About You You are a Senior Azure DevOps & Platform Engineer with deep hands-on experience building secure Azure platforms and delivering infrastructure and applications through Terraform and CI/CD. You combine Azure Platform Engineering (landing zones, networking, identity, security, governance) with strong DevOps engineering. You thrive in environments where ownership, scalability, and continuous improvement are highly valued. You are adaptable, detail-oriented, and capable of providing technical leadership and operational guidance to support cloud transformation initiatives and enterprise DevOps practices.   Note: This role operates under a contractor model and requires availability to work in the U.S. Central Time Zone (CT) . You Bring to Applaudo the Following Competencies: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field is desired, or equivalent professional experience. 9+ years of hands-on experience in DevOps and cloud environments. Strong experience designing and implementing Azure tenant platforms aligned with Microsoft CAF (Cloud Adoption Framework) . Expertise building and maintaining Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform. Experience implementing Azure landing zones for application and workload migrations. Experience with Azure networking: hub-spoke topology, Azure Firewall, VPN Gateway/ExpressRoute, private endpoints with Private DNS Zones, NSGs, and route tables. Hands-on experience with Terraform state management, imports, drift detection and reconciliation, refactoring live infrastructure (e.g., moved blocks), and secret management with Azure Key Vault, including rotation. Strong automation and scripting skills using PowerShell, Python, or Bash. Knowledge of Azure identity and security: Managed Identities, workload identity federation (OIDC), least-privilege RBAC, and PIM. Hands-on experience with Azure compute services such as AKS, Container Apps, App Service, and Function Apps, including Key Vault integration and Azure Container Registry. Experience implementing Azure Policy (custom definitions, deny/modify effects, tag inheritance). Experience enforcing governance and policy compliance through management group inheritance. Ability to monitor cloud environments for performance, security, and cost optimization. Strong collaboration, communication, and stakeholder management skills. Ability to provide technical guidance and support across cross-functional teams. Strong spoken English (B2+) to discuss technical scenarios live with US-based stakeholders. Experience in financial services or regulated environments is a plus. Nice to have: Azure Data Factory/Databricks, Azure messaging (Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs), Azure API Management, Bicep, and AI-assisted engineering tools. You Will Be Accountable for the Following Responsibilities: Design and implement Azure tenant platforms aligned with Microsoft CAF standards. Build, deploy, and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform. Implement Azure landing zones to support application and workload migrations. Manage and optimize CI/CD pipelines, source control, and project workflows using Azure DevOps to support both infrastructure and application delivery into Azure, including environment approvals, security gates, and container image promotion across environments. Review peers’ pull requests and handle infrastructure requests from application teams in a Kanban workflow. Automate resource provisioning, scaling, and infrastructure management processes. Develop and maintain automation scripts using PowerShell, Python, or Bash. Implement and manage Azure security controls, including IAM configurations. Enforce governance and policy compliance across Azure environments. Monitor infrastructure environments to ensure performance, security, and cost efficiency. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver infrastructure solutions aligned with business requirements. Provide technical guidance, troubleshooting, and operational support to stakeholders. Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives related to cloud governance, automation, and operational excellence.