Cloud Engineer - Azure

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.

The Engineer (L2) plays a key role in supporting, maintaining, and optimizing cloud-based environments with a strong focus on operational excellence, reliability, security, and cost efficiency.

This role involves contributing to the development and enhancement of automation capabilities that enable clients to effectively run their workloads in the cloud. Work spans primarily across Azure, with exposure to AWS, leveraging native cloud services, infrastructure-as-code frameworks, and modern cloud management tools.

The position requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams and client engineering stakeholders to ensure stable, secure, and scalable operations. Strong hands-on experience with Azure platforms, familiarity with container ecosystems, and exposure to DevOps and automation practices are essential.

Responsibilities also include day-to-day operational support within a managed services model, covering incident management, monitoring, and participation in on-call rotations. A solid foundation in Linux and Windows systems, networking, and production operations is critical for effective troubleshooting and environment stability.

Success in this role depends on a balance of technical depth, operational ownership, and client collaboration, along with a continuous focus on improving systems through automation, governance, and best practices.

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