Azure Platform Architect

Join one of the fastest growing, most dynamic companies in the furniture industry. For over 25 years, Four Hands has been a leading designer and wholesaler of furniture and décor, helping people create spaces that feel like home.  Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies and named one of Austin’s Top Workplaces year after year. We invest in exceptional people — with a team of over 800 and growing — fostering our employees’ careers and celebrating them at every step of the way. Four Hands is where passion meets purpose and where your next chapter begins. The Azure Platform Architect establishes and maintains the enterprise standards, reference architectures, and Infrastructure as Code foundations that enable Four Hands teams to build on Microsoft Azure securely, consistently, and cost-effectively. This is a hands-on senior level individual contributor role — the architect writes the reference implementations, publishes reusable templates, and serves as the trusted advisor for teams delivering Azure workloads.   Four Hands is at the beginning of its cloud maturity journey. Today, most Azure workloads are provisioned through the portal. This role will lead the transition to a codified, template-driven delivery model — without introducing friction that slows teams down. As the platform matures, the architect provides operational depth on Azure administration, serving as a peer and backup to the existing Azure Administrator to ensure continuity of service during planned absences and incident response.   In This Role Platform Standards and Governance   Establish and maintain the Azure landing zone architecture — subscriptions, management groups, network topology, and Microsoft Entra ID integration   Define and publish enterprise standards for resource naming, tagging, subscription organization, and workload lifecycle   Own the Architecture Decision Record (ADR) process for platform-level decisions and maintain the decision history   Chair the periodic architecture review forum and set the agenda for platform standards evolution   Infrastructure as Code   Select and maintain the enterprise Infrastructure as Code standard (Bicep, Terraform, or hybrid), including the rationale for the choice   Build and maintain a reusable module library for the Azure workload patterns Four Hands deploys most often   Establish CI/CD patterns for infrastructure delivery, including linting, policy-as-code, drift detection, and secure secrets handling   Lead the practical migration from portal-based provisioning to codified delivery, prioritizing workloads where the return is highest   Reference Architectures and Templates   Publish reference architectures for the workload archetypes Four Hands deploys, such as web application with SQL, containerized workload, data pipeline, integration service, and static site   Maintain a template library that delivery teams can consume with minimal customization   Document opinionated patterns for cross-cutting needs including secrets management, private networking, hybrid connectivity, monitoring, and backup   Advisory and Architecture Review   Serve as the primary technical advisor for teams designing new Azure workloads, engaging during design phase rather than after deployment   Operate in an advisory capacity by default. Formal approval is reserved for a narrow set of high-impact decisions, including new subscription creation, workloads touching PCI-scoped data, cross-tenant integration, and deployments exceeding defined cost thresholds   Partner with the Security and Compliance team on identity, network, and data control architecture within Azure workloads   Escalate policy exceptions and cross-team architectural conflicts to the VP of Infrastructure   Operational Backup and Azure Administration   Provide backup coverage for the Azure Administrator during planned time off, holidays, and incident response — with sufficient operational proficiency to execute without a ramp period   Maintain day-to-day working knowledge of Azure administrative tasks including subscription management, RBAC assignments, resource provisioning, cost review, and platform-level break-fix support   Cross-train continuously with the Azure Administrator to ensure no single point of failure on operational knowledge and to keep documentation current   Participate in the platform on-call rotation as needed for cloud-level incidents   Adjacent Platform Collaboration   Partner with the Enterprise Data and Governance team on Microsoft Fabric and Power Platform architecture , providing platform-level guidance while respecting data team ownership of workspace design and content governance   Collaborate with the Identity and Access Management function on Entra ID architecture as it applies to Azure resource access   Contribute to FinOps standards, tagging discipline, resource optimization patterns, and budget guardrails — in partnership with the FinOps function. Not accountable for FinOps program execution   Other Duties   Other duties as assigned, in accordance with training and qualifications   Uphold the Core Values and be a valuable member of the Four Hands team   Be open and honest   Reach for excellence   Act with responsibility  Value the whole person    Enjoy the journey   The Ideal Person 7+ years of enterprise IT experience, with 4+ years in hands-on Azure architecture and administration roles   Deep production experience with Azure infrastructure services: compute, networking, storage, identity, and governance   Demonstrated production use of Infrastructure as Code (Bicep, Terraform, or ARM) at enterprise scale, including module design and CI/CD integration   Proven track record of establishing standards, reference patterns, and reusable templates in an environment maturing from ad hoc to codified delivery   Working knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID architecture, Azure RBAC, Azure Policy, and management group hierarchies   Ability to serve as an operational Azure administrator without a ramp period — comfortable executing day-to-day administrative tasks under time pressure   Strong written communication — this role produces standards documents, reference architectures, and decision records that teams need to actually use   Demonstrated ability to influence and drive adoption without formal authority   AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert), AZ-400 (DevOps Engineer Expert), or AZ-104 (Administrator Associate) Certifications preferred   About Four Hands Headquartered in Austin, Texas, since 1996, Four Hands crafts furniture, art and décor — pieces that are all about creating space. Timeless, thoughtful designs with endless possibilities. Pieces meant to be experienced and form a whole that feels like home.  Our trade customers range from interior designers to large retailers who rely on our expertise to grow and guide their business to success. We treat our partners as part of the Four Hands family, championing them and rooting for their every win. And, we are constantly pursuing better — from sourcing the finest materials and finishes to seeking fresh inspiration to elevate our designs — we are never settled, never done. Four Hands is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Four Hands recruits qualified applicants and advances in employment its employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, ethnic or national origin, marital status, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. Visit  www.FourHands.com for more information.