Mid Level Cloud Operations Engineer Jobs in Toronto, ON

What's the Opportunity? 

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Cloud Operations, the Lead Cloud Operations Engineer is a senior-level technical role responsible for leading a team of cloud engineers and hands-on technical execution in Azure/Kubernetes environments. You will be building scalable, reliable, and efficient infrastructure while mentoring junior engineers, maintaining best practices, and ensuring optimal performance, security, and cost-effectiveness in a customer-facing role.

This is a technical leadership position for someone who wants to stay close to infrastructure while growing a team. You will roll up your sleeves daily, pair with engineers on complex problems, and drive automation initiatives that reduce toil and improve platform reliability.

What You Will Do

• Lead technical strategy and best practices for Azure cloud operations and AKS deployments
• Design, implement, and maintain infrastructure-as-code using Terraform and Azure DevOps
• Manage Kubernetes deployments with ArgoCD, Helm, and GitOps patterns for auditability and compliance
• Architect and manage Azure Application Gateway, load balancing, WAF, and ingress strategies
• Oversee secrets and certificate management using Azure Key Vault and implement security best practices
• Build and maintain Azure Container Registry (ACR) pipelines and image scanning workflows
• Mentor and guide junior engineers on technical tasks, code reviews, and cloud architecture decisions
• Build automation solutions to reduce manual toil and improve operational efficiency
• Manage and troubleshoot AKS clusters, networking, storage, and identity/access control
• Own incident response, RCA documentation, and presentation to stakeholders
• Monitor infrastructure health, performance, and security posture; identify and resolve bottlenecks
• Work with peers to establish and enforce infrastructure standards and compliance controls across client environments
• Communicate proactively with customers and internal teams on infrastructure health and roadmap
• Maintain security, backup, disaster recovery, and high-availability strategies
• Drive cost optimization and FinOps practices across cloud infrastructure
• Support offshore hours and multiple time zones as needed

What You Need to Succeed

Must Haves

• 8-12 years of cloud/infrastructure engineering experience
• 5+ years of hands-on Azure cloud platform experience (VMs, networking, identity, monitoring)
• 5+ years with Kubernetes, specifically Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) production experience
• Expert-level Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices
• Strong Azure DevOps or equivalent CI/CD platform experience
• Hands-on experience with ArgoCD or GitOps deployment patterns for Kubernetes
• Proficiency with Helm for Kubernetes package management and templating
• Azure Application Gateway configuration and management (load balancing, WAF, SSL termination)
• Azure Key Vault and secrets management implementation and best practices
• Azure Container Registry (ACR) operations, image scanning, and registry maintenance
• Proficiency in Linux administration and troubleshooting
• Automation scripting (Python, Bash/Shell) to reduce manual operational tasks
• Strong networking knowledge: TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, VPCs, firewall rules, network troubleshooting
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and guide junior engineers
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience

Nice to Have

• Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-700 Networking, or equivalent)
• Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD)
• Cloud security scanning tools experience (Wiz, Microsoft Defender)
• Azure API Management for API governance and rate limiting
• Backup and disaster recovery solutions (Azure Backup, Site Recovery)
• FinOps and cost optimization expertise across cloud resources
• Compliance and governance frameworks (SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, regulatory reporting)
• Domain knowledge of banking, financial services, enterprise data platforms, or regulated industries
• Experience with GitOps and advanced Kubernetes patterns
• Observability and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Log Analytics, Application Insights)

Additional Job Details 

• Expected Salary Range: $110,000 - $135,000
• Vacancy Status: Open Position to be filled
• Mode of Work: Hybrid
• Use of AI: Zafin may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and/or other forms of automated technology to screen and/or assess applicants for this position. Zafin will not utilize AI for conducting interviews and/or making hiring decisions.