Azure Cloud Engineer

Location: Washington, DC (Onsite – 4 Days/Week, 1 Day Telework)

Clearance: Active Top Secret preferred; Secret acceptable with ability to obtain Interim TS

About the Role

Improvix Technologies is seeking a Azure Systems/Cloud Engineer to support a mission-critical federal program in downtown Washington, DC. The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on Azure engineering experience, is comfortable working in an onsite collaborative environment, and can support infrastructure automation, cloud operations, and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) deployments.

This role is highly technical, with emphasis on Terraform, PowerShell, Azure fundamentals, and work within a GitLab CI/CD environment—aligned directly with customer priorities discussed with the hiring team.

Key Responsibilities

Azure Cloud Engineering

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).

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

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.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)

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).

CI/CD, Automation & DevOps

Build, maintain, and troubleshoot CI/CD pipelines in GitLab.

Automate cloud operations, system configuration, and monitoring tasks.

Cloud Security & Compliance

Implement secure cloud practices aligned with federal requirements (RBAC, Key Vault, IAM, encryption standards).

Ensure compliance with NIST, RMF, FedRAMP, and agency-specific controls.

Monitoring & Reliability

Use Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and related tools to analyze system health, diagnose issues, and enforce SLAs.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Support

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).

Required Qualifications

3+ years of experience with Azure Cloud Engineering

3+ years of experience with CI/CD pipelines

3+ years of experience using Terraform for IaC

3+ years of experience using GitLab

Minimum of 4 years experience with PowerShell scripting

5+ years of experience in Cloud Engineering, DevOps, or Systems Engineering (mid-level target).

Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure core services and architecture.

Proficiency with Terraform (high priority), PowerShell, and GitLab CI/CD.

Experience supporting Azure networking (VNets, routing, NSGs, VPN/ExpressRoute).

Hands-on experience with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) in production environments.

Understanding of federal cloud security frameworks (FedRAMP, NIST, RMF).

Strong troubleshooting and communication abilities, with ability to operate onsite 4 days/week.

Preferred Skills

Experience supporting DoD or federal agency cloud environments.

Experience with Docker/Kubernetes (AKS).

Azure serverless tools (Functions, Logic Apps, Event Grid).

Cost optimization using Azure Cost Management / FinOps practices.