The L3 Azure Sr. SME (Service Integrator) will be responsible for providing advanced technical support, integration, governance, and operational leadership across Azure cloud services. The role requires deep hands-on expertise in Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, monitoring, automation, and service management.

The candidate will act as a senior escalation point for complex Azure incidents, service integration issues, cloud platform changes, and cross-functional technical coordination. The role will also be responsible for driving operational excellence, automation, proactive monitoring, cost optimization, and platform reliability in line with Azure best practices such as reliability, security, cost optimization, operational excellence, and performance efficiency. Microsoft’s Azure Well-Architected Framework also emphasizes secure, reliable, performant, cost-optimized, and operationally excellent workloads.

1. Azure Cloud Operations & L3 Support

• Provide L3 support for Azure infrastructure and platform services.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across Azure compute, storage, networking, identity, monitoring, security, and backup services.
• Act as the final technical escalation point for P1/P2 incidents and critical service-impacting issues.
• Perform deep-dive root cause analysis and recommend permanent fixes.
• Participate in major incident bridges and customer technical calls.
• Ensure timely incident resolution in line with SLA and operational commitments.

2. Azure Service Integration

• Integrate Azure services with enterprise systems, monitoring platforms, ITSM tools, security tools, and automation workflows.
• Support service onboarding, transition, and integration of new Azure workloads into steady-state operations.
• Coordinate with application, infrastructure, network, security, DevOps, and service management teams.
• Ensure Azure services are integrated with monitoring, alerting, backup, patching, access management, and change processes.
• Maintain service integration documentation, runbooks, SOPs, and operational handover documents.

3. Azure Infrastructure Management

• Manage and support Azure services including:
  • Azure Virtual Machines
  • Virtual Networks, NSGs, UDRs, Azure Firewall, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute
  • Azure Storage Accounts
  • Azure Backup and Recovery Services Vault
  • Azure Site Recovery
  • Azure Monitor and Log Analytics
  • Azure Key Vault
  • Azure Policy
  • Azure App Services
  • Azure SQL / Managed Instance, where applicable
  • Azure Kubernetes Service, where applicable
• Support subscription, resource group, tagging, naming convention, and governance standards.
• Review platform health, capacity, availability, and resilience.

4. Monitoring, Observability & Automation

• Configure and manage Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, dashboards, and workbooks.
• Develop KQL queries for operational insights and troubleshooting.
• Automate repetitive tasks using Azure Automation, PowerShell, Azure CLI, Logic Apps, or DevOps pipelines.
• Drive proactive monitoring, self-healing, automated remediation, and operational efficiency initiatives.
• Microsoft identifies observability, automation, DevOps practices, and safe deployment practices as key areas of operational excellence in Azure workloads. [learn.microsoft.com]

5. Security, Governance & Compliance

• Implement and support Azure governance using Azure Policy, Management Groups, RBAC, Blueprints or equivalent governance controls.
• Review identity and access management using Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, PIM, MFA, and conditional access.
• Support vulnerability remediation, secure configuration, logging, and compliance requirements.
• Work with security teams to review Defender for Cloud recommendations and remediate risks.
• Ensure adherence to customer security standards and cloud governance policies.

Security & Compliance

• Understanding of cloud security controls.
• Experience with Defender for Cloud, Azure Security Center, secure score, and compliance recommendations.
• Good knowledge of RBAC, least privilege access, PIM, MFA, conditional access, and audit logging.
• Familiarity with ISO, SOC, ITIL, or customer-specific compliance frameworks.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in Azure migration projects.
• Experience with hybrid cloud environments.
• Knowledge of Windows Server, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy.
• Understanding of Linux administration.
• Experience with containers, AKS, or Kubernetes.
• Exposure to SQL, Azure SQL, or database platform support.
• Familiarity with FinOps practices.
• Experience with multi-vendor service integration.
• Experience working in large enterprise or managed services accounts.

Certifications

Mandatory / Strongly Preferred

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate – AZ-104

Preferred

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert – AZ-305
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate – AZ-700
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate – AZ-500
• ITIL Foundation certification
• Terraform Associate certification, if applicable