Azure Cloud/DevOps Engineer

About the role

LightFeather is seeking a Azure Cloud/DevOps Engineer design, implement, and manage secure cloud solutions for federal IT environments. You’ll play a key role in supporting Azure infrastructure, automation, and security, applying DevOps best practices to drive performance, strengthen compliance, and improve operational efficiency.

- Location: Hybrid, On-site 4 days/week in Washington, D.C. 20036 and 1 day Telework

- Job Type: Full-time

- Salary: $130,000–$170,000 annually, based on experience level.

- Clearance Requirement: U.S. citizenship is required for this position due to federal contract requirements and the need to obtain and maintain a Secret-level security clearance

Key Responsibilities

- 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).

- 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.

- 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).

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

- Automate cloud operations, system configuration, and monitoring tasks.

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

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

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

- 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

- Active Secret or higher clearance

- 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).