Cloud Engineer - Azure at thinkahead

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.  We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.  We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.  Key Responsibilities Provide L2 support for cloud and platform environments, ensuring high availability and reliability Own incidents, service requests, and problem management aligned to SLAs Participate in on-call rotations and support after-hours incidents and change windows Perform day-to-day monitoring and support of client cloud infrastructure Troubleshoot and resolve issues across infrastructure, platform, and application layers Support and manage Azure-based environments (compute, storage, networking, identity) Work with OpenShift/Kubernetes platforms for containerized workloads Assist in CI/CD pipeline operations using tools like Jenkins, ArgoCD, GitHub Collaborate with L3/engineering teams for RCA and complex issue resolution Conduct weekly client discussions on incidents, improvements, and environment optimization Contribute to documentation, runbooks, and operational procedures Ensure adherence to change management, release governance, and compliance standards Identify and implement automation opportunities for operational efficiency Support cost, security, and compliance optimization across cloud environments Core Azure Requirements (Mandatory Standard) Compute & Storage Hands-on with Azure Virtual Machines, VM Scale Sets, App Services Experience with Azure Storage (Blob, Disk, File) Backup & recovery using Recovery Services Vault / Azure Backup Networking Strong knowledge of: VNet, Subnets, NSGs Application Gateway / Load Balancer VPN Gateway / Hybrid connectivity (basic) Hub-Spoke Architecture (preferred) Identity & Access Hands-on with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Managing RBAC, users, groups, and managed identities Basic understanding of Conditional Access Monitoring & Operations Experience with: Azure Monitor Log Analytics Application Insights (basic) Ability to configure alerts, dashboards, and perform RCA Security & Governance Exposure to: Azure Policy Defender for Cloud / Security Center Cost Management & Governance Automation & IaC Experience with: ARM Templates / Bicep Terraform (preferred) Familiarity with Azure CLI / PowerShell automation Required Technical Skills Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure (IaaS + PaaS) Experience with OpenShift or Kubernetes DevOps tools: Jenkins ArgoCD GitHub / GitHub Actions Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, ARM) Familiarity with: Cloud cost & governance tools (CloudHealth, CloudCheckr, Prisma Cloud, Cloudability, Harness) Strong OS-level expertise: Linux/Unix and Windows administration Scripting knowledge: PowerShell, Python, Bash Operational Expectations Proven experience in 24x7 production support and on-call environments (mandatory) Strong incident management, troubleshooting, and ownership mindset Understanding of SLA/SLO-driven operations and uptime commitments Experience with change control, release processes, and production deployments Ability to handle high-pressure outage scenarios and client escalations Client & Communication Responsibilities Work directly with client stakeholders and engineering teams Conduct weekly/monthly reviews on incidents, changes, and improvements Provide operational insights, reporting, and recommendations Handle communication during outages, including status updates and stakeholder alignment Qualifications & Experience 3–5 years of experience in cloud / infrastructure / managed services roles Strong experience supporting Azure production environments Experience in customer-facing roles and vendor coordination Azure Associate, Azure Solutions Architect Expert – strongly preferred Nice to Have Exposure to SRE practices (error budgets, reliability improvements) Experience with AWS (basic understanding) Exposure to advanced Azure services (e.g., Synapse, Lighthouse) Experience in cost optimization and FinOps practices Why AHEAD: Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between. We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning. India Employment Benefits include:  Comprehensive health insurance coverage for employees, with options to extend coverage to dependents Paid time off and company holidays, along with additional leave benefits as per policy Flexible work arrangements, supporting work-life balance Learning and development opportunities to support continuous growth and upskilling Employee wellness initiatives and programs focused on physical and mental well-being Retirement and statutory benefits in line with India regulations Inclusive and people-first culture, with a strong focus on collaboration and ownership