Principal Microsoft Architect

Overview

The Principal Microsoft Platforms Architect is Suffolk’s strategic and technical leader for the Microsoft ecosystem. This player‑coach role defines the enterprise roadmap, reference architectures, and guardrails for Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Entra ID, Intune, and Defender—while remaining hands‑on for complex initiatives, proofs‑of‑concept, and critical escalations. The Architect aligns platform direction with business outcomes, optimizes licensing and support models, and partners across Security, Legal, Procurement, and Operations to deliver a secure, compliant, and cost‑effective modern workplace.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Platform Leadership — Define and maintain the multi‑year platform roadmap aligned to Suffolk’s growth, productivity, and modernization goals. Prioritize and sequence investments across collaboration, identity, endpoint, security, and analytics capabilities. Champion adoption of next‑gen features (e.g., Copilot, Viva, Loop) through readiness assessments, data governance, licensing analysis, and measured rollouts. Establish measurable outcomes (cost, reliability, security posture, adoption, experience) and track progress.
• Enterprise Architecture & Technical Leadership — Own reference architectures and standards for Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint / OneDrive, Entra ID, Intune, Purview, and Power Platform. Govern identity and access patterns (hybrid identity, Conditional Access, MFA, federation), data residency, integration models, and zero‑trust alignment. Review and approve designs; lead high‑impact technical spikes, pilots, and complex migrations. Serve as final technical escalation point for ambiguous or multi‑domain issues.
• Licensing Strategy & Cost Optimization — Lead Microsoft licensing strategy (E‑series, F‑series, add‑ons, Power Platform SKUs, security suites) to balance capability and cost. Drive right‑sizing via usage analytics, entitlement hygiene, and contract terms (EA renewals, true‑ups, price protections). Partner with Finance and Procurement on forecasting, commercial negotiations, and contract governance.
• Premier / Unified Support Engagement — Manage the Microsoft support relationship (SAM / TAM), escalation paths, and proactive services (RAPs, workshops, risk assessments). Institutionalize problem management, post‑incident reviews, and service improvement plans with Microsoft.
• Power Platform & Low‑Code Governance — Define the CoE model, environment strategy, DLP policies, and ALM standards for Power Platform and Dataverse. Enable citizen development safely via guardrails, templates, controls, and training.
• SharePoint Online & Collaboration Strategy — Set information, security & integration architecture, site provisioning, metadata / search, retention policies and content lifecycle strategy for the enterprise intranet and collaboration. Oversee modernization and migrations from legacy SharePoint / file services to SharePoint Online.
• Security, Governance & Compliance — Partner with InfoSec / Compliance to implement Microsoft Purview (sensitivity labels, retention, DLP, eDiscovery) and Defender controls. Define tenant‑wide governance (provisioning, lifecycle, guest access, external sharing) and measure adherence.
• Leadership & Enablement — Mentor platform engineers; scale best practices through documentation and enablement. Align stakeholders across IT, Security, Legal, and business units; represent the platform in enterprise forums.

Qualifications

Working Conditions

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit for long periods of time; talk or hear; perform fine motor, hand and finger skills in the use of a keyboard, telephone, or writing. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; and reach with arms and / or hands. Specific vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. The employee will spend their time in an office environment with a quiet to moderate noise level. Job site walking.

EEO Statement

Suffolk provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, national origin, citizenship, genetic information, disability, protected veteran, gender identity, age or any other status protected by law. This policy applies to recruiting, hiring, transfers, promotions, terminations, compensation, benefits, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Suffolk will not tolerate any unlawful discrimination toward, or harassment of, applicants or employees by anyone at Suffolk, or anyone working on behalf of Suffolk.

#J-18808-Ljbffr