Microsoft 365 Solution Architect

M365 Solution Architect

Remote

Full Time/ Contract

Job Summary

The Microsoft 365 Solution Architect is responsible for defining the end-to-end solution architecture, technical strategy, governance, and design standards for Microsoft 365 transformation and tenant consolidation initiatives.

The role provides technical leadership across Microsoft Entra ID, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Purview, Power Platform, security, compliance, networking, and application integrations.

The Solution Architect works closely with the Migration Lead, Identity Architect, Security teams, Endpoint teams, application owners, and M365 Administrators to ensure the solution is secure, scalable, supportable, and aligned with enterprise standards.

Key Responsibilities

1. M365 Solution Architecture

• Define current-state, transition-state, and target-state Microsoft 365 architecture.
• Develop High-Level Design (HLD) and provide governance over Low-Level Design (LLD).
• Establish M365 architecture principles, standards, patterns, and design guardrails.
• Evaluate technical requirements, constraints, dependencies, and integration requirements.
• Lead technical design reviews and architecture decision-making.
• Ensure solutions meet scalability, availability, security, compliance, and operational requirements.

2. Tenant Consolidation & Migration Architecture

• Lead technical assessment of multiple source M365 tenants.
• Define the target-tenant architecture and consolidation approach.
• Define migration strategy across:
• Exchange Online
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint Online
• OneDrive
• Microsoft 365 Groups
• Entra ID
• Intune-managed endpoints
• Power Platform dependencies
• Define coexistence requirements between source and target tenants.
• Establish migration-wave, cutover, rollback, validation, and hypercare strategies.
• Identify migration limitations, unsupported scenarios, and required remediation.

3. Identity & Access Architecture

• Define the target Microsoft Entra ID architecture.
• Design identity synchronization and user provisioning approaches.
• Define MFA and Conditional Access architecture.
• Establish administrative RBAC and privileged-access models.
• Define guest/B2B and external collaboration models.
• Address UPN, SMTP address, domain, authentication, and SSO dependencies.
• Coordinate with application owners for OAuth, SAML, SSO, service accounts, and enterprise applications.

4. Exchange Online Architecture

• Define Exchange Online migration and coexistence architecture.
• Develop mailbox migration patterns.
• Define mail-flow and transport architecture.
• Develop domain transition and DNS requirements.
• Address shared mailboxes, resource mailboxes, distribution groups, SMTP relay, connectors, and integrated applications.
• Define pre- and post-migration validation requirements.

5. Teams, SharePoint & OneDrive Architecture

• Define Microsoft Teams governance and migration architecture.
• Establish SharePoint Online information architecture and governance principles.
• Define OneDrive migration patterns.
• Establish external-sharing and guest-access standards.
• Define migration requirements for:
• Teams and channels
• Files and documents
• Permissions
• Membership
• Metadata
• Sharing links
• Microsoft 365 Groups

6. Endpoint & Intune Architecture

• Work with the Endpoint Lead to define the target Intune architecture.
• Define endpoint migration and re-enrollment approaches.
• Address Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android migration considerations as applicable.
• Define device compliance, configuration, application deployment, and security requirements.
• Assess impacts of tenant migration on device authentication and user profiles.

7. Security, Compliance & Governance

• Incorporate Microsoft Purview requirements covering:
• Data Loss Prevention
• Sensitivity labels
• Retention
• Records management
• eDiscovery
• Audit
• Define least-privilege administration principles.
• Establish appropriate separation of administrative duties.
• Work with cybersecurity teams on threat protection, access controls, monitoring, and incident-management requirements.
• Ensure architecture aligns with organizational and regulatory compliance requirements.

8. Migration Tool Architecture

• Evaluate and define the appropriate migration tooling approach.
• Establish migration-tool architecture and connectivity requirements.
• Provide architectural governance for platforms such as Quest On Demand Migration, BitTitan MigrationWiz, ShareGate, and Microsoft native capabilities, based on the program's selected technology.
• Define automation requirements using PowerShell and Microsoft Graph where appropriate.
• Review migration performance, throttling, security, and scalability considerations.

9. Technical Leadership

• Provide technical direction to M365 Migration Leads, Administrators, Engineers, and SMEs.
• Lead resolution of complex cross-workstream technical issues.
• Facilitate architecture and technical design workshops.
• Review technical designs, migration runbooks, and implementation plans.
• Manage architecture decisions, assumptions, constraints, risks, and dependencies.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for complex migration issues.