Senior Azure DevOps CI/CD Architect
remote
12 months plus
Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Azure DevOps CI/CD Architect to lead an enterprise DevOps transformation, moving from manual software development, build, release, and deployment processes to a fully automated, scalable, secure, and standardized Azure DevOps framework. The candidate must be both a strategic architect and hands-on technical lead, working closely with development, QA, security, infrastructure, DBA, hosting, and business teams.
Key Responsibilities
- Assess existing processes, identify automation opportunities, and define the future-state DevOps architecture, roadmap, standards, and governance.
- Design, build, and implement reusable Azure Pipelines using YAML, including enterprise-wide CI/CD templates and automation frameworks.
- Automate Git operations, repository management, branching strategies, branch creation/naming, versioning, merging, builds, packaging, publishing, releases, and deployments.
- Implement automated unit, component integration, system integration, and regression testing at every commit, integrating QA tests and business requirements/acceptance criteria into automated test workflows.
- Configure Azure Boards for requirements tracking, backlog management, sprint planning, work-item tracking, and reporting; integrate Jira or other project-management systems where required.
- Automate ticket status updates, workflow transitions, and notifications for developers, code reviewers, QA/UAT, and business stakeholders; establish dashboards for review/testing SLAs and delivery metrics.
- Integrate code-quality checks, security scanning, approval gates, secrets management, and deployment governance using DevSecOps best practices.
- Design environment promotion and deployments across Development, QA, Staging, and Production.
- Integrate Azure DevOps with development, testing, security, infrastructure, and enterprise systems.
- Develop dashboards and metrics for pipeline/build success, deployment frequency, release quality, lead time, SLA response times, and DevOps maturity.
- Collaborate with DBA and hosting teams on deployment, environment, infrastructure, and integration requirements.
- Troubleshoot complex pipeline, deployment, and environment issues; mentor teams and provide documentation, reference architectures, standards, and operating procedures for long-term adoption.
Must-Have Qualifications
- 10+ years of overall IT/software engineering experience, with significant DevOps, cloud engineering, or platform engineering experience.
- 5+ years of deep hands-on Azure DevOps experience.
- Proven experience as a Senior DevOps Architect, Azure DevOps Architect, Platform Architect, or Lead DevOps Engineer.
- Demonstrated success leading a transformation from manual software delivery to automated CI/CD across an organization.
- Advanced hands-on expertise in Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, YAML pipelines, Azure Boards, Azure Repos/Git, CI/CD architecture, build/release automation, and branching/source-control strategies.
- Experience designing enterprise-scale reusable pipeline frameworks, templates, and automation patterns across multiple applications and development teams.
- Hands-on experience integrating automated testing, code-quality/security scanning, approval workflows, and governance controls into CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong knowledge of DevSecOps, deployment governance, environment promotion, and secure software delivery.
- Experience with Azure cloud environments and deploying applications or infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.
- Scripting/automation proficiency in PowerShell, Bash, Azure CLI, or Python.
- Strong understanding of infrastructure, application deployment, networking, identity, security, and environment management.
- Experience establishing organization-wide technical standards and collaborating with development, architecture, infrastructure, security, QA, DBA, hosting, and business stakeholders.
- Strong architectural communication, documentation, leadership, mentoring, and stakeholder-management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates.
- Docker, Kubernetes, or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- SonarQube, Snyk, Checkmarx, Veracode, or similar tools.
- Azure Key Vault and secrets-management strategies.
- GitOps and modern platform-engineering practices.
- Microsoft Azure/Azure DevOps certifications.
- Enterprise, consulting, government, or public-sector DevOps transformation experience.