Position is remote but candidates must reside in Virginia.
TOP NON-NEGOTIABLE SKILLS
1. Experience: 5+ years of software development or DevOps experience combined with deep hands-on enterprise systems engineering background.
2. Azure Expertise: designing, configuring, and maintaining enterprise Azure workloads (Compute, Storage, Networking, Security, Governance).
3. MS SQL Mastery: MS SQL Server and Azure SQL (indexing, query tuning, T-SQL development, HA/DR setup, and backup/recovery strategies).
4. Software Development & Scripting: C# or Python with advanced scripting in PowerShell or Bash.
5. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): developing and managing modular infrastructure code using Terraform or Azure Bicep.
6. CI/CD: automated build and release pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
7. Networking & Security: Solid understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, TLS/SSL, enterprise network topology, and cloud security frameworks.
WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS HIRE STAND OUT
1. Proven on-prem to Azure SQL migrations: Direct experience with Azure Database Migration Service and DMA, including lessons learned and cutover strategy.
2. Containers and AKS: Docker and Kubernetes exposure that extends the role beyond traditional infrastructure.
3. APM tooling experience: Configuring and tuning application performance monitoring, tying infrastructure metrics to application behavior.
4. Quantified outcomes: Candidates who can say “reduced provisioning time from days to hours” or “improved query latency by 40%” map directly to the KPIs.
5. Cost optimization: Real FinOps results using Cost Management, beyond monitoring alone.
6. Security and compliance depth: Experience in regulated environments (healthcare, financial services, government) and relevant Azure certifications such as AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-500, DP-300, or AZ-400.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Design and run enterprise Azure infrastructure. Build and maintain secure, scalable, highly available environments (IaaS and PaaS), including VNets, ExpressRoute, VPNs, Azure Firewall, and load balancers, with governance and identity controlled through Entra ID, RBAC, Azure Policy, and Key Vault.
2. Own the MS SQL Server and Azure SQL environment. Optimize performance through query tuning, indexing, and execution plan analysis, and keep databases healthy across Azure SQL Database and Managed Instances.
3. Implement HA/DR and lead migrations. Deliver Always On Availability Groups, failover clusters, and geo-replication to support the 99.99% uptime target, and plan the move from legacy on-prem SQL Server to Azure SQL.
4. Automate everything with IaC and CI/CD. Author Terraform, Bicep, or ARM code, build pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, and write automation in PowerShell, Python, or C# to cut provisioning time and standardize deployments.
5. Lead incident response and mentor the team. Act as the point person for site reliability on mission-critical systems, monitor performance, availability, and cost, and coach junior and mid-level engineers on cloud best practices and SQL optimization.
