Senior Azure Cloud Engineer

Senior Azure Cloud Engineer

Join our mission to protect humankind! Vaxcyte is a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. Working to eradicate or treat bacterial infections such as invasive pneumococcal disease, Group A Strep, and Shigella is just the beginning. Our path to success is clear and well-defined, and Vaxcyte is set up to go the distance.

What we do is every bit as important as how we do it! Our work together is guided by four enduring core values: *RETHINK CONVENTION: We bring creative and intellectual diversity to every facet of the work we do in order to innovate and re-innovate the way vaccines are delivered. *AIM HIGH: We embody our collectively audacious goal to courageously make the most complex biologics ever attempted to protect humankind. *LEAD WITH HEART: Everyone leads at Vaxcyte with a kindness-first, inclusive approach to collaboration and vigorous debate that advances our business objectives. *MODEL EXCELLENCE: The magnitude of our challenge requires our shared commitment to demonstrating integrity, accountability, equality and clarity across communications and decision making.

Summary:

We are seeking a skilled and passionate Azure Cloud Engineer to join our growing engineering team. In this role, you will design, build, and maintain secure, scalable cloud infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) best practices — primarily Terraform. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable hosting solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance.

The ideal candidate holds an Azure certification, brings strong software engineering fundamentals, and has hands-on experience with a broad range of Azure services. Experience in validated or regulated environments, particularly within the Life Sciences sector, is considered a valuable plus.

Essential Functions:

Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering

• Design, deploy, and manage Azure cloud infrastructure using Terraform and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) best practices.
• Provision and maintain Azure services including AKS, ADF, Microsoft Fabric, Managed SQL Instances, Virtual Machines, and Batch Accounts.
• Build and maintain secure virtual networks, including firewalls, private endpoints, NSGs, and network segmentation.
• Ensure infrastructure meets organizational security standards, including identity and access management via Azure AD / Entra ID and RBAC.
• Configure and monitor logs and notifications to proactively identify issues and minimize downtime.
• Monitor Azure end of support components and plan changes and updates to the infrastructure as needed.
• Develop, test and maintain backup and disaster recovery plans for infrastructure.

Security & Compliance

• Enforce security controls and conduct regular audits to maintain compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements.
• Support validated and regulated environmental requirements (e.g. GxP, ISO, SOC 2) where applicable.
• Monitor infrastructure health and respond to security incidents promptly and effectively.

Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Collaborate with software, data engineering, and platform teams to support application hosting and CI/CD pipelines.
• Document architecture decisions, runbooks, and operational procedures to support team knowledge sharing.
• Evaluate and adopt new Azure services and cloud-native tooling to improve platform reliability and efficiency.
• Contribute to monitoring, logging, and observability improvements across the infrastructure estate.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience) with a minimum of 5+ years of experience. Other combinations of education and/or experience may be considered.

  • Microsoft Azure certification (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-305, or equivalent) is required.
  • Proven experience with Terraform for provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure at scale.
  • Strong understanding of Azure networking: VNets, subnets, NSGs, private DNS, and firewall configurations.
  • Hands-on experience with Azure services: AKS, ADF, Managed SQL, VMs, and Batch Accounts.
  • Solid software engineering fundamentals: version control (Git), scripting (PowerShell/Bash/Python), and code review practices.
  • Experience implementing cloud security controls, including identity management and RBAC.
  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to varied audiences.
  • Strong architectural and systems design capability with an infrastructure-as-code mindset.
  • Ownership mindset with accountability for reliability, security, and performance outcomes.
  • Commitment to automation, documentation, and operational excellence.
  • Ability to balance technical rigor with delivery timelines in a fast-paced environment.
  • Collaborative team player who works effectively across engineering and business functions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in validated or regulated environments (e.g. GxP, ISO, SOC 2).
• Background in the Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical, or Healthcare sectors.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Fabric and modern data platform architectures.
• Knowledge of DevOps and GitOps workflows, including Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Experience with cloud cost optimization strategies and governance frameworks.

Reports to: Associate Director, Data Systems, CMC IT

Location: San Carlos, CA

Work Arrangement: Hybrid (minimum of 2-3 days per week)

Compensation: The compensation package will be competitive and includes comprehensive benefits and an equity component.

Salary Range: $163,000 - $191,000 (SF Bay Area). Salary ranges for non-California locations may vary.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.