Technical cloud security architect

Mission Overview

This position is a consultancy mission delivered by Keystone Solutions. As a Keystone Solutions consultant, you will work on site with the client, primarily in Brussels, collaborating closely with the FinOps Practitioner, Finance, Procurement, engineering, and operations teams. The role is focused on Azure cloud architecture and FinOps, designing, implementing, and optimising cloud solutions while maintaining security, performance, availability, and compliance. You will own cost optimisation end to end, from usage analysis and architecture decisions to production changes and verification of realised savings, translating financial priorities into technical actions and measurable results.

Consultancy Nature of Work

• You will operate under Keystone Solutions’ consultancy model, working at the client’s location and remotely as needed, integrating with client stakeholders and delivery teams while representing Keystone Solutions’ standards and methods.
• You will lead and execute all responsibilities as a Keystone Solutions consultant, collaborating with the client’s FinOps Practitioner, Finance, Procurement, engineering, and operations teams to drive cost optimisation and cloud excellence.
• You will document decisions, evidence, and outcomes to ensure transparency, auditability, and shared understanding across client and Keystone Solutions stakeholders.

Dynamic Projects

• Engage in diverse client projects, from greenfield builds to optimisation of complex production environments, applying Azure architecture and FinOps practices to varied workloads and organisational contexts.
• Address evolving priorities, from right sizing and reservations to cost governance, dashboards, and CI/CD integration, gaining exposure to multi-team and federated IT environments.
• Leverage opportunities to test and implement lower-cost configurations, benchmark options, and validate savings across different client scenarios.

Turbo-Charged Learning and Development

• Access Keystone Solutions’ professional development support, including mentorship, knowledge-sharing forums, certification guidance, and hands-on learning through real client engagements.
• Deepen expertise in Azure services, FinOps practices, FOCUS-aligned reporting, Terraform automation, and Kubernetes cost drivers, with continuous feedback loops and measurable impact.
• Benefit from structured reviews of outcomes, dashboards, and governance artefacts, accelerating your growth as a practitioner and architect.

Ambition Skyrocketing within a Consultancy Framework

• Progress your career through visible, outcome-driven engagements, delivering verified savings, resilient architectures, and clear cost-performance trade-off narratives.
• Build a portfolio of success across multiple clients, contributing reusable patterns and training materials that raise client and consultant capabilities.
• Demonstrate ownership, prioritisation, and delivery clarity, positioning yourself for senior consulting tracks and technical leadership opportunities at Keystone Solutions.

Keystone Solutions Values in Consulting

• Being a K-Stone means bringing ownership, transparency, craftsmanship, curiosity, and teamwork to every client project.
• We value measurable results, data accuracy, secure-by-design changes, and pragmatic collaboration with Finance, Procurement, engineering, and operations.
• Our engagements are shaped by clear communication, evidence-based decisions, and a commitment to long-term client value.

Role-Specific Impact in Consultancy Settings

• Apply Azure architecture and FinOps expertise to design secure, scalable solutions, then prove savings through instrumented dashboards, FOCUS-aligned reporting, and documented baselines.
• Implement automation with Terraform and scripting to enforce cost controls, tagging, and policy, integrating estimates and guardrails directly into CI/CD pipelines.
• Train client teams to sustain optimisation through right sizing, reservations, savings plans, and governance, ensuring verified outcomes over time.

Key Responsibilities

All responsibilities below will be performed as a Keystone Solutions consultant working closely with the client.

