Azure Automation Engineer

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

Why Work with us?

Applied Research Solutions (ARS) is respected as a world-class provider of technically integrated solutions as we deliver premier talent and technology across our focused markets for unparalleled, continuous mission support. Awarded a Best Places to Work nominee since 2020, ARS recognizes that without our career- driven, loyal professionals, we would not be able to deliver state-of-the-art results for our mission partners. We firmly believe that prioritizing our employees is of the upmost importance. We provide a culture where our employees are challenged to meet their career goals and aspirations, while still obtaining a work/life balance. ARS employees are motivated through our industry competitive benefits package, our awards and recognition program, and personalized attention from ARS Senior Managers.

Responsibilities include:

• Author and maintain production Infrastructure‑as‑Code (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.
• Support DoD workforce compliance, including Security+ attainment within 90 days and eligibility for required clearance level.
• 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.
• Implement network automation for NSG, UDR, private endpoints, Private DNS, hub‑spoke, forced‑tunnel, and IPAM discipline.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications/ Technical Experience Requirements:

• Must be a US citizen.
• Must have or be willing to attain a Secret Clearance
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related technical field
• CompTIA Security+ (or equivalent qualifying credential) required 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a technical discipline.
• Hands‑on Azure Government, GCC High, IL4/IL5 experience.
• Experience with STIG/SCAP image hardening pipelines.
• AKS, GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux), Helm delivery, and container platform automation experience.
• Entra ID identity automation and federated identity experience.
• Network topology automation (hub‑spoke, forced tunnel, private endpoints, IPAM).

**** All positions at Applied Research Solutions are subject to background investigations. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background investigation including criminal history and identity check.

This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-741.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability, and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.

This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified protected veterans, and requires affirmative action by covered contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans.