Cloud Operations Technical Assistant

Overview:

TekWissen is a global workforce management provider headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan that offers strategic talent solutions to our clients world-wide. Our client is an American organization that operates Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the state's electric load. Our client is the first independent system operator (ISO) in the United States and one of nine ISOs in North America. Our client works with the Texas Reliability Entity (TRE), one of eight regional entities within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that coordinate to improve reliability of the bulk power grid. Our client is a membership-based 501(c) nonprofit corporation, and its members include consumers, electric cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers), and municipally owned electric utilities.

Job Title: Cloud Operations Technical Assistant
Location: Taylor, TX 76574
Duration: 7 Months
Job Type: Temporary Assignment
Work Type: Remote

Job Description:

• The Cloud Operations Technical Assistant is a part-time, developmental role that supports the Cloud Operations team through clearly scoped Microsoft Azure and infrastructure-as-code assignments.

• Working under direct guidance from Cloud Operations Specialists, the position builds, tests, documents, and supports automation that improves the reliability, consistency, and governance of client cloud environments.

• The employee may take day-to-day ownership of a bounded project or recurring technical process while production changes, privileged activities, architecture decisions, and security-control ownership remain with qualified Cloud Operations staff.

Role Scope and Supervision:

• This role is intended as a bridge between an internship and Cloud Operations Specialist Associate (Level 1).

• The employee is expected to complete defined technical assignments with growing independence but work products and proposed changes are reviewed before implementation.

• Any production activity involving tenant structure, networking, policy, security, identity and access, backup and recovery, or CI/CD platform administration requires approval and direct oversight.

Primary Initial Assignment:

• Mature the Terraform state drift detector developed during the internship from a proof of concept into a supportable Cloud Operations capability.

• Work may include improving detection logic, exception handling, testing, scheduling, logging, notifications, reporting, technical documentation, operating procedures, and transition to ongoing team ownership.

Key Responsibilities:

Terraform Drift Detection and Automation:

• Maintain and enhance approved drift-detection and cloud-automation code.

• Investigate inaccurate or incomplete results.

• Document findings and recommended corrections.

Infrastructure as Code Support:

• Create or modify basic Terraform configurations, scripts, variables, and documentation under review.

• Validate formatting, syntax, plan output, and expected behavior in approved environments.

Azure Resource Analysis:

• Collect and analyze Azure resource and configuration data to identify state drift, naming or tagging exceptions, policy deviations, configuration inconsistencies, or other operational concerns.

• Escalate findings to the appropriate specialist.

GitHub and CI/CD Practices:

• Use issues, branches, commits, pull requests, code review, and version control to deliver work.

• Assist with defined GitHub Actions, runner, or pipeline-support tasks without independent administrative ownership.

Testing and Troubleshooting:

• Execute documented test plans and perform low-risk troubleshooting in approved non-production environments.

• Gather logs and evidence, identify likely causes, record actions taken, and escalate when a task exceeds assigned scope.

Documentation and Knowledge Transfer:

• Create and maintain runbooks, support procedures, architecture or process diagrams, code comments, knowledge articles, and demonstrations so work can be understood and supported by the broader team.

Cloud Governance and Operational Support:

• Apply client cloud standards, change controls, security requirements, least-privilege practices, and documentation expectations.

• Assist specialists with defined reporting, validation, inventory, cost, tagging, onboarding, or operational tasks.

Professional Development and Team Participation:

• Participate in team meetings, technical reviews, demonstrations, and learning activities.

• Continue building practical knowledge of Azure, Terraform, GitHub, automation, cloud security, and the client cloud operating model.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing an associate or bachelor degree in Computer Information Systems, Computer Science, Information Technology, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field.

• Completion of at least one relevant cloud, infrastructure, software, or IT internship, or equivalent academic/project experience.

• Foundational knowledge of Microsoft Azure concepts, including subscriptions, resource groups, identity and role-based access, networking basics, monitoring, and resource governance.

• Foundational knowledge of Terraform and infrastructure-as-code concepts, including providers, resources, variables, plan/apply workflow, state, and configuration drift.

• Working knowledge of Git and GitHub, plus introductory scripting experience with PowerShell, Python, Bash, Azure CLI, or a comparable language/tool.

• Ability to follow documented standards and change processes, communicate technical information clearly, accept review feedback, and escalate issues appropriately.

• Ability to work a consistent part-time schedule and meet applicable hybrid/on-site requirements.

• No full-time cloud operations experience is required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900), or equivalent demonstrated knowledge.

• Actively pursuing Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) and/or HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate.

• Experience with Terraform state, drift detection, cloud configuration analysis, or another infrastructure automation project.

• Familiarity with GitHub Actions, Azure Monitor or Log Analytics, Azure Policy, tagging standards, cost-management concepts, or enterprise cloud landing zones.

• Prior experience in an enterprise Cloud Operations, platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure team.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Learns new technologies quickly and converts guidance into repeatable, well-documented work.

• Works independently on bounded assignments while recognizing when review, approval, or escalation is required.

• Demonstrates attention to detail when handling code, configuration data, test results, and operational documentation.

• Communicates respectfully and effectively with technical team members and business partners.

• Protects confidential information and follows client security, access, change-management, and acceptable-use requirements.

Role Expectations:

• Work is assigned with defined outcomes, priority, scope, and review points.

• Low-risk tasks may be completed independently after the employee has demonstrated proficiency and received authorization.

• Production changes and activities requiring elevated access are performed only when specifically approved and supervised.

• This contingent role is developmental and is not itself a position within the Cloud Operations Specialist career ladder.

TekWissen Group is an equal opportunity employer supporting workforce diversity.