Senior Microsoft Cloud Services Engineer

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.

We are seeking a Senior Microsoft Cloud Services Engineer to design, implement, and operate enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure and productivity services across the Microsoft cloud ecosystem, primarily Azure and Microsoft 365. This role serves as a technical lead for cloud initiatives, partnering with infrastructure, security, application, and service teams to ensure cloud services are reliable, secure, cost-effective, and aligned with business needs. The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on expertise, strong troubleshooting skills, and the ability to mentor others while driving standards and best practices.

Key Responsibilities:
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Architect, implement, and maintain Azure-based infrastructure (networking, compute, storage, identity, security controls) to support business-critical workloads with defined availability and performance targets.

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Lead cloud migrations and modernization efforts, including workload assessment, landing zone design, migration planning and execution, and post-migration optimization.

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Own Microsoft 365 service operations (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams) including configuration, governance, lifecycle management, and service health monitoring.

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Design and enforce cloud security best practices such as identity hardening (Microsoft Entra ID), Conditional Access, least privilege RBAC, secure network patterns, and policy-based compliance.

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Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation using tools such as Terraform, Bicep/ARM, and PowerShell to improve consistency, deployment speed, and auditability.

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Monitor, troubleshoot, and resolve complex incidents across Azure and Microsoft 365; perform root cause analysis and implement preventive improvements.

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Establish and maintain operational standards including documentation, runbooks, change management, patching strategies, backup and disaster recovery, and service-level reporting.

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Optimize cloud costs and performance using tagging strategies, capacity planning, rightsizing, reservations or savings plans, and cost governance processes.

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Collaborate cross-functionally with security, networking, application teams, and vendors to deliver integrated cloud solutions; provide technical guidance during planning and implementation.

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Mentor and uplift engineers through coaching, peer reviews for automation and IaC, and leadership in adopting cloud best practices and standards.

Required Qualifications:
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Overall 13+ years of IT infrastructure/engineering experience with 4+ years of hands-on experience in Azure and/or Microsoft 365 in enterprise environments.

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Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

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One or more current Microsoft certifications such as Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or equivalent, Microsoft 365 Administrator/Expert-level certification, or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

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Proven Azure engineering experience across core services including networking, compute, storage, identity, monitoring, and governance.

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Microsoft 365 administration experience managing tenant configuration, governance, and troubleshooting across key workloads.

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Strong identity and access management skills with Microsoft Entra ID, MFA, Conditional Access, SSO integration, and role-based access control (RBAC).

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Demonstrated ability to implement cloud security controls and support compliance requirements using Microsoft security capabilities (e.g., Defender, Purview concepts).

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Proficiency in PowerShell and at least one Infrastructure as Code approach (Terraform and/or Bicep/ARM) with CI/CD integration exposure.

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Strong operational background in incident response, problem management, monitoring, backup/disaster recovery, and change control for production services.

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Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management skills; ability to explain complex concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications:
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Advanced certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500), DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400), or Microsoft Security (SC-200/SC-300/SC-100).

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Hybrid identity experience (Entra Connect or Cloud Sync) and integration of on-premises Active Directory with Microsoft cloud services.

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Deep Azure networking design experience (hub-and-spoke, firewalling, private endpoints, ExpressRoute/VPN, DNS, routing).

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Hands-on experience implementing Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Defender for Endpoint/Identity/Office 365, and security monitoring workflows (e.g., Microsoft Sentinel).

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Experience designing governance at scale (Azure landing zones, management groups, policy/initiative structures, standardized subscription models).

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Familiarity with Git-based workflows, Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions pipelines, and automated testing for infrastructure deployments.

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Experience working in ITSM/ITIL-aligned environments (e.g., ServiceNow) and driving measurable operational improvements.

Technical Skills and Competencies:
Area

Skills / Tools

Microsoft Azure

Virtual Networks, VMs, Storage Accounts, Azure Backup, Azure Monitor/Log Analytics, Key Vault; Azure Policy, Management Groups, RBAC, tagging standards; VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Private Link/Private Endpoints, NSGs, Azure Firewall, Application Gateway/WAF, DNS; Microsoft Entra ID, PIM, Conditional Access; Defender for Cloud.

Microsoft 365

Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams; service health management; governance and lifecycle administration; security and compliance concepts (Purview: DLP, retention; Defender for Office 365; Secure Score).

Automation, IaC, and Tooling

PowerShell (advanced), Azure CLI; Terraform and/or Bicep/ARM; CI/CD with Azure DevOps and/or GitHub Actions; monitoring and alerting, dashboards, runbooks, SLO/SLA reporting; documentation and diagramming.

Operational and Leadership Competencies

Technical leadership and mentoring; structured troubleshooting and root cause analysis; cross-team collaboration; requirements translation into scalable designs; ownership mindset for reliability, security, and cost optimization.

Additional Information :
Work Environment and Expectations

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Participate in an on-call rotation and occasional after-hours maintenance windows as required for critical changes and incident response.

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Partner with security and compliance teams to ensure cloud services meet organizational and regulatory requirements.

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Contribute to standards, reference architectures, and continuous improvement initiatives across the cloud platform.

What Success Looks Like (First 6 to 12 Months)

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Improved reliability and observability of cloud services through standardized monitoring, runbooks, and operational metrics.

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Measurable progress in security posture through identity hardening, policy compliance, and risk reduction initiatives.

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Reduced deployment cycle time and configuration drift through increased adoption of Infrastructure as Code and automation.

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Demonstrated leadership through mentoring, high-quality documentation, and successful delivery of key cloud initiatives.

Equal Opportunity Statement: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.

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