Senior Manager - Cloud Infrastructure Architect

Job description

About Us With offices in 152 countries and nearly 328,000 professionals, we are one of the world’s leading professional services networks, helping organisations and individuals create lasting value through Assurance, Tax and Advisory services. For over 40 years, we have contributed to the Middle East’s transformation journey, partnering with governments and businesses to deliver sustainable solutions. Today, more than 12,000 of us across Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are shaping the region’s future. Line of Service Overview Internal Firm Services (IFS) brings together the specialist functions that enable PwC Middle East to run, grow and transform—supporting our people, clients and business with the capabilities needed for the future of work. A career in IFS offers diverse opportunities across Human Capital, Finance, Technology & AI, Clients & Markets, Marketing & Communications, Risk & Quality, Partner Development, Office Management, and Transformation & Change. As we continue to embed data, technology and new-age AI into how we work, we are hiring talent who can help our teams become more AI-enabled, digitally confident and ready to create greater value across PwC Middle East. Business Unit Overview T h e AI Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) is our central engine for AI strategy, product build, and scale. It governs standards and cost and risk controls, runs AI Factory squads to design and ship custom AI solutions and reusable frameworks (LLM and RAG stacks, integrations on Azure), provides technical consultation on architecture, solution design, and best practices, and drives workforce transformation through training and upskilling to accelerate adoption across our lines of service. Operating within IFS, the CoE partners with Experience Design and adjacent technology teams, follows a codified operating model and RACI for approvals and observability, and supports proposals, demos, and delivery with a focus on distinctive outcomes and trusted leadership. How You’ll Contribute As a Cloud Infrastructure Architect Senior Manager, you’ll work as part of a team of problem solvers, setting the technical direction for our secure Azure cloud infrastructure and leading its design, provisioning, and operation. You’ll partner closely with the Solution Architecture team from strategy through implementation, provide technical leadership to engineers, and stay hands-on across project delivery. Responsibilities include but are not limited to: Set the strategy, standards, and reference architectures for our Azure cloud infrastructure — landing zones, hub-and-spoke topologies, and Well-Architected patterns — and drive their adoption across teams. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to infrastructure engineers and fellow architects, leading design and code reviews and continuously raising the engineering bar. Design secure, scalable, and cost-efficient Azure infrastructure aligned with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption and Well-Architected Frameworks. Author and maintain Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and Bicep: build modular, reusable, and policy-compliant templates for repeatable, auditable deployments across managed environments. Use AI-assisted tooling, including Claude Code, to accelerate scripting: apply Claude Code (and similar assistants) to author, refactor, and document IaC faster, with appropriate review and guardrails to keep generated code secure and standards-compliant. Design and implement the full networking stack: virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, private endpoints, Private Link, private DNS zones, VNet peering, VPN/ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, and secure ingress/egress — keeping PaaS access private and segmented. Partner closely with the Solution Architecture team: translate target-state solution designs into provisioned environments, and align infrastructure decisions with enterprise architecture standards during planning and implementation. Lead infrastructure delivery across projects: oversee provisioning and configuration of Dev, Stage, and Production environments, support promotion from lab/unmanaged environments into PwC-managed environments, and lead the formal transition and handover to Cloud Operations. Establish and govern CI/CD for infrastructure (Azure DevOps, GitHub) with automated validation, policy-as-code, and controlled promotion across environments. Embed cloud security, identity, and governance — RBAC, Microsoft Entra ID, managed identities, Key Vault, Azure Policy, tagging, and guardrails — implementing least-privilege and zero-trust patterns. Establish observability and operational readiness — logging, monitoring, and alerting via Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights — and ensure documentation, access, and runbooks are ready for handover. Drive cloud cost governance and optimization through right-sizing, automation, and FinOps practices. Advise senior stakeholders, contribute to the technology roadmap, and evaluate and recommend tools, platforms, and emerging cloud and AI-assisted engineering practices. Set and uphold infrastructure standards, naming conventions, and reusable modules, and continuously improve internal tooling and ways of working. What You’ll Bring Experience 10+ years designing, provisioning, and operating cloud infrastructure, with deep, hands-on Azure experience in agile, product-focused delivery. Proven experience delivering Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and Bicep in enterprise environments. Experience leading infrastructure delivery across multiple projects or programs, and partnering with solution and enterprise architects. A track record of technical leadership — mentoring engineers and architects, setting standards, and leading design and code reviews. Education & Certifications Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Azure certifications preferred — e.g., Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) and/or Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104); Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700) a plus. Technical Skills & Specialized Knowledge Azure: deep, hands-on expertise across core IaaS and PaaS — compute, storage, networking, Key Vault, App Service, Functions, API Management, and container services (ACR, ACI, AKS). Infrastructure as Code: Terraform (HCL, modules, state management) and Bicep (modules, ARM, Azure Policy pre-flight validation). Networking: virtual networks, subnets, NSGs/ASGs, private endpoints and Private Link, private DNS zones, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke, VPN/ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, load balancing, and secure ingress/egress. AI-assisted scripting: proficiency using Claude Code (and similar assistants such as GitHub Copilot) for IaC authoring, refactoring, and documentation. CI/CD & DevOps: Azure DevOps and GitHub (YAML pipelines, GitOps), automation, and policy-as-code (Azure Policy). Security & identity: Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault, encryption, and zero-trust / least-privilege patterns. Scripting & tooling: PowerShell, Bash, and/or Python; Azure CLI; containerization with Docker and Kubernetes/AKS. Observability & frameworks: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights; Cloud Adoption Framework, landing zones, and the Well-Architected Framework. Nice to Have Familiarity with AWS and/or Google Cloud Platform (multi-cloud) is a bonus. FinOps and cloud cost-optimization experience. Policy-as-code (e.g., Open Policy Agent) and infrastructure testing frameworks. Experience with enterprise-scale landing-zone modules and disaster recovery / business continuity design (RTO/RPO). Attributes & Soft Skills Able to understand the big picture while also delving into the details. Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and analytical skills. Team oriented, collaborating effectively with architecture, delivery, security, and operations teams. Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to produce clear documentation and lead handovers. Client-focused: ensures projects are on time and delivered above expectation, and sets cadence with the practice and stakeholders. Fluency in written and spoken English is required; Arabic is preferred. Travel Requirements: Your flexibility to travel x% of the time. This means we may require you to work away from your base office location on a regular basis and frequent overnight stays may be required. Where possible, we will take your preferences into account and strike a balance between meeting your career development/personal needs and those of the business and our clients. How You’ll Make a Difference At PwC Midde East, we expect all our people to embody the skills and behaviours of The PwC Professional framework, helping us deliver on our strategy while growing and developing as leaders at every level. Why You’ll Love Working at PwC At PwC Middle East, you’ll find more than just a job - you’ll build a meaningful career, supported by rewards and benefits that help you thrive. We offer competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and programs that promote well-being, balance, and personal growth. You’ll have access to continuous learning, digital upskilling, and a collaborative environment that values innovation, mentorship, and diversity. Are you ready to make a difference? Want to unlock new value by applying your unique perspective and talents? You can grow exponentially here. Discover more about Life at PwC Middle East.