Cloud Solutions Architect (IC)

Result of Service

The IC will provide specialized technical expertise and architectural guidance for transitioning on-premises applications to Microsoft Azure. The IC will work in close coordination with the internal development and infrastructure teams to audit existing application workloads, evaluate current Proxmox VM resource metrics, and analyze performance requirements. Based on this assessment, the consultant will design tailored cloud architecture blueprints, formulate step-by-step system migration strategies, and recommend the most cost-effective Azure resource allocations to achieve optimal performance. The IC will deliver actionable solution designs and technical specifications for the internal teams to execute during provisioning and deployment.

Work Location

UN-House ESCWA

Expected duration

6 months

Duties and Responsibilities

Background: The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) forms part of the United Nations Secretariat and, like the other regional commissions, operates under the supervision of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. ESCWA comprises 21 Arab countries in Western Asia and North Africa. ESCWA provides a framework for the formulation and harmonization of sectoral policies for member countries, a platform for congress and coordination, a home for expertise and knowledge, and an information observatory. ESCWA activities are coordinated with the divisions and main offices of the Headquarters of the United Nations, specialized agencies, and international and regional organizations, including the League of Arab States and its subsidiary bodies, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. This position is located in the Decision-Support and Data Science Division (DSDSD). The Decision-Support and Data Science Division is part of ESCWA's broader modernization and innovation efforts, providing advanced analytics, secure digital platforms, and decision-support services within ESCWA, other UN entities, and Member States. Aligned with the UN 2.0 agenda and grounded in operational resilience, DSDS leverages cutting-edge hybrid infrastructure, scalable cloud tech frameworks, and modern deployment models to ensure high availability, security, and performance for critical digital assets. Its core functions include enterprise cloud environment management, cloud infrastructure provisioning, secure systems administration, and the migration of legacy on-premises platforms to advanced public cloud ecosystems. Through these capabilities, DSDS maintains reliable, enterprise-grade digital decision-support tools that empower evidence-based decision-making and foster organizational efficiency across the region. Under the supervision of the Chief of the Decision-Support and Data Science Division and in close collaboration with the infrastructure and digital development teams, the Individual Contractor (IC) will provide architectural analysis, cost-optimization assessment, and technical solution design to support the migration of core application workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Duties and responsibilities: Within delegated authority, the IC will be responsible for independently performing the following: - Application Audit & Workload Assessment: o Work closely with the development team to audit existing on-premises hosted applications running on Proxmox virtual machines and gather technical deployment requirements. o Analyze resource utilization metrics, compute demands, memory allocations, and architectural dependencies of on-premises VMs to establish baseline performance metrics. - Cloud Architecture Design & Migration Strategy: o Design tailored Azure cloud architecture topologies and migration runbooks for existing application workloads. o Evaluate and recommend whether individual applications should be migrated as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) virtual machines or refactored into cloud-native Azure PaaS services (such as Azure App Services, Azure SQL, or container instances). o Formulate step-by-step migration technical blueprints and sequence plans for the internal infrastructure and development teams to execute during provisioning. - Cost Optimization & Resource Sizing: o Conduct cost-benefit analyses comparing current on-premises footprint against Azure pricing tiers and reserved instances to ensure maximum cost-efficiency. o Provide recommendations for right-sizing Azure virtual machines, storage accounts, and database services to avoid over-provisioning while maintaining target performance levels. - Technical Guidance & Advisory: o Provide technical guidance to internal development and infrastructure teams regarding optimal Azure deployment pathways, identity management mappings (Azure AD / Entra ID), and access controls. o Recommend operational best practices, security baselines, and performance monitoring strategies (Azure Monitor / Log Analytics) to be configured by the internal team.

Qualifications/special skills

A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Cloud Architecture, Systems Engineering, or related technical fields is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 4 years of professional experience in cloud systems architecture, IT infrastructure analysis, or enterprise cloud solutions design is required. Demonstrated experience in designing, evaluating, or auditing cloud infrastructure solutions on Microsoft Azure is required. Proven experience collaborating directly with software development teams to extract application performance requirements, analyze resource consumption, and translate workload metrics into optimized cloud specifications is required. Strong familiarity with cloud cost-optimization strategies, resource right-sizing, and evaluating IaaS vs. PaaS deployment models on Azure is required. Practical experience designing or planning workload migration strategies from on-premises hypervisors (specifically Proxmox VE or VMware) to Microsoft Azure is highly desirable. Official Microsoft Azure certifications (e.g., Azure Solutions Architect Expert or Azure Administrator Associate) are highly desirable. Excellent analytical, architectural, and communication skills are required.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in English is required and knowledge of Arabic is desirable. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.