Senior Azure Cloud & DevOps Engineer

Role

You’ll own Client’s Azure environment, and DevOps practices end to end — from platform governance and landing zone architecture to the CI/CD pipelines that ship code and the container infrastructure that runs it. The container and Kubernetes strategy is still taking shape, with a lean toward AKS in Azure and on-prem Kubernetes, so you’ll have real influence over the direction we go. Beyond infrastructure, you’ll play a key role in helping shape Client’s modernization efforts — contributing to decisions on application frameworks, runtime stacks, web servers, and the overall technology direction as we evolve our platform. You’ll also deploy and manage containerized workloads on-prem, working alongside the infrastructure team’s VMware environment. While you’ll operate as a separate domain from our on-prem infrastructure team, the two roles complement each other — you own cloud and DevOps, they own the physical network and data centre.

Rolls and Responsibilities

• Design, build, and manage Client’s Azure cloud environment — subscriptions, landing zones, resource groups, governance policies, and cost management.
• Contribute to modernization strategy and technology selection — helping evaluate and recommend application frameworks (Node.js, Spring Boot, .NET, etc.), web servers (NGINX, Apache, etc.), and runtime environments that align with Client’s cloud and container direction.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, evaluating and selecting the right tooling (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar) in collaboration with the team.
• Develop and own the container and Kubernetes strategy — deploying and managing AKS clusters in Azure and on-prem Kubernetes environments as the platform matures.
• Containerize workloads using Docker, manage container registries, and establish image build and promotion standards.
• Deploy and manage on-prem Kubernetes clusters and containerized workloads, coordinating with the infrastructure team on the underlying compute and virtualization layer.
• Write and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates — everything deployable, everything repeatable.
• Manage Azure platform services including App Services, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Redis, messaging services, and related application infrastructure.
• Administer Azure identity and access — Entra ID (Azure AD), role-based access control, conditional access policies, and service principals.
• Support and troubleshoot Windows Server and Linux systems as they relate to cloud and containerized workloads — coordinating with the infrastructure team for broader server administration.
• Collaborate with the infrastructure team on Azure networking components — VNets, peering, load balancers, application gateways, and DNS — ensuring cloud networking supports your DevOps and container platform needs.
• Own cloud and application monitoring — Datadog, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics, and container-level observability — sharing responsibility with the infrastructure team who covers on-prem.
• Implement and enforce cloud security best practices — network security groups, private endpoints, key vaults, secrets management, and compliance policies.
• Automate operational tasks through scripting and tooling — reduce toil, increase reliability.
• Document architecture decisions, pipeline designs, runbooks, and standards.

Required Experience:

• 5–7+ years of experience in cloud engineering, DevOps, or platform engineering.
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure — this is not a “certified but never built anything” role.
• Experience evaluating and recommending application frameworks, runtime stacks, and web server technologies in the context of cloud and containerized deployments.
• Solid experience with Infrastructure as Code — Terraform preferred, Bicep/ARM also valuable.
• Hands-on experience building and managing CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar).
• Working experience with Kubernetes (AKS preferred) and Docker in production environments.
• Experience deploying and managing on-prem Kubernetes clusters and containerized workloads.
• Familiarity with modern application stacks — Node.js, Spring Boot, .NET, NGINX, or similar — and how they run in containerized and cloud-native environments.
• Strong Linux and Windows Server skills as they relate to cloud and container environments.
• Experience with Azure platform services — App Services, Functions, SQL, Redis, Service Bus, or similar.
• Familiarity with Azure identity and governance — Entra ID, RBAC, policy, cost management.
• Working knowledge of Azure networking — VNets, peering, load balancers, and DNS.
• Experience with monitoring and observability platforms — Datadog, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics, or comparable tools.
• Proficiency with scripting and automation — PowerShell, Bash, Python, or similar.
• Understanding of networking fundamentals — DNS, load balancing, VPN, and network security.
• Familiarity with Git-based workflows and branching strategies.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work independently while collaborating across teams.
• A builder’s mindset — you’d rather automate something than do it twice.

Nice to Have Skills:

• Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-400, AZ-305, or similar).
• Experience with GitOps workflows (Flux, ArgoCD).
• Experience with on-prem Kubernetes distributions (Rancher, K3s, OpenShift, or similar).
• Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd).
• Knowledge of Helm charts and Kubernetes operators.
• Experience with security scanning and compliance tooling (Trivy, Checkov, Defender for Cloud).
• Experience in distribution, logistics, or manufacturing environments.