Azure Integration Architect

Azure Integration Architect Platform Engineering & TIBCO Modernization (Onsite)Location: Chicago, IL (Onsite) must work 3-4 days in a week at client office.
Engagement Type: Contract

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Azure Integration Architect to lead the architecture, setup, and implementation of a new enterprise integration platform for a strategic client engagement in the Life Sciences domain. The role requires strong expertise in Microsoft Azure Integration Services, cloud infrastructure, platform provisioning, DevOps engineering, CI/CD automation, and enterprise integration architecture, along with the ability to assess and modernize the existing TIBCO integration landscape.

The architect will own the technical blueprint for establishing a secure, scalable, resilient, and operationally mature integration platform on Azure. This includes defining the target-state architecture, provisioning Azure services and environments, establishing infrastructure-as-code practices, implementing deployment pipelines, and integrating the platform with enterprise tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, SonarQube, source control, and monitoring solutions.

The role will also guide the coexistence and phased migration of existing TIBCO integrations to Azure Integration Services, ensuring business continuity, consistent governance, and controlled modernization.

This is a client-facing, onsite architecture role requiring strong technical leadership, executive communication, and the ability to work across enterprise architecture, infrastructure, security, operations, and delivery teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. Azure Integration Platform Architecture and Setup

• Define the target-state architecture and technical blueprint for a new enterprise integration platform on Microsoft Azure.
• Lead platform setup from the ground up, covering subscription and resource organization, environment strategy, networking, security, identity, connectivity, and operational readiness.
• Design the platform architecture using Azure Integration Services, including Azure API Management (APIM), Logic Apps, Azure Functions, Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs, and other applicable Azure services.
• Define development, testing, UAT, and production environment strategies, including segregation, configuration management, and promotion across environments.
• Establish reusable platform components, reference architectures, integration patterns, templates, and engineering standards.
• Define high availability, disaster recovery, backup, resiliency, scalability, performance, and capacity management approaches.
• Establish platform governance, naming conventions, tagging, resource organization, access controls, and Azure policy standards.
• Collaborate with cloud infrastructure and security teams to ensure the platform complies with enterprise architecture and Life Sciences security requirements.

2. Infrastructure Provisioning and Infrastructure as Code

• Design and implement automated Azure infrastructure provisioning using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates.
• Establish repeatable provisioning processes for integration services, networking, private endpoints, gateways, identity, and supporting Azure resources.
• Define infrastructure configuration, environment parameterization, secrets management, and configuration promotion practices.
• Implement role-based access control (RBAC), managed identities, Key Vault integration, and secure service-to-service authentication.
• Coordinate with network and security teams on private connectivity, DNS, firewall rules, certificates, TLS/mTLS, and enterprise connectivity requirements.
• Establish infrastructure versioning, deployment validation, drift detection, and controlled infrastructure changes.
• Define infrastructure readiness and operational handover criteria for each environment.

3. DevOps, CI/CD and Release Automation

• Define the DevOps operating model and engineering standards for the Azure integration platform.
• Design and implement CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Automate build, validation, packaging, deployment, configuration, and promotion of integration solutions across environments.
• Establish source control standards, branching strategies, pull-request reviews, versioning, artifact management, and release tagging.
• Implement automated quality gates, code analysis, security scanning, test automation, and deployment approvals.
• Integrate infrastructure-as-code deployment with application and API release pipelines.
• Define environment-specific configuration management and secure handling of credentials and secrets.
• Implement rollback, release recovery, deployment verification, and change traceability.
• Establish reusable pipeline templates and deployment accelerators to support multiple integration delivery teams.

4. Enterprise Toolchain Integration

• Architect and implement integration between the Azure platform delivery toolchain and enterprise systems, including:
• ServiceNow: Change management, release approvals, incident management, and operational workflows.
• Jira: Backlog management, requirements traceability, work-item tracking, and delivery status.
• SonarQube: Static code analysis, code-quality gates, technical debt monitoring, and pipeline integration.
• Azure DevOps/GitHub: Source control, work management, build pipelines, release automation, and artifact management.
• Monitoring and observability tools: Integration health, API performance, application logs, distributed tracing, alerts, and operational dashboards.
• Define toolchain integration patterns using APIs, webhooks, connectors, and automation workflows where appropriate.
• Establish traceability across requirements, code changes, builds, deployments, change requests, and production incidents.
• Implement automated notifications and workflow integrations to reduce manual handoffs between development, operations, and governance teams.
• Ensure tool integrations comply with enterprise authentication, authorization, audit, and security requirements.

