Release Train Engineer – Azure Infrastructure & AKS
Rate: $76.00 - $82.50 per hour
Experience: Senior
Role Overview:We’re seeking a hands-on Release Train Engineer to drive seamless, secure, and reliable deployments across Azure environments. In this role, you’ll build and automate cloud infrastructure, streamline CI/CD pipelines, and deploy API services using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Collaborating with development, architecture, security, and operations teams, you’ll play a key role in delivering consistent, efficient releases while keeping business and technical stakeholders informed and aligned.
Key Responsibilities:
•Execute production releases, validate service health after deployment, and maintain tested rollback procedures and release runbooks.
•Configure and operate Cosmos DB databased, including Container creation and index maintenance, RU allocation and copying data.
•Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions to automate builds, testing, image publishing, and deployments across environments.
•Configure Kubernetes deployments, services, ingress, health probes, resource requests and limits, and environment-specific application settings.
•Configure secure API connectivity, including DNS, TLS certificates, load balancing, private endpoints, and integration with Azure API Management where required.
•Implement least-privilege access, managed identities, workload identity, role-based access control, and secure secrets management through Azure Key Vault.
•Integrate automated tests, container image scanning, security checks, and approval gates into deployment pipelines.
•Implement monitoring, logging, dashboards, and actionable alerts for Azure infrastructure and API workloads using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
•Troubleshoot failed deployments, pod and container issues, networking, authentication, and API performance problems; resolve root causes with development and operations teams.
•Maintain environment consistency, deployment documentation, and change records in line with enterprise security and change-management requirements.
•Partner with developers, architects, security, and platform teams to resolve infrastructure dependencies and prepare API services for production.
•Improve deployment reliability, recovery time, resource utilization, and Azure costs through automation, capacity tuning, and operational improvements.
•Encourage collaboration between teams, Product Management, Product Owners, System Architects, Solution Architects, engineering, security, operations, and other stakeholders.
•Improve the flow of value through value streams by assessing and strengthening practices related to DevOps, Release on Demand, and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline.
•Partner with the Agile Program Management Office and delivery leadership to support program execution, operational excellence, reporting, and governance.
•Secondary responsibilities may include, when necessary, working with SREs to --
- Provision, configure, and maintain Azure infrastructure components, including AKS, Azure Container Registry, virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, Key Vault, and storage accounts.
- Develop and maintain infrastructure as code using Terraform, with version-controlled configurations, reusable modules, and controlled environment changes.
- Configure and operate AKS clusters, including node pools, scaling, upgrades, resource quotas, and workload availability.
- Containerize API services using Docker and deploy them to AKS using Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts.
- Automate routine infrastructure and operational tasks using Azure CLI, PowerShell, or Bash to reduce manual effort and configuration drift.
Required Qualifications:
•Demonstrated hands-on experience provisioning, configuring, and troubleshooting Azure infrastructure, including networking, identity, Key Vault, storage, and Azure Container Registry.
•Practical experience deploying and supporting containerized API services on AKS, with strong Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, and kubectl skills.
•Experience building YAML-based CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, including automated testing, artifact management, environment promotion, and rollback.
•Proficiency with Terraform or Bicep, Git-based version control, and scripting with PowerShell, Bash, or Python.
•Strong understanding of Linux, HTTP/REST APIs, DNS, TLS, ingress, load balancing, access controls, and secrets management, with the ability to diagnose issues across application and infrastructure layers.
•Experience with production monitoring, incident troubleshooting, and controlled releases; ability to own technical issues through resolution and communicate clearly across engineering, security, and operations teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
•Relevant Azure administration, Azure DevOps, or Kubernetes certifications.
•Experience supporting enterprise API, integration, or data platforms in financial services or other regulated environments.
•Experience with GitOps tools such as GitHub Actions, progressive deployment strategies, and Prometheus or Grafana.
•Experience with Azure API Management, private AKS networking, workload identity, and disaster recovery planning and testing.