Senior Azure DevOps CI/CD Architect

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.