Senior Azure and Server Engineer

Infrastructure ownership

• Serve as the primary technical owner and senior escalation point for Azure and server infrastructure across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments.
• Own infrastructure health, lifecycle management, technical standards, capacity planning and resolution of complex infrastructure issues.
• Maintain clear technical ownership across compute, storage, virtualisation, operating systems, identity dependencies, backup and recovery.
• Coordinate internal teams, Microsoft and service providers when incidents or changes span multiple technology areas.
• Ensure infrastructure risks, dependencies and technical debt are visible, prioritised and actively managed.

Architecture and solution design

• Own the technical architecture for new Azure and server infrastructure solutions.
• Translate business and application requirements into documented designs covering compute, storage, networking, identity dependencies, availability, security and recovery.
• Define scalable and supportable architecture patterns for Azure and hybrid infrastructure.
• Review existing architectures and recommend modernisation where it improves resilience, security, manageability or cost efficiency.
• Ensure designs receive required security, budget and change approvals before implementation.

New deployments and implementation

• Be accountable for planning and delivering new Azure and server infrastructure deployments.
• Lead provisioning, configuration, migrations, upgrades and production-readiness activities.
• Define implementation plans, technical dependencies, testing requirements, rollback procedures and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure new infrastructure includes monitoring, backup, security controls, documentation, ownership and operational handover before production acceptance.
• Provide senior technical oversight for complex infrastructure changes and migrations.

Environment fine-tuning and optimisation

• Continuously assess Azure and server performance and identify bottlenecks, configuration weaknesses and underutilised resources.
• Fine-tune compute, memory, storage, network and platform configurations based on monitoring data and business demand.
• Remove or retire unused resources and legacy dependencies through controlled lifecycle processes.
• Validate optimisation changes through monitoring, testing and measurable service outcomes.
• Balance performance improvements against reliability, security, operational complexity and cost.

Architecture recommendations and continuous improvement

• Proactively recommend improved Azure and server architectures rather than limiting the role to day-to-day support.
• Maintain a prioritised infrastructure improvement roadmap covering technical risks, legacy dependencies, modernisation opportunities, expected benefits and implementation priorities.
• Identify opportunities to simplify the infrastructure estate and reduce operational complexity.
• Provide technical recommendations supported by architecture, service data, risk and cost considerations.
• Drive agreed improvement initiatives through design, implementation, validation and handover.

Security and governance

• Implement and maintain infrastructure access controls, resource standards, policy compliance and secure configuration baselines.
• Coordinate operating-system patching, vulnerability remediation and infrastructure security reviews with Information Security.
• Apply role-based access control, least privilege and privileged-access controls across Azure and server administration.
• Ensure infrastructure changes and administrative actions are controlled, traceable and auditable.
• Provide technical evidence and remediation support for security reviews and audit findings.

Monitoring and incident leadership

• Maintain infrastructure monitoring, logging, dashboards and actionable alerting across Azure and server platforms.
• Lead technical investigation of major infrastructure incidents and coordinate recovery activities where required.
• Perform root-cause analysis and ensure preventive actions are identified, owned and completed.
• Use monitoring and operational data to identify developing availability, capacity and performance risks.
• Act as senior escalation support for complex Azure, server, storage, backup and hybrid-infrastructure issues.

Backup, disaster recovery and availability

• Own infrastructure backup, retention, restoration and disaster-recovery arrangements.
• Monitor backup health and ensure restore testing is performed and documented.
• Define appropriate resilience and recovery designs for infrastructure services according to business criticality.
• Maintain recovery procedures, dependencies, technical runbooks and recovery responsibilities.
• Lead or support disaster-recovery exercises and ensure identified remediation actions are completed.

