Azure Architect

Aalto University IT Services supports our researchers, teachers, students and other staff by producing world class services that make their work easier, more flexible, comprehensive and secure regardless of time and location. We are a community of over 140 committed and talented IT experts.

We are now looking for a

Azure Architect

To be a technical expert and to lead our Azure cloud computing platform.

Your role

As an Azure Architect you will directly lead and operate our extensive Azure computing infrastructure, which features over 70 subscriptions used for research, teaching, and joint service applications.

You will collaborate with our Azure, AWS and Google Cloud experts within the same team and in other teams. Your role will include identifying opportunities for further development, optimization and operational improvement of our environment. Your other stakeholders include internal IT services and customers, for example research groups leveraging cloud computing.

Aalto University is at the forefront of utilizing Cloud Computing in the education sector for targeted technological innovation, with a robust cloud computing strategy driving our accomplishments. Our recent and current projects include developing an OpenAI-enabled GPT service for Aaltonians, providing GPU-enabled jupyter notebooks for Stable Diffusion training in student projects, utilizing Azure cognitive services and creating large-scale datasets for various research applications.

Watch videos! Here you can find out what it is like to work in Aalto IT Services https://duunitori.fi/tyoelama/aalto-universitys-it-experts-in-spotlight

And here you can find what Aalto is all about https://www.youtube.com/user/aaltouniversity/featured

What we are looking for

In order to succeed and enjoy working in this position, we hope you have a strong background and a proven track record of successfully working on Azure environments, including:

• Ability to plan and consider the full lifecycle of the services (e.g., well-governed, automated, user-friendly), together with understanding best security practices in Azure (Infrastructure as a Code, IAM, networking, monitoring, logging, encryption)
• Technical hands-on experience on a sizable Azure computing environment.
• Careful and proactive approach.
• Proven critical-thinking skills and problem-solving attitude.          
• Bonus: knowing relevant programming language(s), and/or having relevant certifications

As a candidate, we wish you can work well both independently and with team members. You can take responsibility even during busy periods, and you possess strong cooperation, influencing and communication skills. Fluent in Finnish is essential, and strong English skills are highly desirable as our team primarily communicates in English. You are based in Finland.

More than anything, we hope you are passionate about your field of work and enthusiastic about constantly innovating, following the industry development in cloud computing, and learning something new together with others.

Ready to apply?

For more information about this position, please contact Mika Vatanen, IT Technology Lead, by phone (tel. +358 50 522 1025), best reached on:

• Monday 18.9. between 11.30 – 12.30,
• Wednesday 20.9. between 15.00 – 16.00 or
• Wednesday 27.9. between 9.00 – 10.00

Please apply by sending your application via the link below by the Sunday 8th of October 2023. As we are eager to find the right game changer to join our team, we will start reviewing applications immediately.

Read more about us and the position here

Your Responsibilities

• Lead and operate our Azure computing environment, ensuring a well-governed (Secure, Compliant, FinOps), automated (Infrastructure as a Code) and user-friendly environment for our customers.
• Actively develop our Azure computing environment and operating model, while maintaining a Keep Business Running mindset. Plan for short-term and long-term architecture while ensuring documentation at the appropriate level.
• Communicate with the stakeholders, primarily by guiding in the use of our Azure computing environment. Depending on your workload, you may also provide consulting support for targeted use cases (for example in the AI), sharing your valuable expertise to guarantee the continued success of our cutting-edge research and teaching projects.

One of your initial tasks will be planning our infrastructure DevOps pipeline utilizing a Infrastructure as a Code approach, with automatic policy implementations. Other priorities include platform Azure templates, implementing network automation, enhancing our security policies, developing tagging automation and subscription lifecycle automation.

Please note that Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and other Microsoft services such as 365 and Power Platform are managed by different teams.

What we offer

As a key contributor at Aalto, you will play a significant role in enabling innovative, scalable, and on-demand solutions that leverage the latest cloud computing technology trends, while building our Azure cloud computing environment with a long-term view. You will be exposed to cutting-edge research, including in the growing field of generative AI and be responsible for steering the platform's evolution as the Azure lead, witnessing results along the way. Our environment is sizable, with continued development expected in the future.

You will get to shape the position based on your interests and views. As a member of our Cloud & Apps team, you will work closely with our skilled cloud computing professionals. Our team includes staff experienced with Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform environments, fostering a collaborative atmosphere that encourages open communication and the sharing of best practices.

We offer great opportunities for skill enhancement and career progression - beyond your core duties, you will have the chance to broaden your knowledge through peer learning, specialized training, and certifications. We are committed to your wellbeing, providing flexible working hours and location arrangements to suit your working style. We will collaborate with you to create the best possible work experience during your employment at Aalto University!

Your work will have direct impact to the research, teaching and societal impact at Aalto University, while providing the enabling grounds for further development of important fields such as sustainability. Aalto University's unique technical landscape features a diverse IT environment, utilizing cutting-edge technology and groundbreaking research. Our extensive in-house IT resources and capabilities empower us to experiment and pursue long-term IT development.