Technical Architect (Azure, AVD, M365)
💰 £550 to £600 per day, outside IR35
📍 Mostly remote, with occasional travel for face to face workshops. Initial 6 month contract
Company & role
This role sits with a global managed cloud services provider that designs, builds and runs cloud infrastructure and virtual desktop platforms for enterprise customers across multiple continents. The business is privately backed, has grown quickly, and runs a genuinely engineering led operation rather than a reseller model. Technical people make the technical calls.
They are bringing in a Technical Architect on an initial six month contract to support a complex enterprise programme. This is a design and implementation role, not advisory. You will own the low level design across Azure landing zones, Azure Virtual Desktop and Nerdio, then build what you have designed. The programme is broad enough that wider Microsoft 365 capability will be put to use across other workstreams.
Why This Role Stands Out
Outside IR35, initial six months with a programme that has plenty of runway left in it
Genuine design ownership. You write the LLD and then implement it rather than handing it over to someone else
Nerdio and AVD at real enterprise scale, which is still relatively rare to get properly on a CV
Mostly remote, with only the occasional workshop needing you in a room
Scope to move across other Microsoft 365 workstreams if you have the breadth, so you are not boxed into a single lane for six months
An infrastructure led provider where the platform is the product, not an afterthought
Key Responsibilities
Design and deliver Azure landing zones for a complex enterprise environment
Architect, build and optimise Azure Virtual Desktop estates
Implement and manage AVD through Nerdio, including image lifecycle, host pool configuration, autoscaling and cost control
Produce low level designs, implementation plans and supporting operational documentation
Run technical workshops with client stakeholders and turn requirements into practical, buildable designs
Contribute to wider Microsoft 365 workstreams across identity, collaboration, security and compliance where the programme needs it
Identify technical risks, dependencies and constraints and build mitigation into the delivery plan
Support service transition and handover into operational support teams
Ideal Experience
Essential
Strong Azure infrastructure background with proven landing zone design and build experience
Deep hands on Azure Virtual Desktop experience across design, deployment and optimisation
Nerdio in a live production environment, not a proof of concept
Proven low level design authorship, with the ability to implement your own designs
Comfortable operating client side in complex enterprise environments
Desirable
Broader Microsoft 365 capability across Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, Entra and Purview
Tenant to tenant migration, consolidation or divestiture experience
Identity and access transformation exposure
Microsoft certifications such as AZ 104, AZ 140 or AZ 305
Delivery background in regulated or large scale enterprise environments
If you are an architect who would rather build what you design than hand it over, and you have genuine Nerdio and AVD depth, this is a clean six months of exactly that.