Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

Senior Azure Infrastructure Engineer

Job Type: Contract-to-hire

Job Mode: Hybrid, 1/2 day Fridays!

Location: Houston, Texas

We’re seeking a Senior Azure Infrastructure Engineer to take ownership of the design, security, performance, and reliability of our Azure and hybrid infrastructure. This position will lead cloud infrastructure and migration initiatives, drive automation and operational improvements, serve as an escalation point for complex technical issues, and identify opportunities to improve performance while reducing cloud costs.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and support Azure infrastructure across compute, networking, storage, and identity
• Manage on-premises and multi-cloud servers through Azure Arc, including policy, monitoring, patching, and Microsoft Defender integration
• Lead SQL Server migrations to Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Configure and optimize Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL Database, including networking, security, HA/DR, backups, and performance
• Administer Microsoft Entra ID, including Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and RBAC
• Implement cloud security and governance using Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, and Azure Key Vault
• Monitor and optimize Azure costs through rightsizing, reservations, resource tagging, and utilization analysis
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex Azure and hybrid infrastructure issues
• Develop and maintain architecture documentation, operational procedures, and technical runbooks

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on Azure infrastructure experience
• Strong experience with Azure compute, storage, networking, and identity services
• Working knowledge of Azure SQL Managed Instance, including VNet integration, private endpoints, failover groups, encryption/TDE, Entra authentication, and service-tier sizing
• Strong Azure networking experience with VNets, NSGs, Azure Firewall, Private Link, and DNS
• Experience administering Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid identity environments, including Entra Connect and Active Directory Domain Services
• Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, KQL, backups, and disaster recovery planning
• Ability to troubleshoot complex cloud and hybrid infrastructure issues

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Azure certifications such as AZ-104 or AZ-305
• SQL Server administration experience, including performance tuning, Always On, and T-SQL
• Experience with AKS/containers, Azure Virtual Desktop, or Microsoft Intune
• Experience administering both Windows Server and Linux environments
• Experience with infrastructure automation or Infrastructure as Code is a plus