• Cloud Architecture and Design: Design secure, scalable Azure solutions across compute, storage, networking, databases, and platform services. Compare options using total cost of ownership and expected demand. Document decisions, cost assumptions, operational requirements, and hybrid or multi-cloud dependencies.
• Cost Optimisation and Right Sizing: Analyse utilisation and implement right sizing, autoscaling, workload scheduling, storage tiering, and removal of unused resources. Validate changes with workload owners against performance and availability requirements. Maintain an optimisation backlog with owners, expected savings, delivery dates, and verified results.
• SKU Cost Review: Review service SKUs, instance families, sizes, tiers, regions, and pricing against workload requirements. Assess licence benefits and data transfer charges. Compare costs, test lower-cost configurations, and implement approved changes.
• Reservations and Savings Plans: Compare pay-as-you-go costs, reservations, and savings plans after right sizing. Recommend commitment amounts, terms, and scope based on stable demand and forecasts. Implement approved purchases. Review coverage, utilisation, expiry dates, and unused commitments monthly with Finance and Procurement.
• Dashboarding and Cost Reporting: Maintain dashboards using Azure Cost Management, Power BI, or equivalent tooling. Report actual and amortised costs, budget variance, forecasts, allocation coverage, anomalies, commitment utilisation, and realised savings. Validate data quality and apply the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification, FOCUS, to consolidated reporting.
• Cloud Financial Governance: Implement tagging, ownership, cost allocation, budgets, and anomaly alerts. Support forecasting, showback, and chargeback with the FinOps Practitioner and Finance. Explain spend changes, separating usage growth, price changes, and optimisation savings without double counting.
• Infrastructure Automation and DevOps: Automate provisioning, cost data collection, reporting, and optimisation controls with Terraform and scripts. Integrate cost estimates, tagging checks, and policies into CI/CD pipelines. Test changes, document rollback procedures, and monitor production outcomes.
• Collaboration and Delivery: Agree priorities with the FinOps Practitioner and implement approved actions with engineering and operations teams. Support purchasing decisions with technical evidence. Explain cost and performance trade-offs, document reusable patterns, and train teams to apply cost controls.

Your Profile

• Educational Background: A bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or equivalent practical experience.
• Technical Expertise: Hands-on expertise in Microsoft Azure architecture, including compute, storage, networking, identity, databases, and platform services.
• Technical Expertise: Practical experience implementing right sizing, autoscaling, resource scheduling, storage optimisation, and unused resource removal in production.
• Technical Expertise: Ability to review Azure SKUs, pricing tiers, reservations, savings plans, and licence benefits against workload demand.
• Technical Expertise: Experience with Azure Cost Management and cost data exports, plus Power BI or equivalent dashboarding tools.
• Technical Expertise: Proficiency in Terraform and at least one scripting language, such as PowerShell or Python, for cloud automation.
• Technical Expertise: Ability to analyse billing and utilisation data, implement cost allocation, and apply FOCUS concepts to consolidated reporting.
• Technical Expertise: Experience integrating cost controls into CI/CD pipelines and applying Azure Policy, tagging, budgets, and alerts.
• Technical Expertise: Knowledge of Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Service cost drivers, resource requests, limits, and scaling.
• Technical Expertise: Ability to maintain security, performance, resilience, and recovery requirements when changing cloud configurations.

Experience

• At least 5 years of experience designing, implementing, or operating cloud solutions, primarily on Microsoft Azure.
• At least 2 of those years delivering hands-on cloud cost optimisation in production environments.
• Experience delivering optimisation changes and verifying savings against a documented baseline.
• Experience producing cloud cost dashboards and supporting budget, forecast, and commitment reviews.
• Experience delivering cost optimisation with Finance, Procurement, and IT teams.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to trace cost changes to technical causes.
• Ownership of delivery, with clear priorities and measurable results.
• Clear communication of technical options, financial impacts, and operational risks.
• Ability to challenge unnecessary consumption and agree practical actions with workload owners.
• Structured working methods and attention to billing data accuracy and change quality.

General Competencies

• Language Proficiency: French at C1 or Dutch at C1, and English at C2, written and spoken.
• Team Collaboration: Ability to work across Finance, Procurement, engineering, and operations within a federated IT environment.
• Technical Writing: Ability to produce architecture decisions, cost comparisons, implementation plans, and operational guidance.

Conformity Criteria

• Available from 2027-01-01.
• Available to come to the site in Brussels twice a week, with Thursday as a fixed day.
• At least 5 years of cloud architecture or engineering experience, primarily on Azure, including 2 years of hands-on cloud cost optimisation.
• Current FinOps Certified Engineer certification, FinOps Foundation, and or FinOps Certified FOCUS analyst, FinOps Foundation, evidenced by a certificate or verifiable digital credential with the application.
• French at C1 or Dutch at C1, and English at C2, written and spoken.
• Documented Production experience in right sizing, SKU changes, and reservations or savings plans, with evidence of measured savings.
• Documented Hands-on Azure Cost Management and Power BI or equivalent experience for dashboards, cost allocation, and FOCUS-aligned reporting.
• Documented Practical Terraform and PowerShell or Python experience to implement cloud cost controls.
• Documented Ability to deliver secure, reliable changes with Finance, Procurement, engineering, and operations.