Finding the Right Azure Manager for a Top 10 UK Accountancy Firm, In Just Three Weeks
A top 10 UK accountancy firm came to us with a straightforward goal and a surprisingly complex challenge: find an Azure Manager capable of not just maintaining a mature Microsoft estate, but actively shaping its future. What followed was a focused, three-week search that ended with an accepted offer and a client who could finally move forward with confidence.
The Challenge
The firm had been trying to fill this role for a couple of months before instructing us. They had even reached offer stage with a candidate, only for that offer to be declined at the last moment. That kind of setback is frustrating and costly, and it meant the pressure was on to get it right second time around.
The role itself was genuinely multi-dimensional. The incoming Azure Manager would need to manage and develop the existing cloud estate, tailoring it to meet evolving business demands. But the scope stretched well beyond Azure alone. The organisation is deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, covering Teams, SharePoint, Office 365 and Power Platform, and the successful candidate would need to be comfortable liaising with stakeholders across all of it.
Security best practice was non-negotiable, and licensing management experience was considered highly desirable. If the right candidate also brought knowledge of data and AI technologies, that would be a meaningful bonus, helping to future-proof the environment as the firm’s digital ambitions grew. In short, they needed a genuine Azure subject matter expert with the breadth to operate across a complex, enterprise-scale environment.
The Approach
Before beginning the search, we ran a discovery session with the client to fully understand the environment they were operating in and the kind of person who would genuinely thrive there.
It became clear that while technical depth was essential, the firm needed a strong all-rounder. Someone who could hold their own as an Azure SME while also navigating the broader Microsoft stack and the organisational complexity that comes with a firm of this size.
Estate scale mattered too. We were looking for candidates who had managed environments of a similar footprint, with multiple departments and stakeholders feeding into the infrastructure. That kind of hands-on experience in a comparable setting would be a strong indicator of fit.
With that in mind, the search was geographically anchored around the client’s offices and deliberately targeted at candidates coming from organisations known for mature, Microsoft-centric IT environments. AI experience, where present, was treated as a strong differentiator.
The result was a shortlist of three candidates, all identified through direct network, who were each put forward for interview. One progressed through to a second stage and accepted the offer. No delays, no declined offers this time.
The Result
For a role that had sat open for months and already seen one offer fall through, filling it in three weeks speaks for itself. The real work happened before the search even started, taking the time to understand not just the job description, but the environment, the team, and what success in the role would actually look like.
What This Tells Us About Technology Recruitment in Professional Services
Accountancy firms and other professional services organisations are going through a period of real technology transformation. Microsoft cloud, AI and automation are no longer peripheral concerns. They sit at the heart of how these businesses operate and compete, which means the people managing those environments need to be more capable, more commercially aware and more forward-looking than ever before.
Finding those people takes more than posting a job advert. It takes understanding the nuances of the brief, knowing where the right talent is actually working, and having the relationships to reach them directly.
That is what we are here for.
Looking to hire a specialist in Microsoft technologies, cloud or AI? Get in touch with the Nexus Spark team to discuss how we can help.