Remote DevOps Engineer - Azure & AKS, Europe TZ — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
European Timezone Requirement — Moderate Flexibility for Nomads
This role explicitly requires working European hours, which is both a constraint and an opportunity. If you're based or traveling in Europe, North Africa, or parts of Western Asia (UTC+0 to UTC+3), you'll overlap comfortably. Popular nomad hubs like Lisbon (UTC+0/+1), Tbilisi (UTC+4), and Tallinn (UTC+2/+3) all work well, though Tbilisi may require an early start for morning standups.
Remote-Friendly Setup: The role is fully remote (no office location is specified), long-term, and full-time. This makes it compatible with a nomadic lifestyle as long as you maintain reliable, high-speed internet — essential for managing AKS clusters and running CI/CD pipelines.
Visa Considerations: Since the client operates across the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, contractors based in Europe are well-positioned. Several European countries offer digital nomad visas suited to this arrangement:
- Portugal: D8 Digital Nomad Visa — popular, cost-effective base (Lisbon ~€1,800–2,500/month for a comfortable lifestyle).
- Estonia: Digital Nomad Visa — EU hub with low taxes for e-residents.
- Germany: Freelance visa (Freiberufler) — viable if working as a contractor.
No travel perks (coworking stipends, meetup budgets) are mentioned in the posting. Negotiate these if lifestyle flexibility is a priority for you.
GT was founded in 2019 by a former Apple, Nest, and Google executive. GT's mission is to connect the world's best talent with product careers offered by high-growth companies in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands.
On behalf of our client, an international company in the live entertainment industry, GT is looking for an experienced DevOps Engineer.
About the Client
Our client is one of Europe's leading live entertainment companies, known for producing large-scale musicals and operating high-traffic ticketing platforms across multiple countries. The company operates a complex internal technology landscape connecting key business systems, marketing, ticketing, and other internal platforms.
The Integration Specialist will help strengthen the company's core digital infrastructure by taking ownership of business-critical integrations, with an initial focus on Boomi-powered integration flows.
About the Role
Commitment: Full-time, long-term
Working hours: European time zone
Start: ASAP
We are looking for a DevOps Engineer to build and run Azure platforms on a hub-and-spoke network design, with AKS and container workloads. You will work alongside a platform lead and product development teams, from infrastructure as code to application delivery.
The applications you will support are primarily built with PHP and React. You do not need to write application code, but experience building, containerizing, and deploying PHP and Node.js/React applications is a strong plus.
Responsibilities:
- Build and maintain Azure infrastructure as code using Terraform.
- Build and operate hub-and-spoke networks with secure, private connectivity between services.
- Run AKS clusters and containerized workloads in production.
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps.
- Deliver applications to Kubernetes using GitOps workflows.
- Configure edge routing, ingress, and security: DNS, TLS certificates, and basic WAF/gateway setups.
- Set up monitoring, centralized logging, and proactive alerting.
- Implement identity and security baselines: Managed Identities, Azure RBAC, secrets management, and policies.
- Collaborate on architectural discussions: review technical proposals, surface operational risks, and contribute to runbooks and design records.
- Support development teams day to day: local development workflows, Dockerfiles, and debugging in shared environments.
Essential Knowledge, Skills & Experience
1. Azure Core & Platform
- 3+ years in DevOps or platform engineering, with at least 2 years supporting Azure in production.
- Strong understanding of Azure resource hierarchy: Management Groups, Subscriptions, Resource Groups, and naming/tagging conventions.
- Identity & access management: Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, and Managed Identities.
- Hands-on experience with core resources: Storage Accounts (Blob/Files), Key Vault, Azure Container Registry (ACR), and Log Analytics.
2. Infrastructure as Code & Automation
- Terraform: writing modular code, managing remote state, handling multiple environments, and understanding state locking.
- Scripting & OS fundamentals: Linux, Bash, and PowerShell.
- Version control with Git.
3. Containers & Kubernetes
- Containers: building, optimizing, and debugging Dockerfiles; local setups using Docker Compose.
- AKS in Production: cluster provisioning, node pools, autoscaling, ingress controllers, and upgrades.
- Kubernetes Operations: core workload manifests (Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets), Helm chart usage, and troubleshooting via kubectl.
4. Networking & Private Connectivity
- Hub-and-spoke topology: VNet peering, subnet design, and IP address planning (CIDR).
- Private access for PaaS: hands-on experience securing services via Private Endpoints, Private Link, and Azure Private DNS Zones.
- Network boundaries: Network Security Groups (NSGs) and NAT Gateways.
- Secure administrative access: Azure Bastion and VPN Gateway (Site-to-Site / Point-to-Site).
5. CI/CD & Observability
- Pipelines: hands-on delivery pipelines using either GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps Pipelines (building images, running tests, pushing artifacts, executing Terraform).
- Observability: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics workspace queries (KQL basics), Application Insights, and alert configuration.
- Professional working proficiency in English (Upper-Intermediate or above).
Nice-to-Have:
- Advanced Networking & Traffic Routing: Azure Firewall, User-Defined Routes (UDRs / forced tunneling), Application Security Groups (ASGs), Azure DNS Private Resolver.
- Edge & Delivery: Azure Front Door, Application Gateway, Cloudflare (DNS, CDN, WAF, Zero Trust, Cloudflare Terraform Provider).
- Advanced Kubernetes & GitOps: Argo CD, Flux, Workload Identity / OIDC federation, Azure CNI Overlay, Cilium, Network Policies, cert-manager, external-dns, KEDA.
- Security & Governance: Azure Policy, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, container vulnerability scanning (Trivy), static analysis (TFLint, Checkov).
- Extended Azure Services: Azure Container Apps, App Service, Azure Functions, Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL Flexible Server, Azure Managed Redis, Service Bus.
- Landing Zones & Architecture: Azure Landing Zones (CAF), Virtual WAN, ExpressRoute.
- Certifications: AZ-104, AZ-700, AZ-400, CKA, or HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate.
Interview Steps:
- GT interview with Recruiter
- Technical interview with GT
- Cultural Fit & Experience interview with the Client
- Final interview with the Client
- Offer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this DevOps Engineer role fully remote?
What Azure experience is required for this position?
Is a salary range provided for this role?
What does the interview process look like?
Do I need to write PHP or React application code?
