Remote Azure Infrastructure Automation Lead

Cognizant; Augusta (ME); Remote; USD 100,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off

401(k) plan and contributions

Long-term/Short-term Disability

Paid Parental Leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Senior Azure Infrastructure Automation Engineer to design, implement, and optimize automated Azure infrastructure and Windows endpoint solutions. You will lead enterprise image engineering, vulnerability remediation, and security initiatives while collaborating with infrastructure, security, operations, and application teams to deliver secure, scalable automation.

In this role you will build Windows image pipelines with Azure Image Builder and Managed Images, support Azure

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience with Azure infrastructure engineering.
• Expert-level experience in Azure VM Engineering and Azure Image Engineering.
• 6+ years of hands-on experience with Ansible, PowerShell, PSADT, Jinja2, and YAML for infrastructure automation.
• Strong experience building and maintaining GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Proven experience supporting Windows 10/11 engineering, Sysprep, image creation, deployment, endpoint hardening, Registry Management, and Windows Update Services.
• Hands-on experience with vulnerability management, security scans, Defender, Tanium, Nessus, Wiz, Zscaler, CyberArk, patching, remediation, and compliance initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automated Windows image deployment pipelines using Azure Image Builder, Azure Managed Images, Ansible, and PowerShell.
• Lead Azure VM Engineering and Azure Image Engineering activities, including image creation, testing, optimization, maintenance, and lifecycle management for enterprise Windows environments.
• Engineer and support enterprise Windows 10/11 environments, including image creation, customization, Sysprep, hardening, patching, Windows Update Services, and lifecycle management.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure automation solutions utilizing Ansible, PowerShell, PSADT, ARM Templates, Jinja2, and YAML.
• Administer and optimize Azure infrastructure components including Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Portal, Azure CLI, Managed Images, and related cloud services.
• Build and support GitLab CI/CD pipelines utilizing merge requests, branching strategies, source control governance, and artifact management best practices.
• Conduct security scans, vulnerability assessments, image hardening, patch management, and remediation activities using Tanium, Microsoft Defender, Nessus, Wiz, Zscaler, CyberArk.
• Administer Active Directory, Group Policy, Microsoft 365 applications, and enterprise application deployments, including Oracle Client installations.
• Monitor platform health, availability, and performance utilizing Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Splunk Forwarder, Event Viewer, and Performance Monitor.
• Support large-scale Windows 11 migration projects and ensure adherence to security, compliance, and operational standards.

Skills

Azure infrastructure

Windows image engineering

Ansible

PowerShell

GitLab CI/CD

Tools

Azure Image Builder

Azure Managed Images

ARM Templates

Jinja2

YAML

Job description

Cognizant is seeking a Senior Azure Infrastructure Automation Engineer to design, implement, and optimize automated Azure infrastructure and Windows endpoint solutions. You will lead enterprise image engineering, vulnerability remediation, and security initiatives while collaborating with infrastructure, security, operations, and application teams to deliver secure, scalable automation.

In this role you will build Windows image pipelines with Azure Image Builder and Managed Images, support Azure