AZURE CLOUD ARCHITECT

ROLE: AZURE CLOUD ARCHITECT (BANKING-MULTI-REGION& ACTIVE-ACTIVE)
DOMAIN: FINANCIAL

THIS IS ONSITE HYBRID
CORP 2 CORP
INTERVIEW: TELEPHONIC & SKYPE

OVERALL EXPERIENCE 12YRS+ MUST HAVE WORKED AS ARCHITECT FOR 2 LONG TERM PROJECT

We are looking for a highly skilled Azure Cloud Architect with deep experience in banking and financial services to design and implement secure, compliant, and resilient cloud architectures. The role focuses on multi-region, active-active strategies to ensure zero/near-zero downtime, meet strict regulatory requirements, and support high-volume transactional systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement multi-region, active-active architectures for core banking, payments, and digital channels
• Build solutions that ensure high availability (99.99%+), low latency, and zero data loss (near-zero RPO)
• Architect real-time failover mechanisms across Azure regions with minimal service disruption
• Define and implement disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BCP) aligned with banking regulations
• Ensure compliance with financial regulatory standards such as:
o PCI DSS
o SOX
o GDPR (if applicable)
o FFIEC guidelines
• Design secure architectures incorporating:
o Zero Trust principles
o Network segmentation and private endpoints
o Encryption (at rest, in transit, and in use where applicable)
• Implement global traffic management using:
o Azure Front Door (WAF-enabled)
o Traffic Manager (latency/priority routing)
• Architect data replication and consistency strategies:
o Azure SQL Active Geo-Replication
o Cosmos DB multi-region writes (for globally distributed apps)
o Event-driven replication using Service Bus / Event Grid
• Ensure data residency, sovereignty, and auditability requirements are met
• Implement fraud detection and real-time analytics integration pipelines
• Collaborate with security and risk teams for threat modeling and compliance audits
• Lead architecture governance, design reviews, and regulatory assessments

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years in IT with 5+ years in cloud architecture within banking/financial services
• Proven experience designing highly available financial systems (payments, trading, digital banking)
• Deep expertise in:
o Multi-region Azure deployments
o Active-active architectures with real-time replication
o High-throughput, low-latency transaction systems
• Strong understanding of:
o RTO/RPO for financial workloads
o Data consistency vs availability trade-offs in financial transactions
o Secure API and Open Banking architectures
• Experience with:
o Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for microservices
o API Management (for Open Banking / PSD2 APIs)
o Identity solutions (Azure AD, Conditional Access, MFA)
• Hands-on with:
o Infrastructure as Code (Terraform / Bicep / ARM)
o CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions)

Preferred Qualifications

• Azure certifications:
o Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
o Azure Security Engineer Associate
• Experience with:
o Core Banking Systems modernization
o Payment gateways and SWIFT integrations
o ISO 20022 messaging standards
• Familiarity with:
o Basel III
o PSD2 (EU context)

Key Banking-Specific Concepts

• Active-Active for Payments Systems (no downtime tolerance)
• Data Integrity & Transaction Consistency (ACID compliance where required)
• Fraud Detection Integration with real-time streaming
• Audit Trails & Regulatory Reporting
• Segregation of Duties (SoD) and role-based access control
• Cybersecurity & Threat Detection (SIEM/SOAR integration)

Soft Skills

• Strong stakeholder management across risk, compliance, and audit teams
• Ability to translate regulatory requirements into technical architecture
• Leadership in high-pressure, mission-critical environments
• Excellent documentation and audit-readiness mindset

Nice to Have

• Experience with multi-cloud or hybrid banking environments
• Knowledge of digital banking platforms and fintech integrations
• Exposure to AI/ML use cases in fraud detection and credit risk