Freelance Cloud Engineer (Azure)

The Role

For the further development and support of its hybrid cloud platform, ARHS is looking for an experienced Cloud Engineer with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure and experience in AWS .

This role combines operational cloud support (ITIL) with change and project delivery . The Cloud Engineer plays a key role in ensuring stability, security, and scalability of the cloud environments, while also contributing to cloud transformation initiatives and standardization efforts.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Operations (ITIL)

• Incident management and trend analysis
• Change and release management
• Problem and event management
• Proactive and reactive monitoring across cloud platforms
• (Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, CloudWatch, Dynatrace, Datadog)

Change & Project Delivery

• Analysis, preparation, and execution of cloud changes
• Active participation in cloud projects such as:
• Azure Landing Zones
• Multi-account AWS environments
• Network expansions
• Security hardening initiatives

Build-to-Run Quality

• Contribution to technical documentation, including:
• Technical User Guides
• Operations Guides
• Incident runbooks
• Close collaboration with Azure and AWS Solution Architects

Primary Focus: Microsoft Azure

Platform & System Management

• Design, implementation, and management of Azure solutions
• Daily operational management of Azure services and platform components
• Setup and governance of:
• Azure Landing Zones
• Azure Policies and RBAC
• Resource governance and tagging standards
• Cost Management and budgets
• Azure Networking (VNet, Peering, ExpressRoute, Private Link, Firewall)

Automation & CI/CD

• Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and Bicep
• Automation and scripting using Python
• CI/CD pipelines via Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions

Cloud Engineering

• Ensuring operational excellence and platform reliability
• Security hardening using Defender for Cloud, RBAC, and policies
• Standardisation and optimisation of cloud deployments
• Acting as a technical sparring partner for the Cloud Architect

Secondary Focus: AWS

• Support for existing and new AWS workloads
• Management of AWS governance and platform components, including:
• Multi-account structures (Control Tower / Landing Zones)
• Service Control Policies (SCPs), budgets, and governance
• AWS Networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, IPAM, Route 53)
• Infrastructure automation using Terraform and Python
• CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows (Argo CD / Flux)
• Monitoring via CloudWatch, Datadog, and Dynatrace
• Technical support for the Infrastructure Solution Architect

Required Skills & Experience

Must-have

• Strong experience with Python scripting
• Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
• GitOps-based workflows
• Proven cloud engineering experience

Cloud Expertise

Expert-level knowledge in at least one platform, with hands-on experience in multiple.

Azure

• Networking (VNet, ExpressRoute, Firewall, Private DNS, Application Gateway)
• Security (Defender for Cloud, Policies, RBAC, Entra ID)
• Monitoring (Azure Monitor, Log Analytics)
• Kubernetes (AKS)
• Databases (Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB)

AWS

• Networking and routing (VPC, Transit Gateway, IPAM)
• Security (Security Hub, ALB, AWS Firewall, WAF)
• Monitoring (CloudWatch, Dynatrace, Datadog)
• Kubernetes (EKS, Fargate)
• Databases (RDS, Aurora)

Soft Skills

• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• High sense of ownership and responsibility
• Team-oriented mindset
• Fluent in English and Dutch