Automation and deployment standards

• Standardise and automate repeatable infrastructure provisioning, configuration, validation and maintenance activities.
• Use PowerShell, Bicep, Terraform, Azure automation or approved equivalent tooling where appropriate.
• Maintain version-controlled infrastructure configurations, templates and deployment procedures.
• Implement testing and controlled change practices for automated and infrastructure-as-code deployments.
• Reduce manual effort, configuration drift and operational risk through automation and reusable standards.

Cost and capacity management

• Regularly review Azure utilisation, server capacity, growth, licensing implications and infrastructure expenditure.
• Recommend right-sizing, resource cleanup, scaling and lifecycle actions while protecting performance and availability.
• Maintain ownership and tagging standards that support cost transparency and accountability.
• Identify material cost risks and optimisation opportunities and provide clear recommendations to IT Operations leadership.
• Include expected cost impact in infrastructure architecture and modernisation recommendations.

Requirements

Expected deliverables

• Current Azure and server architecture diagrams and infrastructure inventories.
• Documented architecture and deployment standards for new infrastructure solutions.
• Operational runbooks, recovery procedures and support documentation.
• A prioritised infrastructure improvement and modernisation roadmap.
• Regular visibility of infrastructure health, deployments, performance, capacity, costs, risks and outstanding remediation actions.
• Complete technical handover packages for new or materially changed infrastructure services.

Required experience and skills

• Senior-level hands-on experience designing, deploying and operating Microsoft Azure and server infrastructure in business-critical environments.
• Strong practical experience with Azure compute, networking, storage, governance, monitoring, backup and recovery services.
• Deep experience administering Windows Server environments and working knowledge of Linux server platforms.
• Strong understanding of Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, hybrid identity and infrastructure authentication dependencies.
• Experience with Azure virtual networks, private connectivity, VPN, ExpressRoute, DNS, routing, network security groups and load balancing.
• Experience with VMware, Hyper-V or comparable virtualisation platforms and enterprise storage technologies.
• Proven ability to lead complex migrations, upgrades, incident investigations and production infrastructure changes.
• Experience with automation and infrastructure-as-code using PowerShell, Bicep, Terraform or comparable tooling.
• Ability to communicate architecture, risk, cost and technical decisions clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Clear professional English and the ability to work across countries, service providers and time zones.

Preferred qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• Relevant Microsoft Azure certifications such as Azure Administrator Associate and Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• Experience with Azure landing zones, Azure Policy, Defender for Cloud, Cost Management and hybrid-cloud governance.
• Relevant Windows Server, VMware, Linux, backup, security or ITIL certifications.
• Experience shaping infrastructure roadmaps and modernisation programmers in a global organisation.

Accountability and decision expectations

• Be accountable for the technical design, deployment, operation and continuous improvement of Piab Azure and server infrastructure within agreed business priorities and approval processes.
• Own senior technical decisions and recommendations within the approved architecture, security and change-governance framework.
• Escalate material availability, security, capacity, cost and lifecycle risks early, with evidence and a recommended action.
• Ensure production changes are appropriately reviewed, tested, approved and recoverable.
• Challenge legacy solutions and supplier recommendations where a safer, simpler or more cost-efficient architecture is available.
• Provide technical leadership and knowledge transfer to other members of Global IT Operations.

Success measures

• Azure and server services remain stable, secure, recoverable and appropriately sized for business demand.
• New infrastructure deployments meet documented design, security, testing, monitoring, backup and operational-readiness requirements.
• Complex incidents lead to documented root causes and completed preventive actions.

• Infrastructure improvement and modernisation work is prioritised against business value, technical risk and cost.
• Azure and server costs are visible, governed and actively optimised without compromising service requirements.
• Architecture diagrams, inventories, deployment standards, recovery documentation and operational runbooks remain current.
• Technical debt and legacy infrastructure risks are progressively reduced through owned improvement actions.

Key interfaces

• Head of IT Operations and Global IT Operations.
• Information Security, Network and Security, Service Desk, EUC and application teams.
• Piab business and application stakeholders requiring infrastructure services.
• Microsoft, managed-service providers and infrastructure technology partners.