Cloud Engineering Lead (Azure) - Birmingham (2 to 3 days per week) Azure, Terraform, AKS, GitHub, Docker etc. Infra & DevOps skills + Architecture on the same tech stack Insurer - ideally someone with insurance experience. Contract - 6 months / Birmingham (2 to 3 days per week in the office) £850 per day inside IR35 My client is a leading Specialist Insurer and they are seeking an experienced and versatile Cloud Engineering Lead to step into a pivotal role for paternity leave cover. This is a high-impact position responsible for leading my client's cloud strategy, driving modernisation efforts, and ensuring the secure, scalable, and cost-effective operation of their Azure-based infrastructure. What You’ll Be Doing • Lead Cloud Strategy & Execution: Own and evolve our cloud adoption and modernisation roadmap. • Architect Scalable Infrastructure: Design and implement secure, multi-region Azure environments using Terraform. • Champion DevOps & GitOps: Enforce CI/CD best practices, GitHub Actions pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code standards. • Security & Compliance: Implement strong security postures using RBAC, PIM, Azure Policies, and Defender for Cloud. • Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with InfoSec, networking, and platform teams to ensure seamless delivery. • Production Troubleshooting: Resolve complex issues across infrastructure, networking, and security layers. • FinOps & Cost Optimisation: Monitor cloud spend, implement tagging strategies, and support financial tracking. • Team Leadership: Mentor a team of 6 engineers, lead code reviews, unblock delivery, and uphold engineering excellence. • Stakeholder Engagement: Represent the cloud team to senior stakeholders, manage escalations, and align with business goals. • AI/ML Enablement: Prototype and deploy AI workloads using Azure OpenAI and ML endpoints. • Observability & Monitoring: Build dashboards and alerts using Azure Monitor, KQL, and SIEM tools Your Experience We’re looking for someone who’s hands-on, strategic, and deeply technical. You should be comfortable switching between architecture discussions and debugging Terraform or AKS issues. Must-Have Skills: • Deep expertise in Azure cloud services and architecture • Strong Terraform skills (modular, reusable, production-grade code) • Experience with GitHub Actions and CI/CD pipelines • Familiarity with AKS, Azure Container Apps, and Docker • Strong understanding of cloud security (RBAC, PIM, Key Vault, Defender, Policies) • Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and KQL • Proven leadership and mentoring experience in engineering teams • Ability to troubleshoot complex infrastructure and networking issues