Software Architect I

Job Description: Senior .NET / Azure Architect with DevOps & AI Fundamentals Experience: 10+ Years Role: Software Architect Primary Skills: .NET, Azure, CI/CD, Terraform Secondary Skills: GenAI fundamentals, AI Agents, SDD, MCP Role Overview We are looking for an experienced.NET/Azure Architect with strong hands-on expertise in building and modernizing cloud-native applications. The candidate should have solid experience in CI/CD automation and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, along with practical exposure to modern AI-assisted software engineering, including building basic AI agents and awareness of concepts such as SDD and MCP. The person should be comfortable working across application development, cloud engineering, DevOps and AI-enabled development practices. Key Responsibilities .NET & Application Engineering Design, develop and maintain scalable applications using C#, .NET / .NET Core and ASP.NET Core. Develop and integrate REST APIs and microservices. Apply engineering practices such as SOLID principles, dependency injection, design patterns and clean architecture. Design solutions for scalability, performance, resilience and maintainability. Participate in technical design, code reviews, troubleshooting and production issue resolution. These expectations are consistent with the existing Principal Engineer_Architect_JD.docx, which emphasizes .NET Core, microservices, REST APIs, DDD and cloud-native engineering. Microsoft Azure Strong hands-on experience with Azure services such as: Azure App Service Azure Functions Azure API Management (APIM) Azure Service Bus / Event Hubs Azure SQL Azure Storage Azure Key Vault Azure Monitor / Application Insights Exposure to AKS / containerized applications is desirable. The existing internal JD also identifies App Services, Functions, AKS, APIM, Service Bus, Event Hubs, Key Vault, Azure SQL and Azure Monitor as relevant Azure engineering capabilities. CI/CD & DevOps Strong practical knowledge of Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines. Experience creating and maintaining YAML-based build and deployment pipelines. Automate application build, testing and deployments across environments. Good understanding of branching strategies, release management, deployment approvals and environment configuration. Exposure to GitHub Actions is an advantage. Your existing AX - Software Developer .NET -Azure, API.docx specifically calls for unit testing, CI/CD, YAML pipelines, Terraform and trunk-based branching. Terraform / Infrastructure as Code Hands-on experience with Terraform for provisioning and managing Azure infrastructure. Ability to create, understand and modify Terraform modules. Understanding of Terraform state management, environments, variables and reusable modules. Integrate Terraform provisioning with CI/CD pipelines. Understanding of secure handling of configuration and secrets. Terraform module structure, environment handling, state management and CI/CD integration are also reflected in your existing interview criteria. AI / GenAI Fundamentals The candidate does not need to be an AI/ML specialist, but should be comfortable adopting AI within software engineering. Expected exposure: Understanding of Generative AI and LLM fundamentals. Ability to create simple AI agents / agentic workflows. Basic understanding of prompting and tool-based AI interactions. Awareness of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) concepts. Awareness of MCP (Model Context Protocol) and its purpose in connecting AI applications/agents with tools and contextual information. Awareness of SDD (Spec-Driven Development) and AI-assisted software development practices. Exposure to AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot or similar tools. Ability to identify practical opportunities where AI can improve development, testing, documentation and engineering productivity. Exposure to Azure AI / Azure OpenAI / Microsoft Foundry is desirable, not mandatory. This AI requirement fits your account context well. In the AI maturity Re-Assessment | SDD, MCP, AI agents and AI-assisted engineering were discussed, including MCP integration and agent use cases. Required Skills 10+ years of software engineering experience. Strong hands-on development experience with C# and .NET/.NET Core. Strong knowledge of REST APIs, microservices and distributed application design. Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure. Strong understanding of Azure DevOps and CI/CD pipelines. Hands-on experience with Terraform / Infrastructure as Code. Strong understanding of SQL and relational databases. Good understanding of application security, authentication/authorization and secrets management. Experience troubleshooting production applications and cloud environments. Understanding of AI/GenAI fundamentals with exposure to basic agent development. Awareness of SDD and MCP. Strong problem-solving, communication and collaboration skills. Preferred / Good-to-Have Docker / Kubernetes / AKS Event-driven architecture DDD / CQRS Azure APIM Observability using Application Insights, Azure Monitor or Dynatrace GitHub Actions RAG / vector search fundamentals Azure OpenAI / Microsoft Foundry AI-assisted SDLC practices Suggested skill priority for screening Must Have: .NET/C# + Azure + REST APIs/Microservices + CI/CD/Azure DevOps + Terraform Working Knowledge: Architecture/design patterns + SQL + production troubleshooting + containers AI Expectation: GenAI fundamentals + ability to build a basic agent + awareness of SDD, MCP and RAG Good to Have: Azure OpenAI/Microsoft Foundry + AKS + DDD/CQRS + observability This keeps the requirement realistic for a 10+ year senior .NET engineer without accidentally turning the JD into a niche AI architect requirement.