AKS Architecture Advisor

• Design, deploy, secure, and optimize Kubernetes clusters (SAS Viya 4.0)
• Automate Azure infrastructure deployments via CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions)
• Implement AKS security controls (RBAC, Network Policies, Pod Security Standards, admission controllers)
• Manage NFS and SMB volumes via Azure NetApp Files (CSI Drivers, PV/PVC)
• Administer AKS clusters: Kubernetes updates, node pools, certificates, ingress
• Ensure logging, monitoring, and optimization (Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Container Insights)
• Ensure multi-zone high availability and business continuity and disaster recovery plans
• Capture weekly hours in the CLIENT's time management system (Excel template)
• Ensure continuous knowledge transfer to internal resources
• Expected deliverables
• 1 - AKS Target Architecture & Design Document (logical/physical, network topology, HA/DR)
• AKS Diagrams
• Standards and governance
• FinOps recommendations
• 2 - Automation & CI/CD Pipelines CI/CD
• Infrastructure as Code ...
• CI/CD operations documentation (secrets, rollback)
• 3 - Security Controls Report (RBAC, Network Policies, Admission Controllers)
• Image scanning
• Azure Policy for AKS
• Risk analysis
• 4 - Storage (ANF) NFS/SMB volume configuration
• AKS-ANF integration documentation
• Capacity and performance plan
• 5 - Administration & Operations Runbooks
• AKS administration guide
• SAS Viya 4.0 update procedures
• 6 - Monitoring & Optimization Azure Monitor / Container Insights configuration
• Dashboards
• Cost optimization reports
• 7 - High Availability & Resilience
• Multi-zone HA plan
• Business continuity and disaster recovery plan
• Resilience testing
• 8 - Knowledge Transfer Complete technical documentation
• Training workshops
• Post-deployment support (hypercare)
• 9 - Maintenance & Cluster Updates
• Continuous cluster health
• Application of updates and patches
• Infrastructure incident management

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, organizational information systems administration, or a relevant IT discipline.
• Minimum 12 months of experience as an AKS Architecture Advisor for an organization of comparable size to the client (:650 employees, hybrid Azure + on-premises infrastructure).
• Mandates of at least 90 days demonstrating mastery of: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Ansible, DevSecOps, Azure Cloud, Terraform, Azure DevOps, PowerShell, and Python or Bash.
• Knowledge and experience required to complete all activities and deliverables in section 2.2.1 of the CCDE.