Enterprise Cloud Architect

HealthPartners is hiring an Enterprise Cloud Architect. This role is responsible for defining the overall architecture of HealthPartners' applications across web platforms, administrative systems, infrastructure, and data environments. The Enterprise Architect ensures that application development and enhancements align with HealthPartners' strategic goals and integrate smoothly within the broader technical landscape.

This role is responsible for enterprisewide cloud and infrastructure architecture, combining deep Azure expertise with a strong understanding of onpremises data center environments to guide the organization's hybrid modernization strategy. The architect ensures workload migrations and cloud deployments align with enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, cost governance goals, and industry best practices, while effectively bridging onprem and cloud platforms. Serving as an enterpriselevel orchestrator, the role works closely with infrastructure, security, application, data, and digital teams to embed cloudsound patterns early in solution design and guide how workloads are hosted across health plan, care delivery, and other enterprise domains.

This is an additional headcount supporting the Enterprise Architecture function. The role reports to the Director of IT Enterprise Architecture and is part of a collaborative team of five professionals, including four full-time employees and one contractor.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience
• Twelve (12+) years of progressive experience in software engineering, including:
  • Four (4) years of MS Azure and infrastructure architecture roles.
• Demonstrated experience integrating AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) to accelerate software development, documentation, or workflows.
• Azure expertise: Deep knowledge of Azure core services (Compute, Networking, Storage, Identity, Security, Monitoring), landing zone design, Azure Policy, and governance frameworks.
• Experience designing and reviewing architectures across multiple Azure workload types (IaaS, PaaS, containers, serverless, data platform).
• Experience with hybrid cloud architectures - connecting on-premises environments to Azure via ExpressRoute, VPN, or Azure Arc.
• Demonstrated understanding of cloud security architecture - identity, network segmentation, data protection, and compliance controls.
• Business engagement skills: Demonstrated ability to engage business and operational stakeholders - translating infrastructure and cloud decisions into business terms, facilitating investment conversations, and ensuring delivery outcomes align with business intent.
• Familiarity with Event Driven Architectural models and approaches.
• Familiarity with database technology and modeling
• Experience with Build and Release Management Tools
• Effective communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences using verbal and written forms.
• Excellent troubleshooting and diagnostic skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Data center infrastructure knowledge: Demonstrated experience with enterprise data center technologies - server virtualization (VMware or Hyper-V), SAN/NAS storage, data center networking (switching, routing, load balancing), and physical facility concepts (power, cooling, redundancy) is strongly preferred.
• Experience in healthcare IT environments (payer, provider, or health system).
• Knowledge of AI/ML platform services in Azure and responsible AI architecture patterns.
• Microsoft Azure certifications: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• FinOps Foundation certification or demonstrated FinOps program experience.

Hours/Location:

• M-F; core business hours
• This is a hybrid role with an expectation of being onsite 2-3 days per week.

Responsibilities:

• Evaluate project architectures for adherence to cloud best practices, security posture, and cost efficiency.
• Conduct cloud architecture assessments for major programs and ensure alignment to the Azure Well-Architected Framework (reliability, security, cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency).
• Partners with Technical Infrastructure Services to develop, analyze, assess, and optimize capacity, availability, utilization, and effectiveness of system functionality.
• Identify architectural risks associated with cloud sprawl, shadow IT, misconfiguration, cost overruns, and drive remediation roadmaps.
• Partner with FinOps, finance, and business stakeholders to establish cloud cost management practices - tagging standards, budget alerting, reserved instance strategy, and rightsizing governance.
• Guides the direction of major developments or enhancements within the framework of HealthPartners' application architecture.
• Review architecture proposals for cost efficiency and provide recommendations on service selection to optimize total cost of ownership.
• Collaborate with Cybersecurity to ensure cloud architecture meets HIPAA, HITRUST, and HealthPartners security standards.
• Define and maintain reference architecture for on-premises and co-location data center environments.
• Provide architectural oversight for server virtualization platforms and assess rationalization opportunities as workloads migrate to Azure.
• Validate throughout planning and delivery that cloud and infrastructure solutions align with what the business needs - identifying misalignment between business intent and technical scope before it affects delivery outcomes.
• Participate in initiative discovery and portfolio planning.
• Conducts and coordinates research activities on leading edge and emerging technologies.
• Performs other work as assigned.