Lead Cloud Engineer

EPAM Systems Inc; Kildare; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

EPAM Systems Inc in Ireland is seeking a Lead Cloud Engineer to drive the Azure platform, automate infrastructure, and enforce secure, scalable deployments.

You will lead AKS operations, manage Terraform/OpenTofu modules, and integrate identity and secrets across Azure services. Strong English and leadership required to guide cross-functional teams.

Join a team delivering a unified automation platform across Azure and on-prem environments, shaping best practices and CI/CD pipelines.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and operating Azure infra with Terraform/OpenTofu.
• At least 1 year of leadership experience.
• Production AKS administration experience.
• Experience with Azure identity constructs and Key Vault.
• Experience with Ansible for VM provisioning.
• Familiarity with image hardening and image publishing.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain Azure infra via Terraform/OpenTofu.
• Operate AKS platform day-to-day.
• Implement identity wiring and secrets integration for Azure workloads.
• Build image pipelines for VM and container baselines.
• Execute Ansible playbooks for VM provisioning and golden-image handoff.
• Support Backstage template integration for Azure provisioning.
• Troubleshoot production issues across Azure automation modules.
• Contribute to module testing, drift detection, and documentation.

Skills

Terraform/OpenTofu

Azure DevOps

Leadership

AKS

GitHub Copilot

Tools

Terraform/OpenTofu

Ansible

Azure Kubernetes Service

Key Vault

Job description

Headquarters: Belarus

URL: http://epam.com

We are looking for a Lead Cloud Engineer to join our innovative team. We are delivering a Unified Automation Platform (Internal Developer Platform) to standardize secure, repeatable infrastructure delivery across Azure and on-premises VMware using templates and golden paths. You will lead Azure automation and AKS operations and strengthen IaC/CaC engineering practices. Apply to help teams ship faster with consistent, compliant deployments.

Responsibilities

• Implement and maintain Terraform/OpenTofu modules for Azure App Services, Container Apps, Function Apps, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, and Postgres, following designs defined by the Azure Architect
• Build and operate the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) platform day-to-day: cluster/node-pool provisioning, add-on configuration (ingress, cert-manager, external-dns, monitoring, policy), and namespace/tenant onboarding
• Implement identity wiring (managed identities, SPN/app registrations) and secrets integration (Azure Key Vault, OpenBao) for Azure workloads
• Build and maintain Image Factory pipelines for VM and container golden images (Linux and Windows/cloudbase-init baselines, CIS hardening, image scanning)
• Execute Configuration as Code (Ansible) playbooks for VM post-provisioning and golden-image handoff
• Support Backstage golden-path template integration for Azure provisioning, testing generated infrastructure end-to-end
• Troubleshoot and remediate production issues across Azure automation modules during Implementation and Adoption
• Contribute to module testing, drift detection, and documentation per the platform's Infrastructure as Code Engine standards

Requirements

• 5+ years of hands-on experience building and operating Azure infrastructure via Terraform/OpenTofu, including CI/CD-driven deployment (Azure DevOps)
• At least 1 year of relevant leadership experience
• Experience operating Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters in production, including networking, policy, and namespace management
• Experience with Azure identity constructs (managed identities, SPN/app registrations) and secrets integration (Key Vault, dynamic secrets)
• Experience with Configuration as Code (Ansible) for VM post-provisioning and golden-image pipelines
• Working knowledge of Azure networking constructs (VNets, private endpoints, NSGs) sufficient to integrate with the network foundation owned by the Network Architect
• Combined proficiency as a Terraform (IaC) and Ansible (CaC) developer, working AI-assisted using GitHub Copilot (provided project-wide) as standard practice
• Excellent command of written and spoken English (B2+ level)
• Nice to haveExperience with Azure VMware Solution (AVS) private cloud provisioning
• Familiarity with image hardening/scanning tooling and Shared Image Gallery publishing