Hybrid Cloud Services Engineer

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing approximately 40,000 people, most of them teachers.

CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.

In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans : academic progress, financial stability, and integrity.

Six core values are embedded within these commitments student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Information and Technology Services (ITS) works to build the capacity of schools to use information and technology, maintain network infrastructure, security standards, and support other departments to meet district goals.

ITS provides innovative technology solutions that improve the quality of education for students, reduce the administrative burden on educators, facilitate parent interaction, increase community engagement, and support CPS’ mission of transparency by focusing on the ease and equity of access to information.

Job Summary :

Reporting to the Hybrid Cloud Services Engineer, the Hybrid Cloud Services Engineer is responsible for the design, evaluation, and implementation of cloud services and cloud-native application architectures.

This position will troubleshoot issues and assess complex technical problems in a Hybrid Infrastructure to develop, appraise, and recommend solutions, and ensure compliant and secure cloud platform operations across all connected cloud platforms.

The Hybrid Cloud Services Engineer will also assess complex technical problems to develop, appraise, and recommend solutions.

The Hybrid Cloud Services Engineer will be held accountable for the following responsibilities :

• Design, build, manage, and optimize Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions
• Implement cloud services in response to business needs, ensuring high availability and scalability
• Establish and maintain compliance and security protocols for Azure cloud infrastructure
• Facilitate seamless integration between Azure cloud services and on-premises resources
• Design Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates for standardized cloud infrastructure deployments
• Provide assistance with management of the overall day-to-day technical operations of our infrastructure consisting of approximately 1800 servers on various Dell hardware and Virtual Servers on Hyper-V
• Provides administration and oversight for hardware and / or software infrastructure and processes. Recommends hardware and software solutions, including new acquisitions and upgrades
• Assist in the design, build, management, and operation of the infrastructure as a service layer (hosted and cloud-based platforms) that supports the different platform services
• Implementation of various cloud services according to business demand
• Ensure and define compliance and security rules for a safe cloud infrastructure
• Interconnect modern cloud services with on-premises resources
• Coordinate and configure IT infrastructure services needed to provide comprehensive platform services for web applications to the business
• Design templates to ensure standardized cloud infrastructure
• Collaborate with colleagues from other IT areas to resolve cross-functional and project issues
• Incident, problem management, and request fulfillment as part of second / third-level support
• Proactively identify where system or process improvements can increase efficiency and customer satisfaction
• Act as technical provider manager in a mixed-mode operational environment
• Work with team members to receive cross-training on individual roles and responsibilities
• Work with application teams to resolve issues as relates to print server software installation on servers managed by the Infrastructure Server Team
• Consult with third-party vendors to obtain support, make recommendations, and assist customers with their requests
• Perform the initial input of print server-related assets into the server asset database
• Participate in Windows server On-Call rotation, which provides for an engineer to be available to handle server emergencies on a 24x7 basis
• Other related duties as assigned

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Hybrid Cloud Engineermust possess the following qualifications :

Education Required :

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university, required
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Information Technology, preferred
• Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies certification (AZ-300 / 303 or higher), required

Experience Required :

• Minimum of five (5) years of professional experience in public cloud services including the following, is required :
• Strong experience with Azure services, including but not limited to Azure Active Directory, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Data Factory (ADF), and Azure DevOps
• Proven expertise in hybrid cloud integrations, migrations, and deployments
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform
• Oracle OCI experience is a plus.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities :

• Strong cross-functional knowledge (network, database, web services, AI, Infrastructure)
• Database skills and programming / scripting skills (PowerShell, python, terraforms, c#)
• Comprehensive understanding of cloud delivery models : PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS
• Exposure to Kubernetes, microservices architecture, and cloud architecture
• Familiarity with continuous integration / deployment processes and tools such as Integrated Development Environments (Eclipse), Source Code Management (GIT / Stash), Jenkins, Maven, Nexus artifacts, etc.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Good interpersonal, leadership, collaboration, facilitation, and negotiation skills and the ability to manage conflict
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical issues in a way that non-technical people can understand as well as be able to explain customer needs and priorities in a way that technical people can understand
• Dedicated to improving the lives of Students, Parents, Teachers, and Principals through the judicious use of Information Technology

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to :

Establish / Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district.

The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary / part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.

Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 - Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire.

Up-to-date on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.