Lead Cloud Operations Engineer, Zafin
Azure
$110-135k
Product & pricing lifecycle management platform
Open for applications
Product & pricing lifecycle management platform
501-1000 employees
Open for applications
$110-135k
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To make banks more agile and efficient than ever before, enabling innovative experiences that improve the lives of customers and employees.
Role
Who you are
- 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
- Azure API Management for API governance and rate limiting
- Domain knowledge of banking, financial services, enterprise data platforms, or regulated industries
Desirable
- Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-700 Networking, or equivalent)
- Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD)
- Cloud security scanning tools experience (Wiz, Microsoft Defender)
- 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)
- Experience with GitOps and advanced Kubernetes patterns
- Observability and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Log Analytics, Application Insights)
What the job involves
- 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
- 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
Our take
Zafin is a global provider of a range of digital transformation solutions for the banking sector, with a focus on relationship-based pricing solutions for enterprise grade financial institutions and banks. Clients include Canada’s big five, and further flung giants like the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
The problem Zafin is solving is a big one for incumbent banking institutions: legacy frameworks and business practices are relatively cumbersome and byzantine in comparison to the nimbler, snappier challenger and neo banks. This means they’re losing out, particularly with the younger generations, who prefer convenience over institutional pedigree.
Zafin’s solution functions as a neat little workaround, allowing banks keen to digitally transform to dodge the hefty delays and sunk costs of retooling their systems from scratch. Banks globally are scrabbling to compete with their attractive, agile digital-first competitors, so Zafin won’t struggle to find customers. This is especially because it’s expanded to cater to neo-banks, too. With such a broad scope and a strong reputation of its own, Zafin is a confident, highly relevant company, which makes it no surprise that Nordic Capital bought it out in 2024. This acquisition will accelerate Zafin's growth and product development roadmap.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
19% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Jan 2019
$17m
LATE VC
Sep 2014
$15m
LATE VC
Total funding: $32m
Company benefits
- Flexible work arrangements - includes opportunities for hybrid work, flexible hours, flexible locations, and various types of paid leave
- Meaningful recognition - we truly value our team members’ contributions and ensure that their achievements are properly recognized and rewarded through areas such as incentive opportunities
- Ownership - we offer a stock option plan that is exclusively for employees who share our sense of purpose and create value that keeps us on our A-game
Company HQ
Harbourfront-CityPlace, Toronto, ON
Leadership
Al Karim Somji
(Co-Founder & Board Member)Previously the President of OpCom Solutions, then CEO of Eftia OSS Solutions.
Anugopal Venugopalan
(Co-Founder & CRO)Began his career as a Product Manager at Fujitsu ICIM, before moving on to serve as the Director of Pre-Sales at Eftia OSS Solutions.
Dinesh Krishnan
(o-Founder & Chief Commercial & Risk Officer)Previously in management at SBI Capital Markets, before moving on to serve as Vice President of DSP Merrill Lynch.
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