Senior Cloud Architect

Senior Cloud Architect Contract One-year B2B contract Location Brussels (EU fully remote or 50% onsite in Brussels) Position Summary We are seeking an experienced Senior Cloud Architect to join the Cloud System Team. The Cloud System Team defines, engineers and continuously evolves the organisation's cloud capabilities, enabling secure, scalable and resilient cloud adoption across corporate, business-critical and highly critical operational workloads. The cloud environment is primarily based on Microsoft Azure and follows a landing zone model aligned with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. It uses Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps, policy-driven governance and self-service consumption to provide standardized cloud capabilities to application teams. The Senior Cloud Architect contributes to the design and evolution of cloud architectures, foundations and platform capabilities. The role supports cloud adoption, workload modernization and datacenter-to-cloud migration initiatives and provides architecture studies, solution designs and technical guidance. Working with Cloud Platform Engineering, Security, Cloud Run, Network, Enterprise Architecture and application teams, the architect helps ensure solutions are secure, resilient, supportable and aligned with approved architectural direction, including future multi-cloud capabilities. Key Tasks and Responsibilities The scope includes, but is not limited to: Cloud Architecture and Solution Design
• Contribute to the design and evolution of the Azure cloud platform, landing zones, and workload architectures.
• Produce architecture studies, HLDs, technical assessments, reference patterns and option analyses for complex cloud initiatives.
• Support workload onboarding, critical workload architecture, application modernization and datacenter-to-cloud migration initiatives. Cloud Governance, Security and Standards
• Contribute to cloud architecture principles, standards, governance requirements and policies.
• Define architecture guidance for Zero Trust, identity, privileged access, network isolation, Private Link and Azure-native security capabilities.
• Ensure alignment between business, security, compliance, operational and platform requirements. Cloud Networking Architecture
• Define architecture patterns for Virtual WAN, hub-and-spoke, ExpressRoute, VPN, routing, segmentation and hybrid connectivity.
• Guide multi-region networking, Private Link, traffic inspection and third-party networking or SD-WAN integration.
• Collaborate with Network and Platform Engineering teams to ensure designs are secure, implementable and operationally supportable. Resilience and Operational Architecture
• Define architecture patterns for highly available, zone-redundant, multi-region and highly critical workloads.
• Define backup, disaster recovery, recoverability and operational continuity approaches aligned with availability, RTO and RPO requirements.
• Ensure solutions are observable, supportable, maintainable and operationally viable in collaboration with Cloud Run and application teams. Application and Platform Engineering Enablement
• Guide application teams and projects on Azure service selection, architecture trade-offs, migration approaches and modernization options.
• Work with Cloud Platform Engineers to translate approved architecture into reusable platform services and self-service capabilities.
• Review designs, identify constraints and risks, and promote reuse, standardization and automation. Technology Strategy and Innovation
• Conduct technology evaluations, proofs of concept and architecture assessments for new Azure and cloud capabilities.
• Contribute to cloud roadmaps, datacenter exit and cloud transformation initiatives and future multi-cloud scenarios.
• Assess strategic options, technical debt, simplification opportunities and long-term platform evolution. Collaboration, Documentation and Knowledge Sharing
• Collaborate with Cloud Platform Engineering, Cloud Run, Security, Network, Enterprise Architecture and application teams.
• Facilitate architecture reviews, design workshops and technical decision-making within the established design authority.
• Maintain HLDs, reference architectures, architecture decisions, design guidance and knowledge-sharing material. Job Requirements Technical Competencies and Experience
• Proven expertise in designing and governing enterprise-scale cloud architectures and cloud operating models.
• Extensive expertise in Microsoft Azure architecture, cloud adoption and landing zone design aligned with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework.
• Proven expertise producing HLDs, architecture studies, assessments, reference patterns and technical recommendations for complex cloud initiatives.
• Proven architecture expertise in datacenter-to-cloud migrations, workload discovery and assessment, migration strategy, application modernization and transition planning.
• Proven expertise designing architectures for business-critical and highly critical operational workloads with demanding security, availability, resilience and continuity requirements.
• Strong expertise in cloud governance, policy-as-code, cloud security architecture, Zero Trust, Microsoft Entra ID and privileged access design.
• Strong expertise in Azure networking architecture, including Virtual WAN, hub-and-spoke, ExpressRoute, VPN, routing, segmentation, hybrid connectivity, Private Link and traffic inspection.
• Proven expertise designing highly available, zone-redundant, multi-region, backup and disaster-recovery architectures, including RTO and RPO considerations.
• Strong understanding of Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, platform engineering, Azure DevOps and DevSecOps operating models.
• Proven ability to assess technology and migration options, architecture trade-offs, implementation constraints, operational impacts and long-term platform evolution.
• Excellent architecture documentation, workshop facilitation, stakeholder engagement and technical communication capabilities.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with Security, Platform Engineering, Network, Operations, Enterprise Architecture and application stakeholders.
• Proven knowledge of AWS architecture and multi-cloud design principles is considered an advantage. Level of Education University degree of four years in a relevant domain, such as Computer Science or Information Technology, or equivalent professional experience. Professional Certifications and Training Required certification
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert Preferred certifications
• Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert Considered an advantage
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect
- Professional
• TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Practitioner or equivalent Behavioural Competences
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to facilitate architecture reviews, technical discussions and design workshops.
• Ability to balance strategic direction, risk and governance with practical implementation realities.
• Continuous learning mindset and ability to drive architectural improvements across multidisciplinary teams.
• Collaborative and communicative, with the ability to work effectively in multi-disciplinary and geographically distributed environments.