Azure Cloud Administrator

Job Title: Azure Cloud Administrator (Contract to hire)

Location: Remote, USA (Eastern Time Preferred)

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Azure Cloud Administrator with a minimum of 10 years of IT experience and strong hands-on expertise in managing, securing, and optimizing Microsoft Azure environments. This role is fully remote within the United States, with a preference for candidates who can work core hours aligned with the U.S. Eastern Time Zone.

The ideal candidate is a proactive problem solver with deep technical knowledge of Azure cloud services, virtual infrastructure, automation, security best practices, and cloud governance. You will be responsible for daily administration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and improvement of our cloud-based infrastructure and supporting our IT operations teams.

Key Responsibilities:-

Azure Administration & Operations

• Manage and maintain Azure resources including VMs, VNets, Storage Accounts, NSGs, Firewalls, and App Services.
• Administer Azure Active Directory, role-based access control (RBAC), Conditional Access, and identity governance.
• Monitor cloud infrastructure for performance, security, and availability using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Sentinel.

Infrastructure Management

• Build, manage, and optimize virtual machines, load balancers, VPN/ExpressRoute connectivity, and hybrid cloud components.
• Administer Windows and Linux servers hosted within Azure.
• Oversee patching, backup, and disaster recovery processes (Azure Backup, ASR).

Automation & Scripting

• Develop and maintain automation using PowerShell, ARM/Bicep templates, or Terraform.
• Automate provisioning, configuration, scaling, and patch management of cloud workloads.

Security & Compliance

• Implement Azure security best practices, governance policies, Defender for Cloud configurations, and secure landing zones.
• Monitor security alerts and conduct regular vulnerability and compliance checks.

Cost Optimization & Governance

• Perform cost analysis, implement cost controls, and optimize Azure spend.
• Maintain tagging standards, resource organization, and lifecycle management.

Troubleshooting & Support

• Provide advanced troubleshooting for Azure networking, performance issues, and application dependencies.
• Work closely with infrastructure, DevOps, and application teams to support cloud-hosted workloads.
• Respond to operational incidents within defined SLAs.

Documentation & Collaboration

• Maintain clear technical documentation, runbooks, diagrams, and SOPs.
• Participate in architecture discussions and recommend improvements.
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to junior team members.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of IT experience, including systems administration, cloud engineering, or infrastructure operations.
• 5+ years hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure in an enterprise environment.
• Strong experience with:
• Azure AD, RBAC, Conditional Access
• Azure networking (VNets, VPN, ExpressRoute, routing, firewalls)
• VM management (Windows/Linux)
• Storage and backup technologies
• Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Sentinel
• Automation (PowerShell, ARM/Bicep/Terraform)
• Strong understanding of security best practices, compliance, and cloud governance.
• Experience supporting remote enterprise environments and working in distributed teams.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and troubleshooting skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Certifications such as:
• AZ-104 (Administrator)
• AZ-305 (Solutions Architect)
• AZ-500 (Security Engineer)
• Experience with hybrid environments including on-prem Active Directory, Azure AD Connect, and identity federation.
• Familiarity with DevOps tools (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps pipelines).
• Experience with Intune, Endpoint Manager, or MDM solutions.
• Previous work supporting organizations across multiple time zones.

Work Environment

• Remote role – U.S.-based candidates only
• Preference for candidates who can work core hours aligned with U.S. Eastern Time (ET)
• Occasional on-call rotation for high-priority incidents

Why Join Us

• 100% remote flexibility
• Work with a modern Azure environment and cutting-edge cloud technologies
• Collaborative IT culture and strong focus on automation and improvement
• Professional development and certification support