Senior Azure & AVD Platform Specialist

POSITION SUMMARY

We are seeking a highly customer-focused Senior Azure & AVD Platform Specialist to serve as a front-of-house technical lead for client engagements, with deep expertise in Microsoft Azure platform engineering and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). The role is central to delivering outstanding customer experiences across VDI Proofs of Concept (PoCs), onboarding new clients onto Creative ITC's multi-tenant DaaS platform, and ensuring seamless transitions into service.

You will represent Creative ITC in pre-delivery workshops, design and refine customer PoCs, advise on best-practice desktop transformation, and drive successful onboarding by working closely with Technical Services, Project Management, and client stakeholders. You will also create high-quality Knowledge Base articles and lead the development of the DaaS team's AVD capability through knowledge transfer, coaching, and practical enablement.

Alongside hands-on delivery, you will act as a trusted advisor, translating technical detail into clear business outcomes, setting expectations, and maintaining strong client relationships. Omnissa Horizon experience is desirable and will support customers operating mixed or transitional VDI estates.

This high-visibility role requires deep Azure platform and AVD expertise, strong automation and Infrastructure-as-Code capability, polished client communication, strong documentation discipline, and the confidence to lead customers through their desktop transformation journey.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Virtual Desktop Speciality (AZ-140) or equivalent demonstrable AVD delivery experience (required).
• Significant hands-on experience designing, deploying, optimising, and supporting enterprise-scale Azure Virtual Desktop environments, ideally supporting thousands of users and/or complex multi-region deployments.
• Strong experience with AVD host pools, session hosts, workspaces, application groups, image management, scaling, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Strong knowledge of FSLogix profile containers, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, Group Policy, Azure networking, storage, and identity integration.
• Strong hands-on Azure platform engineering experience, including subscriptions, resource groups, Azure Policy, RBAC, VNets, NSGs, private connectivity, DNS, storage, identity, and hybrid connectivity.
• Strong Infrastructure-as-Code and automation capability using Terraform and/or Bicep, PowerShell, and modern source-control and deployment practices.
• Strong operational experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, AVD Insights, and KQL for performance analysis, troubleshooting, and proactive service monitoring.
• Practical understanding of Azure security controls including Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Microsoft Defender, Key Vault, and least-privilege access models.
• Experience optimising Azure consumption and AVD platform cost, including autoscaling, reservations/savings plans, storage optimisation, capacity planning, and Azure Cost Management.
• Experience designing highly available, resilient AVD services, including business continuity and disaster recovery considerations.
• Experience creating operational documentation, runbooks, and Knowledge Base articles for technical and service teams.
• Demonstrable experience transferring knowledge, coaching engineers, and building team capability in Azure Virtual Desktop.
• VCP-DTM or OCP-DTM certification, or significant Omnissa Horizon experience (desirable).
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) and/or Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), or equivalent demonstrable enterprise Azure platform experience (desirable).
• NVIDIA certification or strong NVIDIA GRID/vGPU experience (desirable).
• Previous Managed Service Provider experience (preferred).
• Strong client-first mentality with substantial customer-facing delivery experience.
• Collaborative team player who can work effectively across technical, project, commercial, and service functions.

KEY JOB ELEMENTS

• Lead customer-facing workshops, discovery sessions, technical design discussions, and onboarding engagements for new DaaS clients.

Customer Delivery, PoCs and Onboarding

• Own and deliver end-to-end AVD Proofs of Concept to demonstrate platform value, validate use cases, and agree measurable technical success criteria.
• Translate customer requirements into AVD technical designs, configuration recommendations, migration approaches, and onboarding plans.
• Act as the primary technical contact during onboarding, ensuring a smooth and professional transition to the Creative ITC DaaS platform.
• Provide clear, proactive communication on progress, expectations, dependencies, risks, decisions, and timelines.
• Build trusted relationships with technical and non-technical stakeholders, acting as a front-of-house ambassador for Creative ITC.

Azure Virtual Desktop Platform Delivery and Support

• Design, deploy, configure, optimise, and support Azure Virtual Desktop environments across customer and multi-tenant DaaS services.
• Manage AVD host pools, session hosts, workspaces, application groups, scaling plans, images, and operating system lifecycle activities.
• Configure and troubleshoot FSLogix profiles, identity, authentication, Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID integration, Group Policy, storage, and network connectivity.
• Support application packaging and delivery within desktop image builds, including BAU application management and controlled image updates.
• Monitor platform performance, capacity, security, availability, and user experience, proactively identifying and resolving service risks.
• Contribute to patching, upgrades, change control, problem management, and continual service improvement across the DaaS platform.
• Provide ad hoc consultancy and hands-on technical support as needed.
• Azure Platform Engineering, Automation and Optimisation
• Design and support the Azure platform services underpinning AVD, including networking, identity, storage, access controls, policy, private connectivity, and hybrid integration.
• Develop and maintain repeatable Infrastructure-as-Code and automation patterns using Terraform and/or Bicep, PowerShell, source control, and controlled deployment pipelines.
• Use Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, AVD Insights, and KQL to establish proactive observability, diagnose complex performance issues, and improve platform reliability and user experience.
• Apply Azure security best practice including Conditional Access, PIM, Defender, Key Vault, RBAC, and least-privilege principles in collaboration with Security and Architecture teams.
• Own technical input into AVD capacity and cost optimisation, including autoscaling, reservations/savings plans, storage choices, consumption analysis, and FinOps recommendations.
• Design and validate appropriate resilience, business continuity, and disaster recovery patterns for Azure Virtual Desktop services.

Knowledge Management and Team Enablement

• Write, maintain, and improve clear Knowledge Base articles, technical runbooks, standard operating procedures, configuration guides, and troubleshooting documentation.
• Bring the DaaS team up to speed with AVD through structured knowledge transfer, coaching, demonstrations, shadowing, and practical hands-on support.
• Define and promote AVD engineering standards, reusable deployment patterns, support processes, and operational best practices.
• Identify team capability gaps and work with technical leadership to develop targeted learning and enablement plans.
• Share lessons learned from PoCs, onboarding activities, incidents, and service improvements to strengthen delivery consistency.

Omnissa Horizon and Hybrid VDI

• Use desirable Omnissa Horizon experience to support customers with mixed, legacy, or transitional VDI environments.
• Maintain and support Horizon 8, App Volumes, Dynamic Environment Manager, True SSO/SAML, vCenter, ESXi, and NVIDIA GRID where required.
• Provide technical input into migration and coexistence approaches between Omnissa Horizon and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Governance and Collaboration

• Participate in client-facing and internal technical meetings, contributing insight, leadership, and clear recommendations.
• Work closely with Technical Services, Project Management, Service Delivery, Security, and client teams to ensure well-governed delivery and support handover.
• Maintain accurate documentation and comply with agreed architecture, security, change-management, and service-transition controls.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Polished communicator who can make complex technical topics clear and relevant for customers.
• Confident leading client discussions, workshops, technical demonstrations, and PoCs.
• Strong professional presence and credibility, operating as a trusted technical advisor.
• Highly organised, with excellent documentation discipline and strong change-management awareness.
• Customer-first mindset with a passion for delivering exceptional experiences and sustainable outcomes.
• Collaborative, inclusive approach with the ability to influence outcomes across multiple functions.
• Proactive, innovative, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced managed services environment.
• Patient and effective coach who enjoys developing others' technical capability.
• Commercially aware, able to balance customer outcomes, technical quality, risk, and delivery practicality.
• Comfortable acting as the technical authority for Azure and AVD, challenging assumptions where necessary and setting engineering standards for scalable, supportable, and cost-effective services.