Azure Platform Engineer

Azure Platform Engineer  Role Summary  We are seeking an Azure Platform Engineer to lead the design and ongoing ownership of the Azure foundation supporting a multi-year municipal modernization program.  This role helps to oversee Azure environment structure, CI/CD standards, and infrastructure-as-code strategy. All cloud resources must be provisioned and managed via IaC to ensure repeatability, auditability, and compliance across the program.  This is a hands-on engineering role with platform ownership responsibilities. Application engineers will rebuild business logic; this role ensures the cloud foundation they deploy into is secure, standardized, auditable, and production-ready.  Key Responsibilities  Platform Architecture & Environment Ownership  Establish and manage dev, test, and production environments with strict separation  Define secure networking, identity, and role-based access boundaries  Configure VNETs, NSGs, private endpoints, and hybrid connectivity (VPN / ExpressRoute)  Establish standardized patterns for App Services, Azure SQL, storage, and shared services  Define platform standards to be used consistently across consolidated applications  CI/CD & Deployment Standards  Design and maintain standardized CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps  Develop reusable pipeline templates and release patterns  Implement approval gates, rollback strategies, and deployment controls aligned to audit requirements  Ensure consistent deployment practices across application teams  Ensure all infrastructure deployments are executed through CI/CD pipelines using IaC templates (no manual provisioning)  Infrastructure as Code  All infrastructure must be provisioned and maintained via Terraform or Bicep  Establish IaC as the only approved deployment mechanism for cloud resources  Enforce code review, version control, and change traceability for all infrastructure changes  Prevent manual configuration drift across environments  Security, Compliance & Observability  Embed FedRAMP Moderate–aligned controls into platform design  Implement centralized logging, monitoring, and retention policies  Configure Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud guardrails  Implement secrets and certificate management using Azure Key Vault  Establish audit traceability for infrastructure and deployment changes  Support disaster recovery and business continuity planning and testing  Operational Excellence  Support production deployments and release windows  Troubleshoot infrastructure and pipeline issues  Define and maintain platform standards and operational runbooks  Implement cost governance and resource optimization strategies  Required Qualifications  A Bachelors’ degree in a related field, along with at least 5 years' experience in DevOps, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure  Strong hands-on Azure experience in regulated or audit-sensitive environments  Experience with Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline design  Demonstrated ownership of enterprise-scale Infrastructure-as-Code programs (Terraform), including governance and enforcement of IaC-only deployment standards  Experience embedding compliance and security controls into cloud platforms  Working knowledge of FedRAMP Moderate or comparable compliance frameworks  Preferred  Experience supporting municipal or public sector programs  Experience leading on-premises to Azure migrations  Azure certifications (Administrator, DevOps Engineer, Architect)  Other Info  This position may require infrequent though unlikely travel (to client sites). Team members must be able to accommodate a working schedule of 8:30am - 5:30p EST Monday through Friday.  No agencies, please: unsolicited agency communications will be blocked, unsolicited candidate profiles will be considered direct applicants.  Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Alpha will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa) Contractor may be hired as W2 through a Partner agency. Contract is expected to be approx. 6 months. Pay Information There are a wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to - skill sets, experience and training, and licensure and certifications. A reasonable estimate of the pay rate is $75 - $90/hr (subject to change).