Cloud Engineer (Azure/AVD)

We are seeking a Cloud Engineer to support the engineering and maintenance of Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and multi-cloud environments. This role is responsible for the technical health of virtualized workspaces and general cloud infrastructure, combining project-based engineering with responsive customer support.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Engineering: Deploy and maintain AVD host pools, workspaces, and application groups in accordance with established performance standards.
• Engineering & Customer Support: Perform troubleshooting and resolution for incidents and service requests, ensuring that support actions are grounded in data and actual customer impact.
• DevOps & IaC Execution: Use IaC to manage the deployment of image galleries, session hosts, and networking components to ensure consistency across cloud environments (experience with Terraform or Nerdio Manager is preferred).
• CI/CD Maintenance: Create, implement, and manage automated deployment pipelines for image management and infrastructure updates via GitHub or GitLab or similar.
• Resource Integration: Manage technical integrations between AVD and Azure services, including Entra ID, Azure Files, and FSLogix profile containers.
• On-Call Rotation: Participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation to maintain platform stability and protect mission-critical customer operations.

Technical Requirements

Cloud Platforms

• Azure Competency: Deep expertise and experience with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and native Azure services.
• Multi-Cloud Expertise (Desirable): General cloud experience in AWS and GCP is highly desirable to support our broader infrastructure modernization strategy.
• Tooling & IaC: Working knowledge of Terraform; experience with Git workflows (GitHub or GitLab or similar) for version control.
• Networking: Solid understanding of cloud networking fundamentals, including VNETs, ExpressRoute, and Network Security Groups (NSGs).
• DevOps Knowledge: Ability to work within established CI/CD and automation frameworks to reduce operational toil.

1) Virtualization & VDI Foundations

• Understanding of VDI architectures (pooled vs. personal, multi‑session vs. single‑session).
• Knowledge of hypervisors, brokers, session hosts, FSLogix profiles, and storage interactions.
• Capacity planning for CPU, RAM, and IOPS based on user workload profiles.
• Best practices in image management (golden image, update process, optimization).
• Techniques to optimize login performance through profiles, GPO, and OS tuning.

2) Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Administration

• Creation and management of Host Pools, Session Hosts, App Groups, and Workspaces.
• Configuration and tuning of scaling plans and auto scale policies.
• Troubleshooting AVD login issues such as black screens, slow logons, or FSLogix failures.
• Understanding of AVD connection stages and diagnostic tools.
• Experience with scheduled scaling and burst‑traffic planning.
• Ability to perform controlled rollouts and pilot deployments.

3) Performance Engineering & Troubleshooting

• Identification of system bottlenecks (CPU ready time, RAM pressure, disk latency, network congestion).
• Use of Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Insights to diagnose performance issues.
• Application performance profiling and resource consumption analysis.
• Knowledge of NIC, driver, and GPU optimization for VDI environments.

4) Automation & Operations at Scale

• Automation of maintenance cycles (patching, reboots, image updates, draining).
• Standardization of tags, naming conventions, and configuration baselines.
• Creation of clear operational documentation and SOPs for support teams.

5) Cost Optimization for VDI

• Right‑sizing VM SKUs based on telemetry and usage patterns.
• Efficient configuration of autoscaling and session density targets.
• Optimization of storage performance and cost for OS, Temp, and FSLogix disks.
• Monitoring of Azure Cost Management dashboards, budgets, and alerts.

6) Security & Compliance in VDI

• Experience managing patching for session hosts and images.
• Capability to run and respond to vulnerability assessments.
• Ensuring secure and redundant data storage across Azure storage solutions.
• Familiarity with compliance requirements and audit readiness.

7) Nerdio Manager for Enterprise (NME)

• Deployment and administration of Nerdio Manager for AVD.
• Configuration of autoscaling, image management, and automation through NME.
• Integration of scripted actions for host lifecycle tasks.
• Monitoring of cost, performance, and operations using Nerdio dashboards.
• Troubleshooting NME tasks, logs, and orchestrated operations.

8) Incident Management & Reliability

• Designing and implementing VDI monitoring strategies.
• Execution of proactive incident response workflows.
• Performing root cause analysis and post‑incident improvement actions.
• Maintenance of runbooks for common incidents (profile issues, agent errors, connectivity failures).
• Collaboration with Microsoft and third‑party vendors for escalated issues.

9) Knowledge Transfer & Enablement

• Delivery of technical training for Operations Center and Service Desk teams.
• Creation of technical documentation, diagrams, and troubleshooting guides.
• Definition of escalation paths across L1–L3 support layers.
• Development of labs or sandbox environments for hands‑on training.