Azure Solution Architect- Agentic AI - Contract

Azure Solution Architect/Hands-on Platform Engineer (AI on Azure) Contract | UK Remote/Hybrid

We're looking for a hands-on Azure Solution Architect who can also operate as a Platform Engineer - someone who can design the target architecture and then get stuck in building it. You'll be working with a delivery team deploying AI capabilities on top of Microsoft Azure in a complex enterprise environment, where governance, security controls and platform customisation are the norm.

This is not a slideware role - you will be engineering day-to-day, automating platform build, enabling secure deployment paths, and supporting teams to run AI workloads reliably in production. What you'll be doing (hands-on)

• Building and engineering Azure platform components to support AI workloads (not just documenting them)
• Implementing enterprise-ready Azure foundations (networking, identity, security, governance)
• Deploying and operationalising AI services on Azure (eg Azure OpenAI/Azure ML/Cognitive Services)
• Creating/maintaining IaC and automation for repeatable environments and deployments
• Designing + implementing secure landing patterns (policy, RBAC, Key Vault, private endpoints)
• Supporting CI/CD and release processes for platform + AI services (DevOps enablement)
• Troubleshooting platform/infra issues and improving reliability/observability

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong, demonstrable hands-on engineering experience across Azure (build, automate, troubleshoot)
• Track record as an Azure Solution Architect delivering in enterprise environments
• Proven Platform Engineering capability (developer enablement, self-service, automation, standards)
• Enterprise customisation experience: working around policy constraints, bespoke network/security patterns, governance boards
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and/or Bicep/ARM (modules, state, pipelines, repeatability)
• Containers are a strong plus: AKS, Kubernetes, Docker, Helm
• CI/CD experience: Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions
• Strong stakeholder skills - but still an engineer who does the work
• Azure Landing Zones/CAF-aligned platform builds
• Observability: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, App Insights
• Experience deploying AI services with private networking/security constraints (enterprise patterns)

Start: ASAP Location: UK Remote/Hybrid Duration: Initial 6 months (extensions likely)

Please send across your updated CV if this is of interest

GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.

• Strong, demonstrable hands-on engineering experience across Azure (build, automate, troubleshoot)
• Track record as an Azure Solution Architect delivering in enterprise environments
• Proven Platform Engineering capability (developer enablement, self-service, automation, standards)
• Enterprise customisation experience: working around policy constraints, bespoke network/security patterns, governance boards
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and/or Bicep/ARM (modules, state, pipelines, repeatability)
• Containers are a strong plus: AKS, Kubernetes, Docker, Helm
• CI/CD experience: Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions
• Strong stakeholder skills - but still an engineer who does the work
• Azure Landing Zones/CAF-aligned platform builds
• Observability: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, App Insights
• Experience deploying AI services with private networking/security constraints (enterprise patterns)