Azure DevOps Specialist

Description

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PURPOSE OF POSITION
To design, build, and automate end to end Release Management processes across the FSRA enterprise application landscape. This role will be responsible for implementing robust, scalable CI/CD pipelines, enforcing quality and security gates, and driving automation that improves deployment consistency, traceability, and compliance, particularly within regulated and public sector environments. To enhance specialized functionality and efficiency within the DevOps pipeline.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. CI/CD Pipeline Architecture & Automation
• Designs, builds, and maintains Azure DevOps YAML pipelines for build, test, deploy, and release processes.
• Optimizes YAML pipelines, creating complex Artifacts workflows, managing granular security permissions, or implementing specialized security tools (DevSecOps).
• Automates deployments across multiple environments (Dev, SIT, UAT, Pre-Prod, Prod) with governance-enabled approvals.
• Implements environment promotion workflows, artifact versioning, variable groups, and secure secret management.
• Integrates automated testing frameworks (unit, integration, regression, UI) into pipelines.
2. Release Management Automation
• Automates manual steps in FSRA’s release processes, including deployment packaging, configuration migration, integration deployments, pre and post deployment validation.
• Builds automated release dashboards, release notes generators, and compliance reporting for CAB/Audit.
• Supports Release Managers in orchestrating production releases through automation, tooling, and pipeline enhancements.
• Ensures that vendor releases meet internal release standards before deployment.

• Validates that Vendor deliverables are complete and deployable as per plan/design.
3. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Builds and maintains IaC templates using Terraform, Bicep, or ARM for consistent, repeatable infrastructure deployments.
• Automates provisioning of Azure resources (App Services, Function Apps, Storage, API Management, Key Vault, Integration components).
• Integrates infrastructure deployments into CI/CD pipelines following DevSecOps patterns.
4. DevSecOps, Security & Compliance
• Implements security gates including SAST/DAST scanning, dependency scanning, container image scanning, artifact signing.
• Ensures compliance with public-sector standards for traceability, approvals, auditability, and change control.
• Maintains configuration baselines and ensure consistent environment drift detection.
5. Monitoring, Observability & Release Quality
• Integrates monitoring and health checks (AppInsights, Log Analytics, Grafana, Splunk) into deployment processes.
• Builds automated smoke test, post-deployment validation, and roll-back verification steps.
• Pipeline metrics and performance improvements (e.g., faster builds, fewer failures).
• Supports RCA for failed deployments and optimize pipelines to reduce change failure rate.
6. Collaboration & Continuous Improvement
• Partners with Release Managers, Developers, QA, Architects, and Operations to streamline release processes.
• Conducts pipeline performance tuning: parallelization, caching, artifact optimization, and build agent optimization.
• Drives continuous improvement through automation, reusability, and enterprise DevOps standards.
• Develops a variety of resources tools including enterprise-standard Azure DevOps pipeline templates and reusable libraries. automated release dashboards and deployment audit trail reports, IaC templates for application and infrastructure provisioning, automated smoke tests and deployment validation scripts.

QUALIFICATIONS
Education
• Postsecondary degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Certification Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400), an asset.
• Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ104) or Developer Associate (AZ204), an asset.

Experience
• 5+ years hands-on experience with Azure DevOps pipelines in various environments.
• Solid experience automating deployments for at least one major application stack: .NET applications, Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Power Platform, Azure Integration Services, Containerized services (AKS).
• Experience operating within regulated, public-sector, or audit-heavy environments.
• Experience with MS Dynamics 365 ALM (managed solutions, Power Platform build tools).
• Experience building blue/green or canary deployment strategies

Knowledge and Skills
Technical Skills
• Strong understanding of CI/CD, branching strategies (GitFlow, trunk-based), and release governance.
• Familiarity with Change/Release workflows.
• Hands-on expertise with Azure DevOps Repos, Pipelines, Boards, Artifacts, IaC tools: Bicep, Terraform, ARM, automated testing frameworks (e.g., NUnit, Playwright, Selenium), Secret management via Azure Key Vault).
• Deep knowledge of, and expertise in, DevOps/SDLC best practices, ITIL Change & Release Management, and cloud security.

Non-Technical/Soft Skills
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with experience resolving complex system issues and conducting root cause analysis.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Detail-oriented, with a strong commitment to quality delivery, documentation, and reporting.
• Proven ability to work effectively both independently and within cross-functional teams.
• Adaptable, with a proactive approach to learning new technologies.

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Compensation Grade:

Grade 272-OPSEU ADM

Compensation Range:

$1,852.71

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$2,314.51

Bargaining Unit:

OPSEU

Job Code:

Job Code: 17162

Employment Type:

Regular

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

36.25

FSRA is committed to ensuring equity in employment. Our goal is to create a diverse, inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve and to ensure our services and communications are accessible to all individuals. Accommodation is available under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

NOTE: ONLY QUALIFIED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED