Lead Cloud Operations Engineer- Azure

About this role

<div class="content-intro"><p>Zafin is an AI platform company helping regulated institutions modernize how critical work is designed, governed, and delivered. Our technology enables organizations to move faster while maintaining the governance, accountability, and control required in highly regulated environments.</p> <p>Our portfolio includes <strong>Zafin AIOS</strong>, an agent orchestration platform for governed AI work; the <strong>Zafin Banking Platform</strong>, which helps banks modernize product, pricing, offers, billing, loyalty, and relationship management; and <strong>Zafin IO</strong>, an integration platform that connects data, systems, and workflows across complex enterprise environments.</p> <p>Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Zafin partners with leading financial institutions across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. As AI transforms the future of financial services, we're building the platforms that help regulated organizations adopt AI responsibly and at scale.</p></div><p><strong><span data-contrast="auto">What’s&nbsp;the Opportunity?</span><span data-ccp-props="{}">&nbsp;</span></strong></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Reporting to the Senior Manager, Cloud Operations, the Lead Cloud Operations Engineer is a senior-level technical role responsible for leading a team of cloud engineers and hands-on technical execution in Azure/Kubernetes environments. You will be building scalable, reliable, and efficient infrastructure while mentoring junior engineers, maintaining best practices, and ensuring optimal performance, security, and cost-effectiveness in a customer-facing role.</p> <p>This is a technical leadership position for someone who wants to stay close to infrastructure while growing a team. You will roll up your sleeves daily, pair with engineers on complex problems, and drive automation initiatives that reduce toil and improve platform reliability.</p> <p><strong>What You Will Do</strong></p> <ul> <li>Lead technical strategy and best practices for Azure cloud operations and AKS deployments</li> <li>Design, implement, and maintain infrastructure-as-code using Terraform and Azure DevOps</li> <li>Manage Kubernetes deployments with ArgoCD, Helm, and GitOps patterns for auditability and compliance</li> <li>Architect and manage Azure Application Gateway, load balancing, WAF, and ingress strategies</li> <li>Oversee secrets and certificate management using Azure Key Vault and implement security best practices</li> <li>Build and maintain Azure Container Registry (ACR) pipelines and image scanning workflows</li> <li>Mentor and guide junior engineers on technical tasks, code reviews, and cloud architecture decisions</li> <li>Build automation solutions to reduce manual toil and improve operational efficiency</li> <li>Manage and troubleshoot AKS clusters, networking, storage, and identity/access control</li> <li>Own incident response, RCA documentation, and presentation to stakeholders</li> <li>Monitor infrastructure health, performance, and security posture; identify and resolve bottlenecks</li> <li>Work with peers to establish and enforce infrastructure standards and compliance controls across client environments</li> <li>Communicate proactively with customers and internal teams on infrastructure health and roadmap</li> <li>Maintain security, backup, disaster recovery, and high-availability strategies</li> <li>Drive cost optimization and FinOps practices across cloud infrastructure</li> <li>Support offshore hours and multiple time zones as needed</li> </ul> <p><strong>What You Need to Succeed</strong></p> <p><strong>Must Haves</strong></p> <ul> <li>8–12 years of cloud/infrastructure engineering experience</li> <li>5+ years of hands-on Azure cloud platform experience (VMs, networking, identity, monitoring)</li> <li>5+ years with Kubernetes, specifically Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) production experience</li> <li>Expert-level Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices</li> <li>Strong Azure DevOps or equivalent CI/CD platform experience</li> <li>Hands-on experience with ArgoCD or GitOps deployment patterns for Kubernetes</li> <li>Proficiency with Helm for Kubernetes package management and templating</li> <li>Azure Application Gateway configuration and management (load balancing, WAF, SSL termination)</li> <li>Azure Key Vault and secrets management implementation and best practices</li> <li>Azure Container Registry (ACR) operations, image scanning, and registry maintenance</li> <li>Proficiency in Linux administration and troubleshooting</li> <li>Automation scripting (Python, Bash/Shell) to reduce manual operational tasks</li> <li>Strong networking knowledge: TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, VPCs, firewall rules, network troubleshooting</li> <li>Demonstrated ability to mentor and guide junior engineers</li> <li>Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience</li> </ul> <p><strong>Nice to Have</strong></p> <ul> <li>Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-700 Networking, or equivalent)</li> <li>Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD)</li> <li>Cloud security scanning tools experience (Wiz, Microsoft Defender)</li> <li>Azure API Management for API governance and rate limiting</li> <li>Backup and disaster recovery solutions (Azure Backup, Site Recovery)</li> <li>FinOps and cost optimization expertise across cloud resources</li> <li>Compliance and governance frameworks (SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, regulatory reporting)</li> <li>Domain knowledge of banking, financial services, enterprise data platforms, or regulated industries</li> <li>Experience with GitOps and advanced Kubernetes patterns</li> <li>Observability and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Log Analytics, Application Insights)</li> </ul> <p></p> <p><strong><span data-contrast="auto">Additional Job Details</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{}">&nbsp;</span></p> <ul> <li>Expected Salary Range: $110,000 - $135,000</li> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid