Azure Cloud Engineer

About Southern Cross Health Insurance

Southern Cross Health Insurance is dedicated to promoting healthier lives throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Their mission focuses on empowering members to enjoy longer, healthier lives by providing access to timely, high-quality healthcare. As a New Zealand-owned, member-based organization, they prioritize wellbeing in all initiatives, delivering exceptional value for members and fostering a workplace where employees can thrive.

Role Overview

This role offers the chance to join a purpose-driven, values-oriented team supporting nearly one million members across New Zealand. The company is undergoing a transformative shift to a cloud-first technology environment centered on Microsoft Azure. The Azure Cloud Engineer will be instrumental in maintaining a robust, cost-efficient, and continuously enhanced cloud infrastructure. This position is a hands-on engineering role involving designing, building, and supporting enterprise-grade Azure cloud solutions, with a key focus on internal capability building as part of their insourcing strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement scalable, secure, and highly available Azure cloud solutions.
• Oversee and optimize the Azure infrastructure to ensure performance excellence and cost-effectiveness.
• Collaborate on the development of new platform features and improvements in infrastructure.
• Enhance platform capabilities by advancing automation, self-service options, and standardization.
• Troubleshoot issues related to the cloud platform, conduct root cause analysis, and apply long-term fixes.
• Manage incident workflows and maintain communication with relevant stakeholders during resolution processes.
• Create, update, and maintain comprehensive platform documentation to ensure accessibility and accuracy.
• Monitor platform performance continuously, identify bottlenecks, and implement necessary enhancements to achieve scalability and efficiency.

Required Skills and Experience

• Strong expertise in Microsoft Azure services including subscriptions, management groups, networking, identities (Entra ID, RBAC, managed identities), storage, and compute services (IaaS and PaaS).
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or Pulumi to automate infrastructure provisioning and management.
• In-depth understanding of Azure networking components such as Virtual Networks, subnets, Network Security Groups, route tables, peering arrangements, Private Link, Private Endpoints with Private DNS zones, load balancing through Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Front Door, Traffic Manager, including WAF policies, and hybrid connectivity solutions like ExpressRoute and VPN Gateway.
• Experience managing Azure App Services, Function Apps, API Management, and other platform-as-a-service offerings.
• Knowledge of monitoring and analytics tools such as Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights for proactive performance tracking and incident investigation.
• Understanding and implementation of Azure security best practices, including role-based access control, managed identities, Key Vault usage, and firewall and NSG configurations.
• Experience setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and automating software deployment processes.
• Strong scripting skills in languages such as Python, Shell, or PowerShell for operational task automation.
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and strong collaborative communication skills, with a commitment to cross-team engagement and knowledge sharing.

Why Work With Us

Southern Cross invests in people and technology with a long-term perspective, focusing on foundational strength and workforce growth in the healthcare sector. By joining, you'll contribute to building significant internal cloud capabilities and directly influence how the organization operates its Azure environment. The company is recognized for its strong reputation and trust in New Zealand, reflected in recent industry rankings.

Culture and Benefits

The workplace culture emphasizes care, honesty, and inclusivity; employees are encouraged to thrive both professionally and personally. Benefits offered include:

• Five days of wellbeing leave annually
• Health insurance coverage for employees and immediate family
• Life insurance plus discounts on pet and travel insurance
• Enhanced parental leave policies and financial wellness support
• Participation in workplace wellbeing initiatives
• Option to purchase flexible leave for education, volunteering, or family support
• Annual volunteer day to support community causes

The role is based in Auckland, with no remote working options available. Southern Cross is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, actively supporting employee-led networks.