Deputy Manager - Senior Microsoft 365 & Cloud Administrator

Job Description: Senior Microsoft 365 & Cloud Administrator

Role: Senior Microsoft 365 (Office 365) & Cloud Administrator
Team: IT Infrastructure / Cloud Operations
Experience: 8–12 years total, with at least 5 years administering Microsoft 365 at enterprise scale and at least 3 years administering Azure (AWS exposure a plus)
Employment Type: Full-time

Role Summary

We are looking for a Senior Microsoft 365 & Cloud Administrator to manage, secure, and optimize our Microsoft 365 collaboration platform and cloud infrastructure. You will be responsible for the day-to-day administration, security, compliance, and continuous improvement of Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Entra ID, Intune, Purview, and Defender, along with Azure cloud resources supporting enterprise and business applications.

The role combines hands-on administration with senior ownership: designing policies, leading migrations and rollouts, handling escalations, automating operations, and ensuring the environment meets security, data protection, and regulatory requirements expected in a pharma organization.

Key Responsibilities

1. Microsoft 365 Administration

• Administer and maintain the Microsoft 365 tenant, including tenant settings, service health, message center changes, and licensing.

• Exchange Online: mailbox and shared mailbox management, distribution and M365 groups, mail flow and transport rules, connectors, retention, journaling, and hybrid Exchange where applicable.

• SharePoint Online and OneDrive: site architecture, permissions, sharing policies, storage management, site lifecycle, and governance.

• Microsoft Teams: Teams governance, policies, meeting and calling settings, Teams Phone/Direct Routing (if applicable), guest and external access, and lifecycle management.

• Manage Microsoft 365 Apps deployment, update channels, and add-ins.

• Administer Power Platform environments (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI) including DLP policies and environment governance.

• Govern Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI features: license assignment, data access readiness, oversharing remediation, sensitivity labels, and usage policies.

• Plan and execute tenant migrations, mailbox and file migrations, and tenant-to-tenant consolidations.

2. Identity and Access Management

• Administer Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD): users, groups, dynamic groups, guest accounts, app registrations, and enterprise applications.

• Manage hybrid identity with Entra Connect / Cloud Sync and on-premises Active Directory.

• Configure and maintain Conditional Access, MFA, passwordless authentication, SSPR, and risk-based policies.

• Implement Privileged Identity Management (PIM), role-based access, access reviews, and identity governance (joiner-mover-leaver processes).

• Integrate SaaS and enterprise applications through SSO (SAML, OIDC) and SCIM provisioning.

3. Endpoint and Device Management

• Manage devices through Microsoft Intune: enrollment (Autopilot), compliance policies, configuration profiles, application deployment, and patching.

• Manage mobile devices and app protection policies (MAM) for BYOD and corporate devices.

• Coordinate with endpoint and security teams on Windows Update for Business and device hardening baselines.

4. Security and Threat Protection

• Administer Microsoft Defender suite: Defender for Office 365 (anti-phishing, safe links, safe attachments), Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, and Defender for Cloud Apps.

• Monitor and improve Microsoft Secure Score and Identity Secure Score.

• Investigate and respond to security incidents such as phishing, compromised accounts, and suspicious sign-ins, in coordination with the SOC.

• Configure email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and protect against spoofing and impersonation.

• Integrate M365 and Azure logs with SIEM platforms (e.g., Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk).

5. Compliance, Data Protection and Governance

• Administer Microsoft Purview: sensitivity labels, DLP policies, retention policies and labels, records management, eDiscovery, audit logs, insider risk, and information barriers where required.

• Align retention and records management with the company's record retention policy and legal hold requirements.

• Support GxP-relevant collaboration use cases (e.g., controlled document storage, audit trails, and access control on regulated SharePoint sites) in alignment with 21 CFR Part 11, EU Annex 11, and ALCOA+ where applicable, working with QA and CSV teams.

• Support data privacy compliance (GDPR, India DPDP Act) and internal or external audits.

• Maintain M365 backup and recovery solutions (e.g., Microsoft 365 Backup, Veeam, AvePoint, Druva).

6. Cloud Administration (Azure and Multi-Cloud)

• Administer Azure subscriptions and resources, including VMs, storage accounts, virtual networks, NSGs, load balancers, App Services, Azure SQL, Key Vault, and backup.

• Manage resource organization through management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, tagging, and Azure Policy.

• Implement and maintain RBAC, managed identities, and secure access to cloud resources.

• Monitor performance, availability, and health using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and alerts.

• Manage backup, Azure Site Recovery, and disaster recovery testing for cloud workloads.

• Support hybrid connectivity (VPN, ExpressRoute) and integration with on-premises infrastructure.

• Track and optimize cloud costs through Azure Cost Management, rightsizing, reservations, and cleanup of unused resources.

• Support AWS or other cloud environments where required.

7. Automation and Operations

• Automate administration tasks using PowerShell, Microsoft Graph API, Azure CLI, and Azure Automation / Logic Apps.

• Use infrastructure-as-code (Bicep, ARM, or Terraform) for repeatable cloud deployments where applicable.

• Maintain standard operating procedures, runbooks, configuration documentation, and change records.

• Handle L2/L3 escalations, lead root cause analysis, and drive problem resolution.

• Follow ITIL processes for incident, change, problem, and service request management.

• Monitor Microsoft roadmap and service changes and plan their impact and rollout.

8. Leadership and Collaboration

• Mentor junior administrators and service desk teams; create knowledge articles and training.

• Work with security, network, application, QA, and business teams on projects and requirements.

• Manage Microsoft partners and vendors for support cases, licensing, and projects.

• Drive user adoption and awareness of collaboration tools and security best practices.

Required Skills and Experience

• Deep, hands-on experience administering Microsoft 365: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams, and the M365 admin center.

• Strong expertise in Entra ID, Conditional Access, MFA, PIM, and hybrid identity with Active Directory.

• Hands-on experience with Intune and Autopilot.

• Practical experience with Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview.

• Solid Azure administration experience: compute, storage, networking, RBAC, policy, monitoring, and backup.

• Strong PowerShell scripting and familiarity with Microsoft Graph.

• Experience with M365 licensing (E3/E5, add-ons) and license optimization.

• Experience in migrations, tenant governance, and large user environments (several thousand users).

• Understanding of ITIL processes and change management.

• Exposure to regulated environments; pharma or life sciences experience is a strong advantage.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

• Microsoft certifications such as MS-102 (Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert), AZ-104 (Azure Administrator), SC-300 (Identity and Access Administrator), SC-400/SC-401 (Information Protection), MD-102 (Endpoint Administrator), or AZ-305 (Azure Solutions Architect).

• ITIL Foundation certification.

• Exposure to AWS administration and multi-cloud environments.

• Experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment and governance.