Azure CloudOps Engineer

A Council in London are seeking an Azure CloudOps Engineer to design, deploy, and maintain highly resilient, secure, and cost-optimised cloud infrastructure and services on Microsoft Azure. This role is responsible for establishing and adhering to strict UK Government Digital Service (GDS) reliability standards and implementing rigorous FinOps governance policies. The engineer must drive operational excellence through comprehensive automation and proactive Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices.The role is for 6 months paying around £500-550pd (outside IR35).Responsibilities:

• Service Reliability Engineering (SRE) Implementation: The engineer is required to define, actively monitor, and regularly report on critical Service Level Indicators (SLIs) to ensure all services meet defined Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for critical user journeys, ensuring compliance with GDS standards. This involves leading measurement workshops with product and delivery teams.
• Incident and Problem Management Leadership: Leading the technical response and resolution for high-priority cloud incidents (P1 and P2). The role demands integrating Azure Monitor and Azure Service Health alerts directly with the Council's ITSM platform to automatically generate tickets and drive continuous operational improvements aimed at minimising Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).
• Automation and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) Development: Developing, testing, and maintaining reusable IaC templates (specifically Bicep or Terraform) for standardising infrastructure deployment. This includes creating robust PowerShell and Python Runbooks within Azure Automation for routine configuration management, scheduled maintenance, and automated incident remediation actions.
• Security Operations (SecOps) and Threat Response: Implementing proactive threat detection and automated security response capabilities. This involves active utilisation of Microsoft Defender for Cloud (for CSPM and CWPP) and Microsoft Sentinel, developing automated security workflows and playbooks using Azure Logic Apps to enforce security policy.
• Financial Operations (FinOps) and Cost Governance: Accountability for continuous Usage Optimisation, including reviewing resource sizing and implementing cost allocation policies. The engineer will enforce budget controls and governance via Azure Policy, working collaboratively with Finance and Procurement teams to ensure efficientand auditable use of public funds.

The role of an Interim Azure Cloud Operations Engineer is a highly specialised senior position that demands expertise across traditional operations, Site Reliability Engineering, and Financial Operations.