Hire proven Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) professionals in Germany in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
Azure architecture, identity and governance design, and secure cloud migration. Find freelancers who can shape reliable Azure solutions and match them fast with vetted experts in Germany.
About the certification
What it proves
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, also known by the AZ-305 exam, signals that a professional can design cloud solutions on Microsoft Azure that are secure, resilient, and built for real business use. It is not about basic administration. It is about making architecture decisions that connect business needs, technical constraints, and operational reality.
Core skills
- Design identity, access, and governance for Azure environments
- Plan compute, networking, storage, and data services
- Build security, resilience, and monitoring into the architecture
- Choose migration and modernization approaches for existing workloads
- Align Azure design with cost, compliance, and operational needs
Typical holders
This certification usually fits senior cloud architects, solution architects, and hands-on consultants who have already worked with Azure services in production. Many come from infrastructure, application, security, or platform teams and now take responsibility for cross-team design decisions. In Germany, companies often look for this profile when they need experienced freelancers who can work with local stakeholders as well as distributed technical teams.
Where it matters
The certification is especially relevant in cloud migrations, landing zone design, hybrid setups, platform modernization, and enterprise security work. It also matters when a company needs someone to review an existing Azure setup and improve it without disrupting live systems. For freelance work in Germany, that can mean remote collaboration with English-speaking teams or on-site workshops with German business and IT leads.
What companies should expect
A freelancer with this certification should be able to explain trade-offs clearly, document architecture choices, and guide implementation teams without turning the solution into theory. The value is strongest when the project needs more than a specialist in one Azure service. It needs someone who can connect identity, networking, governance, and operations into one workable design.
How to read it
AZ-305 is often discussed together with the broader Azure Solutions Architect Expert title, so you may see both forms on profiles and course material. When you see it on a freelancer profile, treat it as a sign of architectural depth, not just tool familiarity. It suggests the person can design for scale, security, and maintainability, which is exactly what complex Azure projects require.
Meet FRATCH Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
Halil Oeztoprak
Principal Cloud & DevSecOps Architect (AWS / Azure / Terraform / Kubernetes / CI-CD)
Last position:
Senior Cloud Operations & DevSecOps Engineer (Azure / Terraform / CI-CD) at KfW Bankengruppe
Regulated environment within a German banking group (approx. 8,500 employees, hybrid cloud strategy).
Responsible for operating, provisioning, and continuously securing business-critical platforms – including a GenAI chat application, a big data/AI platform, and data science workspaces based on Azure Virtual Desktops and VMs. Ownership of Azure DevOps projects for ShaiHulud and React2Shell, as well as BSI alerts – Security Operations improvements across the SDLC.
Deployment responsibility for the GenAI chat application, big data/AI platform (BDAI), and data science workspaces (AVD/VM-based) in the respective landing zones.
Deployment & release management: end-to-end responsibility for deploying portal and service applications across multiple Azure landing zones, including technical approvals, compliance with development team deployment guidelines, and ensuring ITIL-based change and release processes via ServiceNow.
Azure landing zones & network architecture: design, provisioning, and operation of Azure landing zones for 3-tier web applications with enhanced network segmentation, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, and firewall integration across separate subscriptions and tenants.
Azure DevOps governance & operations: ownership of the Azure DevOps organization, including projects, repositories, and CI/CD pipelines; implementation of governance requirements such as branch policies, approval gates, permission models, and audit-ready operating structures.
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): design, implementation, and operation of a modular Terraform architecture for standardized cloud infrastructure deployment, including state management, provider versioning, reusability, and policy-as-code approaches.
CI/CD pipeline engineering: design, operation, and optimization of complex YAML-based CI/CD pipelines with multi-stage deployments, template standardization, self-hosted agents, integrated secret management, and automated quality and security checks.
Git migration & platform consolidation: planning and execution of repository and pipeline migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD, including automated scripts, full Git history transfer, pipeline porting, and platform consolidation.
Container & platform operations (AKS): operation and security assessment of containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service, centralization of on-premises container registries for ACR.
OpenShift (OCP) security reviews: security assessment of code baselines, build pipelines, and deployment processes for on-premises OpenShift clusters with critical applications, and derivation of specific hardening recommendations.
Shift-left security & DevSecOps transformation: introduction of a company-wide shift-left approach for early security integration in development and deployment processes, enabling developers to perform self-led security checks and sustainably reduce vulnerabilities before production (IDE integrations, pre-commit hooks, local scanners).
