Cloud & Platform Technical Specialist

Sword is a leading provider of business technology solutions within the Energy, Public and Finance Sectors, driving real transformational change within our clients. We use proven technology, specialist teams and domain expertise to build solid technical foundations across platforms, data and business applications. We have a passion for using technology to solve business problems, working in partnership with our clients to help in achieving their goals.

Purpose of Role

• Provide specialist Azure design and architecture technical capability
• Provide expertise in Azure landing zones, networking, identity, virtual desktop, compute and storage services within the established target architecture and standards
• Act as technical point of reference for MSP and supplier delivery teams, working under the direction of the Lead Cloud & Platform Architect and escalating architectural decisions where needed

Purpose of Role

• Provide specialist Azure design and architecture technical capability
• Provide expertise in Azure landing zones, networking, identity, virtual desktop, compute and storage services within the established target architecture and standards
• Act as technical point of reference for MSP and supplier delivery teams, working under the direction of the Lead Cloud & Platform Architect and escalating architectural decisions where needed

Requirements

• Extensive experience in cloud or infrastructure engineering with significant recent hands-on Microsoft Azure experience, including at least one enterprise Azure migration and work in MSP- or supplier-delivered environments
• Azure Landing Zones, governance and Azure Policy; Azure networking, Virtual WAN (vWAN) and hybrid connectivity
• Entra ID, Active Directory, RBAC and DNS; Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) design and engineering
• Azure VM, GPU and HPC workloads; enterprise storage, NAS/Nasuni and large-scale data migration
• Azure security, firewalls and Private Endpoints; Terraform/Bicep, PowerShell and Azure CLI automation
• Azure Migrate, workload assessment and migration execution; Azure Monitor, backup, disaster recovery and operational support
• Microsoft Azure certification: AZ-104 (Azure Administrator Associate) and/or AZ-700 (Azure Networking Solutions)

Preferred Experience

• Additional Azure certifications (e.g. AZ-305, AZ-500 or AZ-140) and awareness of Zero Trust principles
• Exposure to AWS; experience in regulated, critical-infrastructure or energy sector environments.
• Degree in a relevant discipline, or equivalent experience

Benefits

At Sword, our core values and culture are based on caring about our people, investing in training and career development, and building inclusive teams where we are all encouraged to contribute to achieve success. We offer comprehensive benefits designed to support your professional development and enhance your overall quality of life. In addition to a Competitive Salary, here's what you can expect as part of our benefits package: 

• Personalised Career Development: We create a development plan customised to your goals and aspirations, with a range of learning and development opportunities within a culture that encourages growth. 
• Flexible working: Flexible work arrangements to support your work-life balance. We can’t promise to always be able to meet every request, however, are keen to discuss your individual preferences to make it work where we can. 
• A Fantastic Benefits Package: This includes generous annual leave allowance, enhanced family friendly benefits, pension scheme, access to private health, well-being, and insurance schemes.

At Sword we are dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, ensuring that all applicants receive fair and equal consideration for employment, regardless of whether they meet every requirement. If you don’t tick all the boxes but feel you have some of the relevant skills and experience we’re looking for, please do consider applying and highlight your transferable skills and experience. We embrace diversity in all its forms, valuing individuals regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Your perspective and potential are important to us. 

If we can do anything to help make the hiring process more accessible, please let our talent acquisition team know when you apply so we can support any adjustments.