Lead Cloud Operations Engineer – Azure & Kubernetes (35630)

August 7, 2026

Lead Cloud Operations Engineer – Azure & Kubernetes Overview Our client is seeking a Lead Cloud Operations Engineer to provide technical leadership while remaining hands-on in the design, implementation, and support of enterprise-scale cloud infrastructure within Microsoft Azure. This role is ideal for a senior cloud professional who enjoys solving complex infrastructure challenges, mentoring engineering teams, and driving automation, scalability, security, and operational excellence. The successful candidate will play a key role in building and maintaining highly available, secure, and scalable cloud environments while partnering closely with engineering, DevOps, and customer-facing teams. Key Responsibilities <ul><li>Lead technical direction and best practices for Azure cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes (AKS) environments.</li><li>Design, implement, and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform.</li><li>Build, deploy, and support Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) production environments.</li><li>Implement GitOps deployment strategies utilizing ArgoCD, Helm, and Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines.</li><li>Design and administer Azure Application Gateway, Load Balancers, WAF, SSL termination, and ingress controllers.</li><li>Manage Azure Key Vault, certificates, secrets management, and cloud security best practices.</li><li>Build and maintain Azure Container Registry (ACR) repositories, image lifecycle management, and security scanning.</li><li>Develop automation using Python, Bash, or Shell scripting to improve operational efficiency.</li><li>Monitor infrastructure health, performance, availability, and security across cloud environments.</li><li>Lead incident response, root cause analysis (RCA), problem resolution, and post-incident reviews.</li><li>Optimize Azure infrastructure for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency (FinOps).</li><li>Troubleshoot Kubernetes clusters, networking, storage, identity, and authentication issues.</li><li>Establish infrastructure standards, governance, compliance, and operational procedures.</li><li>Mentor junior engineers through technical leadership, architecture guidance, and code reviews.</li><li>Collaborate with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and customers to support cloud operations and platform initiatives.</li><li>Support high availability, disaster recovery, backup strategies, and multi-region cloud deployments.</li><li>Participate in on-call support and collaborate across multiple time zones when required. </li></ul>Required Qualifications <ul><li>8+ years of Cloud Infrastructure or Cloud Operations Engineering experience.</li><li>5+ years of hands-on Microsoft Azure experience within enterprise production environments.</li><li>5+ years supporting and administering Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).</li><li>Expert-level experience with Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).</li><li>Strong experience with Azure DevOps or comparable CI/CD platforms.</li><li>Hands-on experience with ArgoCD, GitOps deployment methodologies, and Helm.</li><li>Experience managing Azure Application Gateway, WAF, load balancing, SSL certificates, and ingress.</li><li>Strong knowledge of Azure Key Vault, secrets management, and identity/security best practices.</li><li>Experience supporting Azure Container Registry (ACR) and container image lifecycle management.</li><li>Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting experience.</li><li>Proficiency with automation scripting using Python, Bash, or Shell.</li><li>Solid understanding of networking concepts including TCP/IP, DNS, routing, firewalls, VPNs, load balancing, and network troubleshooting.</li><li>Proven experience leading technical initiatives while mentoring engineering teams.</li><li>Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. </li></ul>Preferred Qualifications <ul><li>Microsoft Azure Certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-700, or equivalent).</li><li>Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD).</li><li>Experience with cloud security platforms such as Microsoft Defender or Wiz.</li><li>Azure API Management (APIM) experience.</li><li>Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning (Azure Backup, Site Recovery).</li><li>FinOps and cloud cost optimization experience.</li><li>Experience working within regulated enterprise environments (financial services, banking, healthcare, insurance, etc.).</li><li>Knowledge of compliance frameworks including SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or similar.</li><li>Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, Azure Log Analytics, and Application Insights. </li></ul>Technical Environment <ul><li>Microsoft Azure</li><li>Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)</li><li>Terraform</li><li>Azure DevOps</li><li>ArgoCD</li><li>Helm</li><li>GitOps</li><li>Azure Application Gateway</li><li>Azure Key Vault</li><li>Azure Container Registry (ACR)</li><li>Linux</li><li>Python</li><li>Bash / Shell</li><li>Docker</li><li>Kubernetes</li><li>Azure Monitor</li><li>Azure Log Analytics</li><li>Application Insights</li><li>Prometheus</li><li>Grafana </li></ul>,

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