Software supply chain security: analysis and mitigation of supply chain risks in NPM- and Yarn-based applications through dependency audits, CI/CD pipeline hardening, token rotation, and restriction of risky build and lifecycle mechanisms.
Frontend & framework security (React / Next.js): security assessment and coordination of critical vulnerability remediation across platform applications and web frameworks, including coordination and complementary technical mitigations with all teams following BSI alerts.
Software composition analysis (SCA): introduction and operation of automated vulnerability scans for container images, pipelines/artifacts, and third-party dependencies, including SBOM exports within CI/CD pipelines.
SAST/DAST integration: design and piloting of static and dynamic application security tests in close collaboration with security architecture and development teams, for continuous improvement of code and runtime security, and establishing operational acceptance tests.
Artifact & registry consolidation: analysis and consolidation of all package and container repositories for service applications and AKS workloads, aiming for a centralized, secured registry strategy with centralized vulnerability scanning and governance.
Dependency-Track & SBOM strategy: advising the compliance board on introducing a central SBOM and vulnerability management platform to increase enterprise-wide dependency transparency and accelerate CVE response capability.
CI/CD pipeline hardening: security analysis and cleanup of the existing pipeline landscape by removing unused pipelines, improving secrets hygiene, implementing least-privilege principles, and isolating build agent environments.
Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) optimization: analysis and tuning of existing Azure WAF rules (OWASP Top 10 Core Rule Set, DSR/SDC, custom rules) to defend against known vulnerabilities and exploit patterns, including reducing false positives and improving threat detection.
Documentation & stakeholder communication: creating and maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture overviews in Jira and Confluence, as well as active knowledge transfer between operations, development, security, and compliance stakeholders.
Panagiotis Tsafaridis
IT Consultant
Last position:
Senior Data Engineer Consultant at GOLDNER GmbH
- Onboarded and conducted comprehensive documentation and system analysis to assess the existing data infrastructure, facilitating rapid integration and collaboration across functional data teams (modelling, processing, reporting).
- Collaboratively defined the architecture and project structure for a central data pipeline repository, including hierarchical standards, knowledge management strategies, and role-specific responsibilities, enhancing maintainability and onboarding speed.
- Evaluated and validated open-source data routing tools (Airbyte, Apache NiFi, Dragster) for ingest and sync requirements in retail analytics, including local benchmarking and error-state testing.
- Led the design and deployment of Airbyte in Kubernetes, creating customized Helm charts, securing secrets handling, and configuring Ingress with TLS and internal DNS routing, ensuring full API and UI accessibility.
- Troubleshot and resolved Ingress controller issues, iterating through multiple stages of debugging and testing, and documented setup and replication steps for scalable reuse.
- Mapped data models to ARTS standard, supporting schema alignment for ERP and reporting use cases, and coordinated review loops to align future data processing logic.
- Drafted strategic 1-pagers comparing MinIO, Pub/Sub, and routing architectures, providing technical guidance for architectural decisions and investment planning.
- Enabled secure access and authentication mechanisms, including initial evaluation for SAML integration, cluster-level configuration reviews, and service annotation improvements.
Jan Krol
Data Expert
Last position:
Data Expert at Manufacturing
Enrico Goerlitz
Data & AI Engineering | Backend Software Development
Last position:
Freelance Software & Data/AI Engineer at Freiberuflicher Software & Data/AI Engineer
- Lecturer for the GenAI Track at the Master School Institute of Technology
- Development of a full-stack AI application (React + Python/FastAPI) for automated supplier product import with intelligent column and category classification (4-layer hierarchical) including human-in-the-loop validation
Manuel Reinfurt
Cloud Architect & Lead Developer
Last position:
Cloud Architect & Lead Developer
- Responsible for the 5-head development team and Scrum + DevOps approach
- Designed and implemented the cloud architecture for the application landscape
- Lead development for the user management on Azure Cloud using .NET 8/C#
- Development for the user management frontend using React (TypeScript)
- Technologies: Azure AD, Functions, Storage, CosmosDB, Service Bus, AKS, Monitor, Pipelines, Key Vault, MSSQL, Bicep, App Service, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Cost Management
- Backend: .NET/C#; Frontend: Angular (TypeScript)
- Unit testing: NUnit, xUnit, Moq
- CI & CD: Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
- DevOps & IaC: Bicep, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes
- Security & Compliance: ISO 27001, DevSecOps
- Software development approach: Scrum, SAFe, Kanban
Oliver Kretz
Azure Cloud Engineer
Last position:
Azure Cloud Engineer at DVAG-Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG
- Conceptualization and administration of Azure AD (app registrations, hybrid identities, group concepts)
- Azure Monitoring
- Design and building of Azure-based solutions (IaaS / PaaS)
- Consulting and technical support of internal cloud projects
- Automations for Azure solutions
Teemu Suvanto
SRE
Last position:
SRE at E.On SE
- Maintained a SaaS billing platform on AWS as part of the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team.