5. TIBCO Integration Assessment and Modernization

• Assess the existing TIBCO integration landscape, including BusinessWorks processes, EMS queues and topics, Rendezvous messaging, adapters, APIs, dependencies, and operational constraints.
• Develop an inventory of interfaces and integration components, including complexity, criticality, technology dependencies, and migration readiness.
• Define migration strategies for re-platforming, re-engineering, consolidation, retirement, and coexistence.
• Map TIBCO components and integration patterns to appropriate Azure services based on functional requirements and non-functional considerations.
• Design phased migration and cutover approaches that minimize business disruption and preserve integration continuity.
• Establish migration patterns, reusable frameworks, architecture guidelines, and technical assessment templates.
• Define interface testing, reconciliation, parallel-run, rollback, and production validation approaches.
• Guide delivery teams through migration implementation, architecture reviews, technical issue resolution, and production transition.

6. Security, Governance and Operational Excellence

• Define end-to-end security architecture for APIs, messaging, integration workloads, identities, secrets, and external connectivity.
• Establish authentication and authorization standards, including OAuth 2.0, Microsoft Entra ID, managed identities, certificates, and mTLS where applicable.
• Define API security, throttling, rate limiting, network isolation, data protection, and audit requirements.
• Establish centralized logging, monitoring, alerting, distributed tracing, and operational dashboards.
• Define service-level objectives, availability targets, incident response, support processes, and operational ownership.
• Establish integration governance, architecture review processes, technical standards, and exception management.
• Support applicable Life Sciences compliance requirements, including GxP, auditability, and electronic-record controls where required by the client.

7. Architecture Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Lead architecture workshops, discovery sessions, technical design reviews, and platform readiness assessments.
• Collaborate with enterprise architects, infrastructure, security, DevOps, integration development, and operations teams across onsite and offshore locations.
• Translate business and technical requirements into implementation-ready architecture, platform designs, and engineering standards.
• Guide development teams on integration patterns, API design, asynchronous messaging, resiliency, scalability, and performance optimization.
• Provide technical estimates, implementation roadmaps, resource plans, and migration sequencing recommendations.
• Support solution proposals, architecture presentations, executive reviews, and strategic client discussions.
• Drive continuous improvement, reusable engineering assets, platform standardization, and cost optimization.

Required Skills and Experience

• 15+ years of overall IT experience, with substantial experience in enterprise integration architecture, cloud platform engineering, and integration modernization.
• Strong hands-on architecture experience with Microsoft Azure and Azure Integration Services.
• Proven experience designing and establishing enterprise integration platforms from the ground up.
• Strong expertise in Azure APIM, Logic Apps, Azure Functions, Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs, and related integration capabilities.
• Experience with Azure subscriptions, resource organization, networking, private endpoints, identity, access management, Key Vault, and environment provisioning.
• Strong experience with Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, or equivalent infrastructure-as-code technologies.
• Proven experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Experience integrating ServiceNow, Jira, SonarQube, source control, monitoring, and other enterprise tools into delivery and operational workflows.
• Strong understanding of API-led connectivity, REST/SOAP services, messaging, event-driven architecture, asynchronous processing, and distributed systems.
• Experience with API security, OAuth 2.0, certificates, TLS/mTLS, managed identities, secrets management, and enterprise network security.
• Expertise in logging, monitoring, distributed tracing, alerting, performance management, and production support readiness.
• Strong understanding of high availability, disaster recovery, resiliency, scalability, and cloud cost optimization.
• Experience with TIBCO BusinessWorks 5.x/6.x, BWCE, EMS, Rendezvous, adapters, and TIBCO administration tools.
• Experience assessing legacy integrations and defining migration strategies from TIBCO to Azure Integration Services.
• Ability to lead architecture decisions, resolve technical dependencies, and establish engineering standards for distributed teams.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and client-facing presentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Life Sciences, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, or other regulated enterprise environments.
• Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert or equivalent Azure certification.
• TIBCO architecture or development certifications.
• Experience with enterprise platform engineering, landing-zone integration, cloud governance, and Azure Policy.
• Experience with automated security scanning, infrastructure compliance, software composition analysis, and DevSecOps practices.
• Exposure to Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), containers, and microservices where relevant to the integration architecture.
• Experience with New Relic, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, or equivalent observability platforms.
• Experience managing global delivery teams and onsite-offshore delivery models.
• Exposure to pre-sales, solution estimation, consulting, and multi-year modernization programs.

Location and Engagement

• Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA.
• Work model: Onsite, with collaboration across client and global delivery teams.
• Engagement: Contract.
• The architect will lead platform architecture, provisioning, DevOps enablement, toolchain integration, and TIBCO modernization planning, while guiding implementation teams through platform rollout and production readiness.