportunity throughout the application process. If you require any adjustments during your application or interview, please feel comfortable reaching out to our recruitment team so we can support you.
We believe that "if you're not growing, we're not growing."
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