SC Cleared Cloud Engineer - Portsmouth/Remote - £485 per day Umbrella - Contract

We are recruiting for a SC Cleared Cloud Engineer on contract to be based in Portsmouth and remote for a leading Defence organisation.

Role is mostly remote - with 1 to 2 days onsite in Portsmouth a week

Overview

The Cloud Platform Engineer will support, maintain and develop enterprise cloud and hybrid platform services with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure, Entra ID, landing zones, infrastructure as code, automation, governance and secure platform operations. The role supports the organisation's transition from Legacy on-premises services to standardised, repeatable and secure cloud and hybrid platform capabilities while retaining operational awareness of existing services.

Major Tasks and Activities

• Support Azure Landing Zone operations including management groups, subscriptions, RBAC, policies, monitoring, governance and platform standards.
• Develop, maintain and support Infrastructure as Code using appropriate tooling such as Terraform, Bicep, PowerShell, Azure CLI and pipeline automation.
• Administer and support Microsoft Entra ID capabilities including conditional access, identity governance, PIM, enterprise applications, roles and policies.
• Support hybrid identity patterns across Entra ID and AD DS, working with operational service teams where responsibilities overlap.
• Embed cost-aware engineering controls into platform design, including resource tagging, budget alerts, standard sizing patterns and non-production cost controls.
• Support cloud platform monitoring, alerting, resiliency, compliance and operational health.
• Contribute to platform engineering standards, reusable modules, technical documentation and service transition materials.
• Work with Architecture, Security, Network, Infrastructure, Identity and service teams to deliver consistent, secure and supportable platform solutions.
• Provide SME input to cloud adoption, migration and modernisation initiatives.
• Ensure platform changes follow agreed change, security, compliance and governance processes.

Key Outputs/Deliverables

• Secure and supportable Azure landing zone configurations and platform standards.
• Reusable and documented IaC modules, scripts and automation patterns.
• Improved consistency of platform configuration, monitoring, governance and cost controls.
• Clear operational and technical documentation to agreed standards.
• Effective technical support to projects and service teams consuming the platform.
• Contribution to a sustainable hybrid platform operating model.

Person Specification

Qualification and Experience

• Experience administering Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Entra ID in an enterprise environment.
• Experience using Infrastructure as Code such as Terraform or Bicep.
• Good understanding of RBAC, conditional access, identity governance, subscriptions, policies and monitoring.
• PowerShell Scripting and automation experience.
• Experience working in operational or project delivery environments with formal change and governance processes.
• Experience of Exchange Online, hybrid identity, Defender, Purview or Azure Monitor would be advantageous.

Technical & Specialist Knowledge

• Azure landing zones, management groups, policy, RBAC and subscription governance.
• Infrastructure as Code and pipeline-based delivery methods.
• Microsoft Entra ID, AD DS integration and secure identity life cycle management.
• Cloud monitoring, alerting, logging and operational health.
• Cost-aware platform engineering practices including tagging, sizing standards, budget alerts and automation.
• Security and governance principles aligned with organisational and NCSC expectations.

Key Behavioural Competencies

• Confident, proactive and collaborative team player.
• Strong ownership and problem-solving skills.
• Able to work across technical teams and communicate complex topics clearly.
• Customer-focused, quality-driven and comfortable working under pressure.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to standardisation and documentation.

Security Criteria to be achieved

• SC security clearance must be held