SENIOR CLOUD ENGINEER

Job Summary

The Senior Cloud Engineer serves as the primary technical resource responsible for the design, deployment, administration, and ongoing support of PAR’s Microsoft Azure environment. The position owns Azure compute, networking, and identity services; develops and maintains Infrastructure as Code using Bicep, Terraform, and Azure DevOps Pipelines; and maintains the organization’s AWS-hosted application workload. The Senior Cloud Engineer is accountable for the implementation and documentation of cloud security controls in support of applicable compliance frameworks, and leads cost optimization and governance initiatives across cloud environments.

About the Role

This is a hands-on, individual contributor role requiring deep technical expertise in cloud infrastructure, security, and automation.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary engineer for Microsoft Azure, with day-to-day responsibility for the health, performance, security, and cost of the environment.
• Design and deploy Azure workloads using compute (VMs, App Service, AKS), networking (VNet, Azure Firewall, ExpressRoute), and identity (Entra ID, RBAC) services.
• Build and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Bicep, Terraform, and Azure DevOps Pipelines, treating infrastructure like a product.
• Maintain and support PAR’s AWS-hosted application environment, including (EC2, RDS, S3, VPC, IAM, and CloudWatch), ensuring uptime, security, and cost discipline.
• Implement, monitor, and document cloud security controls and produce evidence to support (PCI-DSS, SOC 2, or other applicable) audits.
• Lead cost optimization and cloud governance, including tagging strategy, budget alerts, reserved capacity, and rightsizing recommendations.
• Partner with development teams to build and improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and developer self-service capabilities.
• Configure and tune monitoring, logging, and alerting using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics; own incident response and post-incident reviews for cloud infrastructure.
• Design and maintain backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions across cloud environments.
• Follow and contribute to SDLC and Change Management processes for all infrastructure changes; produce clear documentation, diagrams, and runbooks.
• Participate in an on-call rotation for production incidents and after-hours change windows.
• Collaborate with the Lead Systems Architect on the cloud roadmap, architectural decisions, and platform evolution.

Qualifications

• 5 to 8 years of professional cloud engineering experience, with substantial hands-on time in Microsoft Azure.
• Demonstrated expertise across Azure compute, networking, identity, and DevOps/IaC services.
• Working knowledge of AWS sufficient to maintain and support an existing application workload.
• Strong scripting and automation skills in PowerShell, Python, Bash, or a combination.
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (Bicep, Terraform, or ARM templates).
• Experience building and supporting CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar).
• Experience operating within a recognized compliance framework (PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST, or similar).
• Solid understanding of SDLC and formal Change Management practices.
• Experience designing for high availability, including backup, disaster recovery, and incident response.
• Strong troubleshooting instincts and the ability to work calmly during production incidents.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Azure certifications such as AZ-104 (Administrator) or AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert).
• AWS certifications such as Solutions Architect Associate.
• Production experience with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
• Familiarity with FinOps principles and tools such as Azure Cost Management.