Remote-ready Senior Azure Infrastructure Automation Lead

Cognizant; Olympia (WA); Remote; USD 100,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays

401(k) plan

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-wide image engineering, automation, remediation, Defender security initiatives, and Windows 11 migration programs within the Cloud Infrastructure and Security team.

You will collaborate across infrastructure, security, operations, and applications to deliver secure, scalable, and highly automated

Qualifications

• 8+ years of Azure infrastructure engineering experience across Azure Portal, Azure CLI, ARM Templates, Azure VM and Managed Images.
• Expert-level Azure VM/Image Engineering for enterprise Windows environments.
• 6+ years of hands-on automation with Ansible, PowerShell, PSADT, Jinja2 and YAML.
• Strong experience building and maintaining GitLab CI/CD pipelines, including MR workflows and artifact management.
• Proven work with Windows 10/11 engineering, Sysprep, image deployment, endpoint hardening and Windows Update Services.
• Hands-on vulnerability management, security scans and remediation using Defender, Tanium, Nessus, Wiz, Zscaler, CyberArk.
• Experience with AD, Group Policy, Microsoft 365 Apps, and Oracle Client deployments.
• Experience supporting large-scale Windows 11 migrations in Azure.
• Excellent troubleshooting, documentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

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.
• Engineer and support enterprise Windows 10/11 environments, including image creation, customization, Sysprep, hardening, patching, 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 VMs, Portal, CLI, Managed Images, and related services.
• Build and support GitLab CI/CD pipelines with MR workflows, branching strategies, and artifact governance.
• Conduct security scans, vulnerability assessments, image hardening, patch management, and remediation using Defender, Nessus, Wiz, Zscaler, CyberArk.
• Administer Active Directory, Group Policy, Microsoft 365 Apps, and Oracle Client deployments.
• Monitor platform health using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Splunk, Event Viewer, and Performance Monitor.
• Support large-scale Windows 11 migration programs with security, compliance, and operational standards.

Skills

Azure infrastructure

Azure VM engineering

Azure image engineering

Ansible

PowerShell

PSADT

Jinja2

YAML

GitLab CI/CD

Endpoint hardening

Vulnerability management

Active Directory

Group Policy

Microsoft 365 Apps

Oracle Client

Windows 11 migration

Azure security

Tools

Azure Image Builder

Azure Managed Images

ARM Templates

GitLab CI/CD

PowerShell scripting

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-wide image engineering, automation, remediation, Defender security initiatives, and Windows 11 migration programs within the Cloud Infrastructure and Security team.

You will collaborate across infrastructure, security, operations, and applications to deliver secure, scalable, and highly automated