- Played a key role in an AWS cloud migration project, implementing Terraform (IaC), creating CI/CD processes and pipelines, hardening images, upgrading tool versions, and developing scripts.
- Wrote documentation.
AWS Cloud migration:
- Design and implement CI/CD for deploying AWS resources using GitLab CI, Terraform, and GitOps.
- Create and configure DevOps toolchain including Jenkins, Harbor, and Vault.
- Deploy billing application, microservices, and supporting infrastructure services to Nomad clusters.
- Re-designed TLS/mTLS certificate management using Vault and Lambda.
Security (Infrastructure Hardening & Patch Management & Vulnerability Scanning):
- Managed multiple AWS accounts for Consul/Nomad/Traefik clusters (10–20 EC2 instances/account, ASG) and DevOps toolchain accounts (Harbor, Jenkins, Vault).
- Created hardened AMIs via Packer based on CIS benchmarks for Nomad, Jenkins, Harbor, and Vault; deployed using Terraform.
- Integrated Trivy via Harbor plugin for container image scanning.
- Implemented strict AWS VPC security group rules.
- Developed and maintained patching process across environments using Qualys and Wiz.
- Deployed Qualys Cloud Agent to all EC2 instances, tracked CVEs and tested patches in lower environments before rollout.
- Automated patch deployment across all AWS accounts using Terraform and GitLab CI and verified patch compliance via Qualys/Wiz dashboards.
Vincent Rothländer
Freelancer
Last position:
Freelancer at VINROTLAB.IO
- Consulting and building various web applications based on SharePoint and the React framework for different clients
- Developing and testing accessible apps for SharePoint
- Creating various test cases for test automation
- Developing various solutions based on Azure
- Creating various web services using .NET
- Developing various SharePoint Framework solutions
- Developing various UI solutions based on SharePoint
- Consulting and building various Power Apps applications and Power Automate for a steel industry and an IT consulting company
- Providing support, consulting, and development with offshore teams for SharePoint 2013, 2016, and microservices for a logistics company
- Consulting, designing, and developing microservices and web applications based on Microsoft technology and the React framework for a logistics company
- Consulting, designing, and developing various SharePoint Framework solutions on SharePoint 2016 for logistics
- Consulting on the migration from SharePoint 2010 to 2016 for an IT consulting company
Mohamed Ghassen Brahim
Founder & CEO
Last position:
Lead / Principal Cloud, AI & Security Architect at Freelancer / CC Conceptualise GmbH
Projects:
Project: RWE – Development of a company-wide Zero Trust cybersecurity architecture (CITADEL) Role: Senior Enterprise Cybersecurity Architect / Zero Trust Architect Company: RWE AG Description: Concept and implementation of the strategic CITADEL cybersecurity target architecture at RWE, based on the Zero Trust architecture principle and aligned with regulatory requirements such as NIS2, ISO 27001 and company-wide security governance policies. The goal was to build a measurable, auditable and scalable security architecture with a strong focus on Identity Governance, compliance transparency and operational manageability. Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Zero Trust architecture design: Developed a company-wide Zero Trust reference architecture (Identity, Device, Network, Application, Data) including trust zones, control points and enforcement mechanisms according to NIS2.
- Identity & Access Governance (IGA): Designed and introduced IGA governance structures including role models, recertification processes, segregation of duties (SoD) and lifecycle management for identities and access.
- Security governance & KPIs: Defined and implemented security KPIs and metrics to manage Zero Trust maturity, identity risks and compliance at the management level.
- Compliance & reporting: Built standardized compliance reports and dashboards to support internal audits, external assessments and regulatory evidence (e.g. NIS2).
- Architecture & stakeholder alignment: Worked closely with Enterprise Architecture, IT operations and business units to integrate the CITADEL architecture into existing IT and security landscapes.
