IT Scrum Master / Release Train Engineer (Azure / AKS / DevOps)
Job Description
The OperAxis team is seeking a hands-on IT Scrum Master / Release Train Engineer (RTE) for a 10-month contract-to-hire opportunity with a financial services client in Chicago, IL (hybrid, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm). Only candidates in the Chicago, IL area will be considered. You will provision and manage Azure infrastructure, build deployment automation, and deploy and support API services on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), working with development, architecture, security and operations teams to deliver secure, repeatable releases across dev, test and production. The ideal candidate is a certified RTE with strong Azure, Kubernetes and CI/CD skills who communicates release status clearly to business and technical stakeholders. Requirements: - Bachelor's degree - Release Train Engineer (RTE) certification - Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps (ADO), Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform and YAML - Scripting in PowerShell, Bash and/or Python; Azure CLI automation - Hands-on provisioning and troubleshooting of Azure infrastructure: networking, identity, Key Vault, storage, Azure Container Registry - Experience with YAML-based CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions - Knowledge of Linux, HTTP/REST APIs, DNS, TLS, ingress and load balancing - Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and Application Insights - Agile/SAFe experience: DevOps, Release on Demand and Continuous Delivery Pipeline - Preferred: GitOps, Prometheus/Grafana, Azure API Management, DR planning and Azure/Kubernetes certifications Responsibilities: - Execute production releases, validate service health and maintain tested rollback procedures and release runbooks - Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines to automate builds, testing, image publishing and deployments - Provision and maintain Azure infrastructure (AKS, ACR, VNets, NSGs, Key Vault) using Terraform - Containerize API services with Docker and deploy to AKS via Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts - Implement least-privilege access, managed identities, RBAC and secrets management via Azure Key Vault - Integrate automated tests, image scanning, security checks and approval gates into pipelines - Configure and operate Cosmos DB databases, including indexing and RU allocation - Implement monitoring, dashboards and actionable alerts; resolve root causes of deployment issues - Partner with the Agile PMO and delivery leadership on program execution, reporting and governance - Improve value flow through DevOps, Release on Demand and Continuous Delivery practices