Azure AI / MS Foundry Consultant | B2B Contract

We are looking for an experienced consultant to support the setup, configuration, and operationalization of a voice-based AI assistant built on the Microsoft AI ecosystem.

The consultant will work closely with our internal AI engineering and product teams to establish a scalable and production-ready architecture leveraging Microsoft Foundry and related Azure AI services.

Key responsibilities:

• Configure and deploy solutions using Microsoft Foundry and Azure AI services.
• Design and implement voicebot capabilities utilizing Voice Live API and real-time speech technologies.
• Set up and configure Azure AI Search, including indexing, retrieval strategies, grounding, and integration with enterprise knowledge sources.
• Configure and optimize supporting services such as Azure OpenAI, Speech Services, content safety, monitoring, logging, and orchestration components.
• Implement best practices for authentication, security, networking, and compliance within an enterprise banking environment.
• Support integration with backend APIs, business services, and customer-facing channels.
• Advise on architecture decisions, scalability, performance optimization, and operational readiness.
• Assist with troubleshooting, testing, and production hardening of voice and conversational AI solutions.
• Collaborate with internal engineers to upskill the team and ensure long-term maintainability.

Required experience:

• Hands-on experience implementing conversational AI solutions on Microsoft Azure.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Foundry and Azure AI services.
• Proven experience configuring and deploying Voice Live API or similar real-time voice AI solutions.
• Deep knowledge of Azure AI Search, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), indexing strategies, and search optimization.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, prompt orchestration, grounding, and agent-based AI solutions.
• Knowledge of speech recognition, text-to-speech, real-time audio streaming, and voicebot architecture.
• Experience integrating AI solutions with enterprise systems and APIs.
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, security, identity management, and operational best practices.

Preferred experience:

• Experience implementing AI assistants within regulated industries such as banking or financial services.
• Familiarity with compliance, risk, and governance requirements related to AI solutions.
• Experience with agent-to-agent orchestration, multi-agent architectures, and enterprise knowledge retrieval patterns.
• Knowledge of monitoring, observability, and evaluation frameworks for generative AI solutions.

Expected outcome:

The consultant will help establish a production-ready foundation for a voice-enabled AI Assistant, including configuration of Microsoft Foundry, Voice Live API, Azure AI Search, and related Azure AI services, while ensuring the solution is scalable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise standards