Lead Cloud Operations Engineer – Azure & Kubernetes

  • Location: Toronto, Ontario
  • Type: Direct Hire
  • Job #35630

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

  • Lead technical direction and best practices for Azure cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes (AKS) environments.
  • Design, implement, and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform.
  • Build, deploy, and support Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) production environments.
  • Implement GitOps deployment strategies utilizing ArgoCD, Helm, and Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines.
  • Design and administer Azure Application Gateway, Load Balancers, WAF, SSL termination, and ingress controllers.
  • Manage Azure Key Vault, certificates, secrets management, and cloud security best practices.
  • Build and maintain Azure Container Registry (ACR) repositories, image lifecycle management, and security scanning.
  • Develop automation using Python, Bash, or Shell scripting to improve operational efficiency.
  • Monitor infrastructure health, performance, availability, and security across cloud environments.
  • Lead incident response, root cause analysis (RCA), problem resolution, and post-incident reviews.
  • Optimize Azure infrastructure for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency (FinOps).
  • Troubleshoot Kubernetes clusters, networking, storage, identity, and authentication issues.
  • Establish infrastructure standards, governance, compliance, and operational procedures.
  • Mentor junior engineers through technical leadership, architecture guidance, and code reviews.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and customers to support cloud operations and platform initiatives.
  • Support high availability, disaster recovery, backup strategies, and multi-region cloud deployments.
  • Participate in on-call support and collaborate across multiple time zones when required.

Required Qualifications

  • 8+ years of Cloud Infrastructure or Cloud Operations Engineering experience.
  • 5+ years of hands-on Microsoft Azure experience within enterprise production environments.
  • 5+ years supporting and administering Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • Expert-level experience with Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).
  • Strong experience with Azure DevOps or comparable CI/CD platforms.
  • Hands-on experience with ArgoCD, GitOps deployment methodologies, and Helm.
  • Experience managing Azure Application Gateway, WAF, load balancing, SSL certificates, and ingress.
  • Strong knowledge of Azure Key Vault, secrets management, and identity/security best practices.
  • Experience supporting Azure Container Registry (ACR) and container image lifecycle management.
  • Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting experience.
  • Proficiency with automation scripting using Python, Bash, or Shell.
  • Solid understanding of networking concepts including TCP/IP, DNS, routing, firewalls, VPNs, load balancing, and network troubleshooting.
  • Proven experience leading technical initiatives while mentoring engineering teams.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Microsoft Azure Certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-700, or equivalent).
  • Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD).
  • Experience with cloud security platforms such as Microsoft Defender or Wiz.
  • Azure API Management (APIM) experience.
  • Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning (Azure Backup, Site Recovery).
  • FinOps and cloud cost optimization experience.
  • Experience working within regulated enterprise environments (financial services, banking, healthcare, insurance, etc.).
  • Knowledge of compliance frameworks including SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or similar.
  • Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, Azure Log Analytics, and Application Insights.

Technical Environment

  • Microsoft Azure
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  • Terraform
  • Azure DevOps
  • ArgoCD
  • Helm
  • GitOps
  • Azure Application Gateway
  • Azure Key Vault
  • Azure Container Registry (ACR)
  • Linux
  • Python
  • Bash / Shell
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Azure Monitor
  • Azure Log Analytics
  • Application Insights
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
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