Senior Cloud & IT Operations Engineer

Come join our Goddard Systems, LLC (GSL) corporate team! We are a great place to work and offer many employee-friendly perks and benefits. GSL is the manager of the Goddard School franchise system that supports over 650 schools which delivers a high-quality, play-based learning program to families all over the United States. Our successful franchise business model supports franchisees through partnerships with teams of seasoned professionals who draw over 30 years of business, marketing, IT, franchise, finance, and education experience. Because of this, The Goddard School has grown into an institution that parents and families trust, reaching more than 90,000 students in 38 states - and growing.

Summary

Goddard Systems operates fully in the cloud, with Microsoft Azure powering our product platforms and Microsoft 365 underpinning corporate and franchise operations. We are seeking a Senior Cloud & IT Operations Engineer with deep, hands-on experience operating production Microsoft cloud environments at scale.

This role is responsible for day-to-day operational integrity and long-term evolution of our Azure and M365 platforms. Success in this role requires more than technical knowledge, it requires sound judgement earned through real-world experience, including responding to incidents, diagnosing ambiguous failures, and improving systems so they fail less often over time.

The ideal candidate has already operated complex cloud environments, understands the consequences of design decisions in production, and is comfortable acting autonomously within a senior engineering peer group. This role works alongside other senior engineers, contributing an operations-first perspective that strengthens platform reliability, security, and supportability.

Job Responsibilities

Cloud Architecture & Platform Engineering

• Design, evolve, and validate Azure reference architectures aligned with Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework

• Contribute to architectural decisions for landing zones, subscription models, networking, and governance, with an emphasis on operational sustainability

• Architect, operate, and improve Azure PaaS workloads including:

• Azure WebApps and Functions

• Azure SQL Managed Instance

• Storage Accounts, Key Vaults, and networking components

• Ensure platform designs account for failure modes, operational complexity, security controls, and long-term maintainability

IT Operations & Microsoft 365 Ownership

• Serve as a senior technical owner for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, including:

• Entra ID (identity lifecycle, Conditional Access, MFA)

• Intune (endpoint management, compliance, application delivery)

• Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint

• Microsoft Defender

• Design and enforce secure, scalable identity and access models across Azure and SaaS platforms

• Partner with Service Desk and Service Delivery to ensure systems are supportable, well-documented, and operationally understood

Reliability, Monitoring & Incident Leadership

• Design and maintain monitoring, alerting, and observability for Azure and M365 services

• Lead and participate in incident response, including:

• Troubleshooting complex, multi-system failures

• Performing root cause analysis

• Driving durable corrective actions, not short-term fixes

• Continuously evaluate and improve availability, performance, capacity, security posture, and cost efficiency

Automation, Documentation & Technical Leadership

• Automation infrastructure and operational workflows using PowerShell, ARM/Bicep, and/or Terraform
• Produce clear, durable technical documentation, runbooks, and operational standards
• Provide technical guidance and peer review that raises the effectiveness of the broader IT Operations function
• Act as a trusted technical sounding board for complex operational and platform decisions

Job Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience
• At least 7 years of experience operating production Azure environments supporting business-critical workloads
• Demonstrated depth across the Microsoft 365 platform, including Entra ID, Intune, Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, and Defender
• Proven experience designing and operating Azure PaaS services in live production environments (IaaS-only backgrounds are not a fit)
• Strong command of:
• Azure networking (VNets, routing, NSGs, private endpoints)
• Identity and access management (least privilege, Conditional Access, Zero Trust)
• Monitoring, alerting, and incident response practices
• Ability to diagnose and resolve ambiguous, cross-platform production issues under pressure
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, especially in operational and post-incident contexts

Desired Skills and Experience

• Azure Administrator (AZ-104) and/or Solutions Architect (AZ-305) certification, or interest in achieving them
• Practical ITSM/ITIL experience in production environments
• Experience operating within small senior-heavy engineering teams where influence is earned, not assigned

There will be periodic requirements to travel for in-person events, at the discretion of your manager or the requirement of the company.