Cloud & FinOps / Azure Architect

Cloud & FinOps / Azure Architect
About the Company

Our client is a globally recognized beauty and personal care retailer specializing in skincare, body care, hair care, cosmetics, and fragrances. Founded in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, the company has built a strong reputation for offering high-quality products made with naturally inspired ingredients while promoting ethical and sustainable business practices.

The organization is committed to cruelty-free beauty, responsible sourcing, environmental sustainability, and supporting communities through fair trade initiatives. Its mission extends beyond selling beauty products by advocating for social and environmental causes, including human rights, animal welfare, and reducing environmental impact.

With a strong international presence through retail stores, franchise partners, and e-commerce platforms, the organization serves millions of customers worldwide. It continues to innovate by developing eco-friendly packaging, expanding refill programs, and creating products that align with the growing demand for sustainable and ethically produced beauty solutions.

Today, it is recognized as one of the world's leading ethical beauty brands, combining quality products with a purpose-driven approach to business and a commitment to making a positive impact on people and the planet.

Position: Cloud & FinOps / Azure Architect

We are seeking an experienced Cloud & FinOps / Azure Architect to lead the governance, architecture, security, and cost optimization of our Microsoft Azure environment.

This is a strategic leadership role responsible for designing scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud solutions while overseeing an enterprise Azure estate containing more than 20 years of historical data. You will drive our FinOps strategy, optimize cloud spending, define data lifecycle management, and architect modern Azure data platforms that balance performance, scalability, and cost.

If you're passionate about Azure architecture, cloud financial management, and enterprise data platforms, we'd love to hear from you.
Key Responsibilities
Azure Architecture & Governance

- Lead the architecture, governance, and strategic direction of the Microsoft Azure environment.

- Design scalable, secure, resilient, and cost-effective cloud solutions.

- Establish and maintain Azure governance standards, policies, and best practices.

- Review and approve technical designs to ensure architectural consistency, security, and cost efficiency.

- Promote cost optimization as a core architectural principle across all cloud initiatives.

FinOps & Cloud Cost Optimization

- Define and implement an enterprise-wide Azure FinOps framework.

- Drive cloud cost transparency, budgeting, forecasting, and financial accountability through show back and chargeback models.

- Establish cost guardrails, budgets, and anomaly detection processes.

- Optimize Azure spending across:
- Storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive)

- Compute resources (Reserved Instances, Autoscaling, Shutdown Policies)

- Backup and disaster recovery strategies

- Licensing and reserved capacity

- Partner closely with Finance and business stakeholders to maximize cloud ROI.

Azure Data Strategy & Lifecycle Management

- Develop and implement an enterprise data lifecycle strategy for more than 20 years of historical data.

- Define data classification policies for active, inactive, and archival data.

- Design tiered Azure storage strategies aligned with business and compliance requirements.

- Lead data rationalization initiatives by identifying redundant, obsolete, trivial (ROT), and duplicate data.

- Optimize backup strategies by aligning recovery objectives (RPO/RTO) with business criticality.

- Implement data compression, partitioning, pruning, and lifecycle policies to reduce long-term storage costs.

Azure Data Platform Architecture

- Own the architecture of enterprise Azure data platforms, including:
- Azure Data Lake

- Azure Data