Senior Azure Cloud Infrastructure Engineer / Architect – IaaS Migration, Networking, Entra ID, IaC | Remote

Location: Remote – U.S., within approved states. Candidates local to the Birmingham, AL area are preferred but not required. The organization is currently established to employ remote team members in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri, with additional states considered based on employer requirements. California and New York are not eligible locations for this position. Additional state restrictions may apply.

KORE1, a nationwide provider of staffing and recruiting solutions, has an immediate opening for a Senior Azure Cloud Infrastructure Engineer / Architect – IaaS Migration, Networking, Entra ID, IaC | Remote

Summary:

The Sr. Infrastructure Cloud Engineer leads the design, modernization, and operation of hybrid cloud and on-prem infrastructure in a regulated environment. This role will play a key role in the organization's migration to Azure while establishing an internal infrastructure engineering capability and partnering with managed service providers where appropriate.

This is the first dedicated infrastructure engineering hire at the company and a foundational role requiring someone who can both architect solutions and implement them hands-on. The ideal candidate brings strong technical judgment, can explain why a particular architecture, service, or tool is appropriate for a given requirement, and is comfortable making decisions rather than simply executing predefined instructions. As the organization grows, this role is expected to have the opportunity to build and eventually lead a small infrastructure team.

Key Roles/Responsibilities:

• Lead infrastructure modernization and cloud migration initiatives across Azure and on-prem platforms.
• Architect, build, and operate secure hybrid infrastructure, including virtual networks, compute, storage, containers, identity, and core platform services.
• Serve as a technical lead for complex infrastructure and cloud issues while maintaining an approximately 50/50 balance between architectural design and hands-on implementation.
• Own architectural decision-making across infrastructure, evaluating requirements and selecting appropriate technologies and services without unnecessary complexity or over-engineering.
• Set infrastructure deployment standards and approve what gets deployed across DevOps pipelines, partnering with software engineering and data teams on CI/CD processes.
• Serve as the primary infrastructure architect for Azure network segmentation, perimeter hardening, and cloud environment design.
• Provide technical direction to managed service providers on networking and firewall matters, including areas such as split tunneling, DNS, and SD-WAN, while MSPs continue to support day-to-day management of select technologies.
• Own identity and access management, including Active Directory / Entra ID, MFA, SSO, Key Vault, PKI, certificate issuance and renewal, and CA management.
• Own the infrastructure layer supporting Azure Data Lake, including configuration, access rights, firewall rules, and connectivity required by data pipelines and applications.
• Partner with the data team to ensure Snowflake connectivity to Azure is properly configured, including network connectivity and appropriate write permissions.
• Evaluate Azure container and application hosting options, including Function Apps, Azure container services, and AKS, selecting the appropriate service based on requirements rather than defaulting to unnecessary complexity.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure automation, monitoring, standards, operational processes, and procedures.
• Support Microsoft Copilot infrastructure, access, and security considerations within the environment.
• Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning as the infrastructure architect.
• Collaborate closely with application, data, security, and other technology teams to ensure infrastructure effectively supports the broader technology environment.
• Partner closely with the Chief Information Security Officer on security-related architecture, controls, and operational practices to ensure alignment with the organization's security strategy and risk posture.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelor's degree preferred or equivalent experience.
• 8 years of enterprise infrastructure and/or cloud engineering experience.
• Strong experience working within regulated environments; banking or financial services experience is a plus.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure across infrastructure, networking, identity, storage, and platform services.
• Strong Active Directory / Entra ID and identity security experience.
• Strong infrastructure automation experience using PowerShell and/or Terraform, with demonstrated Infrastructure as Code experience.
• Python scripting exposure is a plus but is not required.
• Demonstrated ability to own solutions from architecture through hands-on implementation, including evaluating requirements, making architectural decisions, and explaining the rationale behind those decisions.
• Solid networking fundamentals, including Azure network segmentation, DNS, split tunneling, and general SD-WAN concepts. Candidates do not need to be dedicated network engineers or responsible for day-to-day firewall administration.
• Strong judgment in selecting the appropriate Azure service or architecture for a given workload while balancing functionality, complexity, scalability, and cost.
• Experience supporting infrastructure needs for application development, DevOps, and/or data engineering teams.
• Familiarity with Azure Data Lake and Snowflake from an infrastructure, access, and connectivity perspective is a plus; deep data engineering or data architecture expertise is not required.
• Experience transitioning infrastructure responsibilities from an MSP to internal teams is a plus but not required.
• Exposure to Microsoft Copilot governance and security considerations is a plus.
• Collaborative, self-starting mindset suited to a small, high-visibility technology team.
• Strong intellectual curiosity and the ability to research, evaluate, and learn unfamiliar technologies. Candidates are not expected to be experts across every technology in the environment; strong infrastructure fundamentals, sound technical judgment, and the ability to learn are critical.

Compensation: Compensation depends on experience but is typically $165,000–$185,000/year, plus eligibility for a discretionary performance-based bonus.

ABOUT KORE1

Specializing in professional and technical recruiting, KORE1 is committed to supporting top IT, engineering, creative, scientific, accounting and finance professionals in their career paths. We build deep relationships with our candidates and clients, allowing us to deliver an unmatched level of service and a true partnership.

KORE1 is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.