Contract Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Jobs in Kansas

Leggett & Platt is seeking a Senior Azure Cloud Engineer to join our engineering team at the IDEA Center in Lenexa, Kansas. This is an excellent opportunity to be part of a close-knit team in a global organization. In this position, you will own the design, deployment, and ongoing operation of cloud infrastructure within Microsoft Azure, enabling reliable and scalable product delivery across our development teams. 

You will bring deep expertise in Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD automation, and deployment strategies that minimize risk and maximize uptime. We are looking for a highly collaborative engineer who builds strong working relationships across IT teams and business units, communicates technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences, takes ownership of outcomes, and continuously raises the bar on engineering excellence.

• Design, implement, and maintain Azure cloud infrastructure using Bicep as the primary Infrastructure as Code (IaC) language, ensuring environments are repeatable, version-controlled, and auditable.
• Architect and manage CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, enabling automated build, test, and deployment workflows across development, staging, and production environments.
• Lead implementation of Blue/Green and canary deployment strategies to enable zero-downtime releases and rapid rollback capabilities.
• Own deployment management practices across multiple environments, including environment promotion workflows, release gates, and deployment approvals.
• Manage Azure networking components including Virtual Networks, Network Security Groups, Private Endpoints, Azure Firewall, and Application Gateway.
• Configure and maintain Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and/or Azure Container Apps for containerized workload deployments.
• Implement and manage observability solutions using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights to ensure system health and rapid incident response.
• Enforce cloud governance through Azure Policy, RBAC, Managed Identities, and security baselines aligned with organizational compliance requirements.
• Drive FinOps practices including cost monitoring, resource tagging standards, and optimization recommendations across Azure subscriptions.
• Serve as a key liaison between the IDEA Center engineering team and IT teams across multiple business units, aligning on infrastructure standards, shared services, and deployment practices to enable consistent, reliable delivery organization-wide.
• Implement disaster recovery and high availability architectures to meet defined RTO/RPO targets.
• Evaluate and integrate AI-assisted operations tooling and Azure AI services to improve platform reliability and developer productivity.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 7+ years of hands-on cloud engineering experience, with 3+ years focused on Microsoft Azure.
• Expert-level proficiency in Bicep for Infrastructure as Code; ability to author, test, and maintain modular Bicep templates across complex environments.
• Proven experience designing and managing CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps Pipelines, including multi-stage pipelines, environment approvals, and artifact management.
• Demonstrated experience implementing Blue/Green, canary, or feature-flag-based deployment patterns in production environments.
• Strong command of Azure networking: VNets, NSGs, Private Endpoints, DNS, Load Balancers, and Application Gateway.
• Solid understanding of Azure security fundamentals: Azure Active Directory / Entra ID, RBAC, Managed Identities, Key Vault, and Defender for Cloud.
• Proficiency in PowerShell and/or Azure CLI for scripting, automation, and operational tasks.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, AKS, or Azure Container Apps).
• Strong understanding of Agile/DevOps methodologies and the software development lifecycle.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills with the ability to diagnose infrastructure, networking, and deployment issues under pressure.
• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, with a proven ability to build relationships and work effectively across IT teams spanning multiple business units; able to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and drive alignment without direct authority.

• Experience with Azure AI services or integrating AI/ML workloads into cloud infrastructure (Azure OpenAI, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services).
• Familiarity with agentic AI concepts and tooling, including orchestrating AI agents, integrating large language model (LLM)-based workflows into cloud pipelines, and leveraging frameworks such as Azure AI Agent Service, Semantic Kernel, or LangChain to automate operational and development tasks.
• Familiarity with Terraform as an alternative IaC tool alongside Bicep.
• Experience with GitOps workflows and tools such as Flux or ArgoCD for Kubernetes-based deployments.
• Knowledge of Azure API Management for managing and securing APIs at scale.
• Experience with infrastructure drift detection and compliance tooling (Azure Policy, Checkov, tfsec).
• Exposure to FinOps frameworks and Azure Cost Management tooling.
• Relevant Azure certifications such as AZ-104 (Azure Administrator), AZ-400 (DevOps Engineer Expert), or AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert).

What to Do Next

Now that you've had a chance to learn more about us, what are you waiting for! Apply today and allow us the opportunity to learn more about you and the value you can bring to our team. Once you apply, be sure to create a profile, and sign up for job alerts, so you can be the first to know when new opportunities become available.

Our Values

Our values speak to our shared beliefs and describe how we approach working together.

• Put People First reflects our commitment to safety and care of each other, learning and development, and creating an inclusive environment of mutual respect, empathy and belonging.
• Do the Right Thing focuses us on acting with honesty and integrity, delivering the results the right way, taking pride in our work, and speaking the truth - good or bad.
• Do Great Work...Together occurs when we engage without hierarchy, collaborate as a team, embrace challenges, and work for the good of all of us.
• Take Ownership and Raise the Bar demonstrates our responsibility to add value and make a difference, challenge the status quo and biases to make things better, foster innovative and creative solutions to drive impact, and explore new perspectives and embrace change.

Our Commitment to You

We're actively taking steps to make sure our culture is inclusive and that our processes and practices promote equity for all. Leggett & Platt is comprised of people of all abilities, gender identities and expressions, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, veteran status, and more. Join us!

We welcome and encourage applications if you meet the minimum qualifications. Even if you do not meet the preferred qualifications, we'd love the opportunity to consider you.

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