Cloud Solutions Architect

Job Posting Organization:
The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is a regional commission of the United Nations established to promote economic and social development in the Arab region. ESCWA was founded in 1973 and operates under the supervision of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It comprises 21 member countries across Western Asia and North Africa, providing a platform for policy formulation and harmonization, coordination among member states, and serving as a hub for expertise and knowledge. ESCWA's activities are aligned with the broader goals of the United Nations, working closely with various UN divisions and specialized agencies, as well as regional organizations such as the League of Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The organization is committed to fostering sustainable development and enhancing regional cooperation through its various initiatives and programs.

Job Overview:
The Cloud Solutions Architect position is designed for an Individual Contractor (IC) who will provide specialized technical expertise and architectural guidance for transitioning on-premises applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The IC will work closely with internal development and infrastructure teams to audit existing application workloads, evaluate current resource metrics, and analyze performance requirements. The role involves designing tailored cloud architecture blueprints, formulating step-by-step migration strategies, and recommending cost-effective Azure resource allocations to achieve optimal performance. The IC will deliver actionable solution designs and technical specifications that the internal teams will execute during provisioning and deployment. This position is critical to the modernization and innovation efforts of ESCWA, particularly within the Decision-Support and Data Science Division, which focuses on providing advanced analytics and secure digital platforms to enhance decision-making processes across the region.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The IC will be responsible for the following duties:

• Application Audit & Workload Assessment: Collaborate with the development team to audit existing on-premises applications hosted on Proxmox virtual machines, gathering technical deployment requirements and analyzing resource utilization metrics, compute demands, memory allocations, and architectural dependencies to establish baseline performance metrics.
• Cloud Architecture Design & Migration Strategy: Design tailored Azure cloud architecture topologies and migration runbooks for existing application workloads, evaluating whether applications should be migrated as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or refactored into cloud-native Azure PaaS services. Formulate detailed migration technical blueprints and sequence plans for internal teams to execute during provisioning.
• Cost Optimization & Resource Sizing: Conduct cost-benefit analyses comparing current on-premises infrastructure against Azure pricing tiers to ensure maximum cost-efficiency, providing recommendations for right-sizing Azure resources to avoid over-provisioning while maintaining performance levels.
• Technical Guidance & Advisory: Offer technical guidance to internal teams regarding optimal Azure deployment pathways, identity management mappings, and access controls, while recommending operational best practices, security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security baselines, and performance monitoring strategies to be configured by the internal team.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Cloud Architecture, Systems Engineering, or related technical fields. A minimum of 4 years of professional experience in cloud systems architecture, IT infrastructure analysis, or enterprise cloud solutions design is required. Candidates must demonstrate experience in designing, evaluating, or auditing cloud infrastructure solutions on Microsoft Azure, as well as collaborating with software development teams to extract application performance requirements and analyze resource consumption. Strong familiarity with cloud cost-optimization strategies and resource right-sizing is essential, along with practical experience in planning workload migration strategies from on-premises hypervisors to Microsoft Azure. Official Microsoft Azure certifications are highly desirable, and excellent analytical, architectural, and communication skills are required.

Educational Background:
A bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Cloud Architecture, or Systems Engineering is required. Candidates must submit a copy of their educational degree as part of the application process, as incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

Experience:
The position requires a minimum of 4 years of professional experience in cloud systems architecture, IT infrastructure analysis, or enterprise cloud solutions design. Candidates should have demonstrated experience in designing, evaluating, or auditing cloud infrastructure solutions specifically on Microsoft Azure, as well as experience collaborating with software development teams to analyze resource consumption and translate workload metrics into optimized cloud specifications.

Languages:
Fluency in English is required for this position, as it is one of the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Knowledge of Arabic is desirable, as it is a working language of ESCWA. Fluency is defined as a rating of 'fluent' in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand), while knowledge is defined as a rating of 'confident' in two of the four areas.

Additional Notes:
The position is expected to last for 6 months, and it is important to note that the United Nations does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including application, interview, or training. The organization does not request information regarding applicants' bank accounts.