Senior Azure Infrastructure & DevOps Engineer

We're looking for a senior Azure infrastructure engineer to take ownership of the design, automation, governance, and day-to-day operation of Azure environments supporting financial services, analytics, and ML workloads. You'd be stepping into work currently handled internally — so you need to be someone who can run with it independently, not someone who needs a runbook for every task. You'll be working across multiple clients and projects on our behalf, so context-switching, fast ramp-up on unfamiliar environments, and the discipline to keep standards consistent across all of them are essential. We anticipate enough work to keep a full-time person busy, and we prefer a long-term contractor relationship over a permanent hire. This is a senior, hands-on role. You'll architect and you'll implement. No helpdesk, no juniors. A note on how we work: we use AI tooling heavily and expect you to as well — but as a force multiplier, not a substitute for expertise. We want someone with deep, scarred-in experience who uses AI to move faster and sanity-check, and who can immediately tell when a generated answer is wrong. If you'd be leaning on AI to cover gaps in your own knowledge, this isn't the right fit. Availability — please read carefully We operate across several time zones, with our working day spanning from roughly 9:00 AM CET through to around 6:00 PM ADT (Atlantic). This is not an async-only role — we need someone who can be genuinely available for real-time collaboration during normal working hours and who responds promptly during the day, rather than someone fitting us in around other commitments. On occasion we may need overlap across the wider window, but we aim to work in a structured, planned way and keep last-minute, late-hour demands to a minimum. Please only apply if you can reliably collaborate in real time during a typical working day and accommodate the occasional broader-hours need. Communication Excellent verbal and written English is a hard requirement. You'll be in live conversations with clients and our team constantly, so clear, confident spoken communication matters as much as technical skill. The environment: Azure Databricks, Azure ML, Storage, Key Vault, VPN connectivity, developer VMs, M365/SharePoint/Teams, and Entra ID. Our clients operate in regulated contexts (SEC, GDPR, Bermuda Monetary Authority), so a security-first posture is non-negotiable. What you'll be responsible for: Azure Landing Zone architecture, subscription/resource governance, and Azure Policy, Terraform and IaC standards across networking, Databricks, ML, and supporting services Azure DevOps implementation and migration — Repos, Boards, Pipelines, CI/CD, environment promotion (Dev/UAT/Prod) Secure connectivity design between Databricks, Azure ML, Storage, and Key Vault, including region selection and cross-region migration, Identity and access governance — RBAC, PIM, Conditional Access, Defender for Cloud DR/BCDR strategy and validation, VPN architecture, cost optimization, and ongoing operational support What we need from you * 10+ years enterprise infrastructure; 5+ years hands-on Azure architecture and administration * Strong Terraform and Azure DevOps track record (real CI/CD pipelines you built and maintained) * Demonstrated Azure Databricks and Azure ML infrastructure experience — deployment, migration, DR * Deep grasp of Azure networking (VNETs, private endpoints, VPN), HA/DR architecture, and security hardening * Experience in regulated industries (financial services, insurance/reinsurance, or similar) * The ability to juggle several engagements at once without dropping quality Nice to have Reinsurance/ILS exposure, BMA or SEC-regulated environments, and cloud operating-model design. Certifications (tell us what you hold) Highly valued: AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert), AZ-400 (DevOps Engineer Expert). Also valued: AZ-500, AZ-700, SC-100, HashiCorp Terraform Associate. Our selection process Top candidates will be invited to submit a short 3–5 minute video introducing themselves and walking us through a complex implementation they've personally delivered. This should be a full head-and-shoulders video of you speaking to camera. We'll use these to build a shortlist, followed by a screening interview, then a second technical interview before final selection. When you apply, please include 1. Total years of Azure, Terraform, and Azure DevOps experience 2. A specific Azure environment you personally architected and implemented with Terraform + Azure DevOps — walk us through the subscription architecture, networking, security controls, CI/CD, governance, and DR approach 3. Your experience in regulated industries 4. Confirmation that you can work within the hours described above 5. How and when you use AI tooling in your day-to-day work, and a recent example where you caught something it got wrong Please note: All communication and engagement will happen exclusively through Upwork. Do not attempt to contact us via LinkedIn, WhatsApp, email, or any other platform — we will actively decline to engage with anyone who does and may also report such contacts to Upwork for further disciplinary action. Applications and the entire working relationship stay on Upwork.