Senior Azure Cloud Infrastructure Engineer - Cleared
About the position LightFeather is hiring a cleared Azure infrastructure and DevOps professional to support mission-critical federal IT modernization in Washington, D.C. In this role, you'll take ownership of secure cloud architecture, infrastructure automation, and compliance operations — working directly alongside government stakeholders to keep systems performant, resilient, and audit-ready.
Responsibilities
- Design, deploy, and maintain Azure cloud infrastructure including VMs, VNets, Storage, Azure AD, and PaaS services.
- Manage and optimize Azure networking components (VNets, NSGs, Load Balancers, VPN/ExpressRoute connectivity).
- Develop and maintain Terraform templates as the primary IaC tool (critical requirement emphasized by hiring managers).
- Support automation via PowerShell, Bash, YAML/JSON, and GitLab pipelines.
- Deploy, configure, and manage AVD environments including host pools, session hosts, FSLogix profile containers, and Azure AD/M365 integrations.
- Provide troubleshooting and performance optimization for AVD users (explicit customer requirement).
- Build, maintain, and troubleshoot CI/CD pipelines in GitLab.
- Automate cloud operations, system configuration, and monitoring tasks.
- Implement secure cloud practices aligned with federal requirements (RBAC, Key Vault, IAM, encryption standards).
- Ensure compliance with NIST, RMF, FedRAMP, and agency-specific controls.
- Use Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and related tools to analyze system health, diagnose issues, and enforce SLAs.
- Work with engineering, security, and program staff to support ongoing cloud modernization efforts.
- Support onsite collaboration with customer stakeholders (note: role cannot be performed remotely long-term).
Requirements
- Active Secret clearance or higher
- Ability to commute to Washington, D.C. and work onsite four days per week
- 5+ years of total experience in Cloud Engineering, DevOps, or Systems Engineering
- 3+ years hands-on with Azure cloud services and infrastructure architecture
- 3+ years building and managing CI/CD pipelines in production environments
- 3+ years writing and maintaining Terraform IaC (high-priority skill)
- 3+ years working with GitLab for source control and pipeline management
- 4+ years of PowerShell scripting for systems automation
- Demonstrated production experience with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
- Working knowledge of federal compliance frameworks: FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, RMF
Nice-to-haves
- Prior work supporting DoD or civilian federal agency cloud programs
- Familiarity with containerization: Docker, Kubernetes, or AKS
- Experience with Azure serverless services (Functions, Logic Apps, Event Grid)
- FinOps or Azure Cost Management experience for cloud spend governance
Benefits
- LightFeather is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.