Technical Architect (Azure)

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

As a Technical Architect at Howden, you will join the Cloud Engineering & Architecture team with a focus on building, operating, and continuously improving our Azure cloud platform.

This is a technical architecture role, centred on platform capability as well as solution delivery. You will define and evolve the core cloud architecture that enables product and delivery teams to build securely, consistently, and at pace.

You will work closely with Cloud Engineers, DevOps, and Delivery teams to design and implement reusable platform components, self-service capabilities, and standard patterns. Your work will underpin all cloud-hosted workloads and directly influence reliability, security, scalability, and cost efficiency.

You will play a key role in shaping platform standards, governance, and guardrails, ensuring teams can move fast without bypassing compliance or security requirements. You will review upcoming platform demands, track emerging Azure capabilities, and introduce new services and patterns where they provide clear business value.

This role requires strong hands-on technical depth, paired with the ability to explain architectural decisions clearly and pragmatically to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Strong experience designing, building, and operating cloud platforms in Microsoft Azure

• Deep understanding of cloud platform architecture, including identity, networking, security, monitoring, and governance

• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code, ideally using Bicep

• Strong working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, including platform-level templates and guardrails

• Experience designing and evolving Azure Landing Zones or equivalent enterprise-scale foundations

• Clear understanding of cloud security principles, including identity design, least-privilege access, and platform hardening

• Experience working within governance and compliance frameworks, and embedding these into platform design

• Ability to create and validate reference architectures, patterns, and reusable components

• Comfortable reviewing release plans and translating new workload demands into platform enhancements

• Experience operating and supporting live cloud platforms, not just designing them

• Strong observability mindset, including logging, metrics, alerts, and operational insight

• Ability to identify areas suitable for self-service enablement and automation

• A pragmatic approach to architectural decision-making, balancing ideal design with delivery reality

• Experience producing and maintaining architectural decision records (ADRs)

• Strong documentation skills, including diagrams, design notes, and onboarding guidance

• Confident communicator who can influence without authority and explain complex topics simply

• Collaborative approach, working effectively across engineering, security, and delivery teams

• Curiosity and drive to stay current with evolving Azure capabilities and platform practices

We believe that great work and dedication should be rewarded, that’s why we offer:

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.