Principal Consultant Azure Platform

Job Description
Role Principal Consultant
Technology Azure Platform Architecture Infrastructure/ Cloud Engineering
Location London
Compensation Competitive (including bonus)

Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Azure Platform Consultant to own and govern the enterprise Azure platform spanning platform design service provisioning automation operations Fin Ops led cost governance CI/CD enablement performance security assurance and regulatory compliance.

This role defines how Azure is designed consumed secured and operated at scale acting as the central platform authority while coordinating with Cloud Infrastructure (CIS) Network Security and Data Platform architects. The focus is on delivering a secure performant cost transparent and compliant Azure platform for high scale and regulated digital environments.

Key Responsibilities
Azure Platform Architecture & Governance
Own the end to end Azure platform architecture including landing zones subscription models shared services connectivity and PaaS foundations.
Define and enforce enterprise standards for subscriptions resource hierarchies tagging naming RBAC networking and Azure Policy.
Act as design authority for platform level decisions aligned with the Azure Well Architected Framework.

Service Provisioning & Automation
Define standardized self service Azure platform services for application and data teams.
Lead Infrastructure as Code and platform automation using Terraform Bicep or ARM with reusable blueprints and reference implementations.
Ensure all platform services are secure by design zero trust aligned and consistently deployed across environments.

CI/CD & Dev Sec Ops  Engineering
Define and govern CI/CD standards and reference pipelines for platform and infrastructure deployments using Azure Dev Ops and/or Git Hub Actions.
Embed Dev Sec Ops  practices into platform pipelines including policy as code secrets management security scanning and automated compliance checks.
Enable safe and repeatable deployment patterns (e.g. blue/green rolling upgrades) for shared platform components.
Partner with engineering teams to ensure CI/CD pipelines align with platform guardrails security controls and cost governance.

Fin Ops Cost Monitoring & Optimization
Own the Azure Fin Ops strategy embedding cost management into platform architecture service design and delivery processes.
Define and enforce mandatory tagging cost allocation (showback/chargeback) budgets alerts and forecasting models.
Establish cost monitoring and usage transparency dashboards for platform product and delivery teams.
Drive architectural and operational decisions that optimise cost to performance scalability and resilience.
Act as the primary interface between platform operations and finance stakeholders on cloud cost accountability.

Performance Engineering & Troubleshooting
Define platform level performance and scalability guardrails for compute storage networking and PaaS services.
Lead investigation of performance bottlenecks capacity constraints and scaling limits at the platform layer.
Support complex root cause analysis in collaboration with application data and infrastructure teams.
Ensure proactive monitoring telemetry and alerting are embedded into the platform by default.

Security Assurance & Regulatory Compliance (UK)
Embed security by design and zero trust principles across all platform components.
Support and lead security audits assurance reviews penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.
Ensure platform alignment with UK regulated industry requirements including:
oNCSC Cloud Security Principles
oCyber Essentials (CE) and Cyber Essentials Plus (CE)
oUK GDPR covering data protection access control auditability and data residency
Ensure the platform is audit ready by design with clear evidence logging and policy as code controls.

Cross Architecture Leadership
Coordinate closely with CIS/Infrastructure Security Network and Data Platform architects to ensure aligned designs and shared guardrails.
Lead architecture reviews governance forums and Azure platform roadmap discussions.
Mentor senior engineers and architects raising overall cloud and platform maturity.

Required Experience & Skills
Strong working experience in infrastructure/cloud engineering with proven experience owning or leading Azure platforms at enterprise scale.
Deep expertise in Azure landing zones networking Entra  monitoring and PaaS services.
Strong experience in CI/CD pipeline design and Dev Sec Ops  enablement.
Demonstrated experience in performance tuning troubleshooting and capacity planning.
Hands on experience with IaC automation and policy driven governance.
Proven experience supporting security audits penetration testing and compliance assessments.
Practical experience with NCSC guidance Cyber Essentials / CE and UK GDPR.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications & Experience
Azure certifications (AZ 305 AZ 400 AZ 700; Fin Ops Foundation preferred).
Experience in regulated or public sector environments.
Experience…