Azure Government Automation Engineer

Applied Res; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Applied Research Solutions (ARS) is seeking an Azure Automation Engineer to support the Arkloud IRAD initiative. The role focuses on developing, automating, and sustaining Azure Government cloud infrastructure through IaC, CI/CD pipelines, identity automation, and platform-level engineering.

Responsibilities include building IaC modules, end-to-end CI/CD pipelines, and Azure platform engineering across compute, networking, storage, and identity, with DoD compliance and Secret Clearance

Qualifications

• Must be a US citizen.
• Secret Clearance required or eligible within start.
• CompTIA Security+ within 90 days of start.
• 3+ years of experience in Azure automation, Infrastructure-as-Code, or platform engineering.
• Proficiency in Python and Bash/PowerShell; Go is preferred.
• Azure depth across compute, networking, storage, identity, PaaS, and monitoring.
• Extensive experience building and owning CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong debugging ability across Azure control plane, IaC state, and Kubernetes boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Author and maintain production IaC modules in Bicep/ARM, Terraform, Pulumi, or Crossplane.
• Engineer and manage end-to-end CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps, including multi-stage deployments, artifact promotion, secret injection, private runners, and approval gates.
• Perform Azure platform engineering across compute, networking, storage, identity, PaaS data services, observability (Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Grafana), and ARM control-plane operations.
• Develop production-grade automation using Python and Bash/PowerShell; write tools and API clients using Azure REST, JSON/YAML manipulation, error-handling, and maintain testable code in source control.
• Deliver solutions in Azure Government environments (IL4/IL5), GCC High, or air-gapped sovereign clouds.
• Build and maintain golden images using Packer/Ansible/Salt/DSC, publish via Azure Compute Gallery, maintain STIG/SCAP hardening, and automate patch cadence.
• Manage AKS clusters and workloads: private clusters, node pool automation, CNI/network policy, Helm delivery, GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux), and cross-layer debugging.
• Automate identity lifecycles via Entra ID Graph API/CLI, including app registrations, service principals, RBAC-as-code, managed identity, workload identity federation, and Key Vault/CSI integration.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

Python

Bash/PowerShell

Go

CI/CD

Azure automation

Azure Government

IaC

GitLab CI

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

Terraform

Bicep/ARM

Pulumi

Crossplane

Packer

Ansible

Kubernetes

Entra ID

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related technical field

Tools

Terraform

Bicep/ARM

Pulumi

Crossplane

Packer

Ansible

DSC

Azure Compute Gallery

AKS

Entra ID

Job description

Applied Research Solutions (ARS) is seeking an Azure Automation Engineer to support the Arkloud IRAD initiative. The role focuses on developing, automating, and sustaining Azure Government cloud infrastructure through IaC, CI/CD pipelines, identity automation, and platform-level engineering.

Responsibilities include building IaC modules, end-to-end CI/CD pipelines, and Azure platform engineering across compute, networking, storage, and identity, with DoD compliance and Secret Clearance