About Robert Felkins — Fractional .NET & Azure Architect

Who you'd be working with

I'm Robert Felkins — founder and principal architect at Architect4Hire.

I've been building on .NET since version 1.0, and I'm shipping on .NET 10 today. That span is the point: I've seen enough platform cycles to know which "revolutionary" pattern is actually load-bearing and which one is this year's fashion. I stay hands-on — writing production code, mentoring teams, and setting the standards that keep systems performing when the traffic and the team both grow.

The work runs from greenfield cloud-native platforms to enterprise modernization, with a throughline of distributed systems, event-driven design, and — for the last few years — AI-augmented development done with actual rigor. I built and named a framework for that last part (SCRUB), I'm writing a book on it, and the code and prompt libraries are public so you can judge the method before you hire the person.

A few things that tell you more than a skills list

Consolidated 25+ discrete Azure subscriptions into one enterprise-owned landscape at CAI — a cost, security, and reliability win, and a good example of the unglamorous work that saves real money.
Turned a manual enterprise product-recall process into a fully digital workflow at Medline, mentoring three developers through the .NET Core microservices build along the way.
Designed Cosmos DB container strategies — partition keys, indexing, schemas, even Gremlin graph — for high-throughput, multi-tenant scale.
Architected a full-stack .NET 10 / Angular multi-brand content platform on .NET Aspire with a layered prompt-memory system across six brands and a complete developer handoff.
Drove org-wide GitHub Copilot and .NET Aspire adoption through workshops and Lunch & Learns at enterprise scale — the enablement side, not just the architecture side.

View the full résumé →Start a conversation

Selected Work

A career of hands-on architecture across enterprise modernization, cloud-native builds, and AI-assisted delivery.

Architect · Architect4Hire.com

January 2022 – Present

Founder and principal architect delivering fractional architecture and hands-on engineering leadership for cloud-native platforms. Balance strategic direction with direct implementation, code ownership, and technical governance.

Led design of modern .NET 9/10 service architectures across distributed systems, with an active evolution path toward .NET 10.
Designed Cosmos DB partition, indexing, and schema strategies for high-throughput, multi-tenant workloads.
Built an Azure Functions compute layer for async processing, projections, messaging orchestration, and data sync over Service Bus.
Decomposed legacy ASP.NET Core APIs into domain-aligned microservices with resilient messaging and independent deployment.
Delivered secure Angular 16+ portals and admin apps for operational workflows, content moderation, and dashboards.
Drove GitHub Copilot and .NET Aspire adoption through real proof-of-concept work, improving velocity and architectural consistency.
Architected an AI-assisted multi-brand content platform (.NET 10 / Angular 19, .NET Aspire, OpenAI, Venice.ai) with a layered prompt-memory system across six brands and a full developer handoff.

Stack: .NET 9/10, ASP.NET Core, Azure Functions, Cosmos DB, Azure SQL, Service Bus, AKS, Angular, TypeScript, microservices & event-driven architecture, Azure DevOps, GitHub, Copilot

Solutions Architect · FrankCrum

February 2024 – July 2026

Delivered scalable enterprise platforms for payroll and employee systems, combining hands-on engineering with architectural leadership across APIs, front-ends, and cloud messaging.

Introduced TOGAF-aligned practices — C4 diagrams, design artifacts, delivery plans — and ran cross-team architecture forums.
Evolved monolithic services into domain-aligned microservices with resilient, event-driven APIs on AKS.
Architected a distributed notification and integration framework on Azure Service Bus and Azure Functions.
Modernized service hosting with .NET Aspire for better observability and local development.
Led org-wide GitHub Copilot and .NET Aspire onboarding via workshops and Lunch & Learns.

Stack: C#, .NET 6–10, ASP.NET Core, AKS, Azure Functions, Service Bus, SQL Server, TOGAF, Copilot, .NET Aspire

.NET Team Lead · Wilco Source

October 2023 – February 2024

Designed and led a suite of microservices transforming and mapping insurance and medical data across payloads. Active in the .NET community of excellence on microservice architecture and practices.

Stack: C#, .NET Core 6, SQL Server, Kafka, Azure (AKS)

Azure / .NET Solutions Architect · Onlife Health

March 2023 – June 2023

Designed an Azure Functions proof of concept for a cloud migration with three senior developers; contributed to the cloud-readiness program on Azure architecture and practices.

Stack: Azure, Azure Advisor, App Services, Azure Functions, Application Insights, Azure DevOps

Cloud Solutions Architect · CAI

June 2022 – March 2023

Owned infrastructure architecture and design artifacts for Azure solutions. Optimized the Azure landscape for cost, security, and reliability, consolidating 25+ discrete subscriptions into a central enterprise subscription.

Stack: Azure, Azure Advisor, App Services, AKS, Azure SQL, Application Insights, Azure DevOps

Solutions Architect · Medline, LP

April 2019 – June 2022

Delivered master-data and data-quality solutions with high-level system designs, integration requirements, and architecture artifacts. Led the Enterprise Product Recall project — digitizing a manual recall process — and mentored three junior developers in .NET Core microservices. Built a POC regulatory content-monitoring system (ASP.NET Core 3.1 microservices, Angular).

Stack: Angular, TypeScript, ASP.NET Core, SOA, event-driven architecture, Azure DevOps, AKS, cloud services

Architect · MVCWizards, Inc.

January 2016 – April 2020

Founder and principal architect leading end-to-end solutions and teams of up to six. Modernized Confident Kitchen onto .NET Core and AKS (Redis, Cosmos DB, Service Bus); led modernization at Fidelity Life Association, including an enterprise SSO system, automated policy processing, and WebForms-to-.NET Core migration standards.

Stack: Angular, TypeScript, ASP.NET Core, SOA, RabbitMQ, Azure, Cosmos DB, KnockoutJS, AKS, GitHub

Team Lead / Architect · CDW

November 2014 – December 2015

Designed and maintained core interfaces powering CDW.com and partner integrations. Led three developers to build Partner Services for B2B integration with Xerox and Spiceworks; helped unify two legacy WebForms apps into a modern MVC line-of-business platform.

Stack: ASP.NET MVC 5, Web API 2, Autofac, SOA, modular/DDD design, jQuery, Bootstrap 3, Team Foundation Server 2012

About