Senior DevOps Engineer

Senior DevOps & Platform Engineer (Azure)

Location:
Hybrid in Manhattan, NY Duration: 6 Month Contract-to-Hire

About the Role
Our client is expanding its Azure environment and moving toward a fully automated, infrastructure-as-code approach. With the core Azure foundation already in place, the focus is now on building the platforms, pipelines, and engineering standards needed to deliver applications securely and reliably. The Senior DevOps & Platform Engineer will take ownership of GitHub Enterprise administration, CI/CD automation, Terraform adoption, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This is a hands-on role within a small engineering team, working closely with an Azure Infrastructure Engineer and the team’s Architect to establish best practices and drive platform development. A key priority is enabling new internal applications, including AI-powered tools, to move safely from development into production.

Key Responsibilities
• GitHub Enterprise Administration: Manage organizational settings, repository permissions, branch protection rules, rulesets, repository templates, and self-hosted runners.
• CI/CD Pipeline Development: Design, build, and maintain GitHub Actions workflows to automate infrastructure and application deployments, incorporating approvals, secure secrets management, and rollback procedures.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Lead the migration of existing Bicep and portal-managed Azure resources into Terraform while maintaining service continuity. Establish standards for reusable modules, state management, code reviews, and deployment practices.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Build, configure, and maintain AKS clusters using Terraform, including networking, node pools, ingress, workload identity, secrets management, version upgrades, and production troubleshooting.
• Application Platform Engineering: Evaluate and implement appropriate hosting solutions for new applications, including AKS, Azure App Service, and Azure Container Apps, based on application requirements and operational complexity.
• Production Readiness: Ensure applications are deployed with appropriate security controls, monitoring, alerting, and release management procedures.
• Operational Handoff: Develop documentation, runbooks, and support procedures to ensure platforms and deployments can be maintained effectively by Operations.
• Engineering Standards: Establish scalable, repeatable platform engineering practices that improve deployment consistency, security, and developer productivity. Required Qualifications
• Strong, hands-on experience managing and engineering production environments in Microsoft Azure, including subscriptions, resource groups, networking, and role-based access control (RBAC).
• Proven experience writing, deploying, and maintaining Terraform configurations in production, including importing existing resources, managing state, and establishing infrastructure-as-code standards.
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining GitHub Actions pipelines for real-world application and infrastructure deployments.
• Hands-on administrative experience with GitHub Enterprise or organization-level GitHub management at enterprise scale, including permissions, repository policies, rulesets, or self-hosted runners. Developer-only GitHub experience is insufficient.
• Direct experience building and operating Kubernetes or AKS clusters, including performing a version upgrade or resolving a production incident. Experience limited to deploying applications onto an existing cluster is insufficient.
• Experience taking applications from development through production, including deployment automation, secrets management, monitoring, and release troubleshooting.
• Scripting experience with PowerShell, Bash, or Python.
• Ability to work independently, make technical decisions, and collaborate effectively within a small engineering team.
• Bachelor's degree in any discipline. Preferred Qualifications
• Experience migrating Azure Bicep or ARM templates and existing Azure resources to Terraform.
• Experience implementing ephemeral or autoscaling self-hosted GitHub Actions runners.
• Familiarity with OpenID Connect (OIDC) for secure, passwordless authentication between GitHub Actions and Azure.
• Experience developing reusable GitHub Actions workflows, repository templates, and standardized project onboarding processes.
• Knowledge of Helm and GitOps tools such as Argo CD or Flux.
• Familiarity with GitHub Advanced Security, including code scanning and secret scanning.
• Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
• Exposure to Azure Container Apps, Azure Functions, or Azure App Service.
• Experience implementing policy-as-code practices using Azure Policy.
• Exposure to Microsoft Fabric or modern data platforms.
• Experience working in financial services or another regulated industry.
• Previous consulting or contract experience, with the ability to ramp up quickly and deliver in an evolving environment.