- Strategic security consulting: Advised programs and projects on Zero Trust compliance, identity centricity and regulatory requirements in the energy and critical infrastructure (KRITIS) environment. Technologies & Methods: Zero Trust Architecture, NIS2, Identity Governance & Administration (IGA), IAM, RBAC, SoD, Entra ID, SailPoint, Zscaler, Terraform / IaC, Policy as Code, security KPIs, compliance reporting, NIST 2.0, ISO 27001, Enterprise Security Architecture, governance frameworks, risk & control management
Project: Scalable AI Workbench Platform on Microsoft Azure Role: Cloud Architect & Engineer Company: Siemens Energy Description: Design, development and operation of a secure, modular cloud infrastructure to support Data Science, Machine Learning and AI applications for various engineering teams at Siemens Energy. Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Cloud architecture: Designed and implemented an Infrastructure-as-Code solution (Terraform) for automated provisioning of Azure resources (Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Cosmos DB, Application Insights, networking, PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Registry).
- Developer portal: Used Backstage with custom frontend and backend plugins (Node.js, TypeScript, React.js, PostgreSQL, Container Apps) to enable self-service and empower developers, data scientists and AI/ML engineers.
- Role-based access control: Implemented Azure RBAC to grant targeted access (e.g. Storage Blob Data Contributor, Reader) to engineering groups (e.g. AI Engineers) for relevant resources.
- Data platform engineering: Built and configured a multi-layered storage landscape (Raw, Curated, Vector data), including automated container creation and access control for advanced analytics and AI workloads.
- DevOps integration: Integrated with Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipelines to automate deployment, monitoring and compliance.
- Security & compliance: Implemented Private Endpoints, network policies and Managed Identities to ensure data protection and regulatory compliance.
- Collaboration: Worked closely with cross-functional teams to align the cloud infrastructure with business and technical requirements and drive digital transformation at Siemens Energy. Technologies: Azure, Terraform, Azure DevOps, Cosmos DB, Application Insights, Azure Storage, Private Endpoints, Azure Synapse, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Entra ID, RBAC, Backstage, Node.js, React.js, PostgreSQL, Python (automation), Git
Mohamed Anssaien
Senior Multi-Cloud Solution Architect
Last position:
Senior Multi-Cloud Solution Architect at 35X GmbH
- Analyze of customer’s requirements and design architectural solutions for customer projects
- Design and implementation of cloud infrastructure and services: AWS, Azure and OpenStack
- Consulting for cloud architectures and operating concepts
- Data Center migration accompaniment and coordination with developers and Stakeholders
Nico Thiemer
Managing Director and Founder
Last position:
Managing Director and Founder at nova laboro UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) statistics
Typical experience
15 years
Average project duration
2.3 years
Certifications per freelancer
8
Top business areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management
Top industries
Information Technology, Manufacturing, Banking and Finance
Most common languages
German, English, French
Bachelor's degree or higher
70%
Master's degree or higher
50%
Doctorate
10%
Salary / Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers holding this certification are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? Learn key details about FRATCH right now
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) validates the ability to design complete Azure solutions, not just configure individual services. It points to skills in identity, networking, governance, storage, data, security, and operational design. For a company, that usually means the freelancer can make architecture decisions that hold up in real projects.
Yes, Azure Solutions Architect Expert is the common name people use for the certification track, and AZ-305 is the exam most closely associated with it. Searchers may also shorten it to AZ-305 on profiles or in learning material. The key idea is the same: advanced Azure architecture capability.
AZ-305 is a strong fit for freelancers who lead cloud design work, advise on migrations, or review enterprise Azure environments. It suits senior architects, consultants, and technical leads more than generalists. Companies usually look for it when a project needs someone to set the technical direction.
A freelancer with the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential often works on cloud migrations, landing zones, hybrid integration, and platform redesign. They may also help with security architecture, disaster recovery, and governance. In practice, they are often brought in when a project needs a clear design before implementation starts.
AZ-305 expects solid, practical Azure experience before preparation starts to make sense. Most candidates need to be comfortable reading architecture scenarios, comparing service options, and defending trade-offs. It is better suited to people who have already worked on Azure projects than to beginners.
Azure Solutions Architect Expert is aimed at professionals who already know Azure well and can think across services. Microsoft ties this level to prior Azure knowledge and the ability to handle architecture-level decisions. It is not a first certification for someone new to cloud.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert stays current through Microsoft’s ongoing renewal process rather than a one-time finish. Holders are expected to keep up with Azure changes and refresh their knowledge as the platform evolves. That matters because architecture decisions depend on current service capabilities.
AZ-305 is especially useful in enterprise IT, regulated environments, SaaS, manufacturing, finance, and public-sector adjacent projects. In Germany, it is often relevant when teams need cloud design support in English and German or when stakeholders are spread across locations. It matters most where architecture quality, security, and long-term maintainability are critical.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
