Location: Maryland office (3 days in office). Candidates located outside the Maryland office region may work remotely with periodic travel for key collaboration sessions.

Overview

We are seeking an Azure Virtual Desktop Architect to lead the design, architecture, and operational strategy for enterprise virtual desktop environments. This role will own the end-to-end architecture of AVD platforms, guiding engineering standards, automation frameworks, and performance optimization across the environment for a US. federal agency.

The position requires both strategic design leadership and hands-on expertise. You will define the technical roadmap, establish infrastructure patterns, and partner with security, networking, and platform teams to ensure scalable, secure, and resilient virtual desktop services.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, deployment, and lifecycle management of Azure Virtual Desktop environments including host pools, session hosts, application groups, FSLogix profiles, and scaling strategies

• Define platform standards and architectural patterns for enterprise virtual desktop infrastructure

• Design and implement Infrastructure as Code frameworks using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates

• Architect CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps to support image creation, environment deployments, and platform automation

• Lead automation strategy using PowerShell and Azure CLI for provisioning, patching, scaling, and environment lifecycle management

• Design and optimize Windows 10/11 multi-session and Windows Server images using Azure Image Builder or Packer

• Establish identity, authentication, and access architecture using Azure AD, Entra ID, RBAC, and Conditional Access

• Design and manage FSLogix profile container strategies using Azure Files or Azure NetApp Files

• Implement monitoring and observability using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to support performance tuning and capacity planning

• Lead cost governance and optimization strategies including autoscaling, right-sizing, and reserved capacity planning

• Design high availability, disaster recovery, and security controls for enterprise AVD environments

• Partner with networking and security teams to support secure connectivity and zero-trust architectures

• Provide technical leadership during incident response and lead root cause analysis for platform issues

• Serve as a subject matter expert and mentor to engineering teams supporting the environment

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing and leading Azure Virtual Desktop implementations in enterprise environments

• Strong architecture-level understanding of Azure infrastructure including VNets, NSGs, Azure Firewall, Load Balancers, Azure Files, and identity services

• Deep experience with PowerShell and Azure CLI for automation and platform management

• Hands-on experience implementing Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates

• Experience designing CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps for infrastructure and image management

• Strong Windows administration background including Active Directory and endpoint management

• Experience architecting and troubleshooting FSLogix profile environments

• Solid networking knowledge including hybrid connectivity and secure cloud networking patterns

• Familiarity with Azure monitoring, logging, and security best practices

• Experience managing Azure cost optimization and performance tuning at scale

Authorization

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without the need for current or future sponsorship.