Cloud Systems and DevOps Analyst

Job Posting Organization:
The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is a regional commission of the United Nations established to promote economic and social development in the Arab region. ESCWA was founded in 1973 and operates under the supervision of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It comprises 21 member countries across Western Asia and North Africa, providing a platform for policy formulation, coordination, and knowledge sharing among its members. ESCWA's mission includes fostering regional cooperation, enhancing the capacity of member states, and promoting sustainable development through various initiatives and programs. The organization employs a diverse workforce and collaborates with various international and regional organizations, including the League of Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council, to achieve its goals.

Job Overview:
The Cloud Systems and DevOps Analyst position is crucial for the implementation, administration, monitoring, and optimization of cloud infrastructure and DevOps platforms, specifically within Microsoft Azure. The role involves ensuring the availability, security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security, scalability, and performance of enterprise systems while managing CI/CD pipelines and writing Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The analyst will work closely with the internal development team to analyze existing on-premises application architectures, gather deployment requirements, and translate current on-premises VM resource metrics into optimized, cloud-native Azure resource allocations. Additionally, the analyst will execute the tactical technical migration of legacy systems from an on-premises Proxmox virtualization environment to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, contributing to the overall modernization and innovation efforts of ESCWA.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The individual contractor (IC) will be responsible for the following duties:

• Cloud Infrastructure Implementation & Administration: Deploy, manage, and optimize enterprise-scale cloud resources within Microsoft Azure, ensuring optimal performance, governance, and resource utilization. Administer hybrid virtualization architectures, transitioning existing virtual machines and workloads out of the on-premises Proxmox environment into designated Azure landing zones. Maintain and configure base operating systems across enterprise Windows Server and Linux environments hosted in the cloud.
• DevOps Platform Engineering & Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Design, build, and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps to support rapid, secure, and reliable software delivery cycles. Author, review, and maintain infrastructure state using Infrastructure as Code tools, specifically Terraform, Bicep, and ARM Templates. Develop automated operational scripts utilizing PowerShell to streamline recurring system administration and provisioning tasks.
• Application Lifecycle & Developer Collaboration: Work closely with the development team to audit existing on-premises hosted applications and gather technical requirements for upcoming Azure cloud deployments. Analyze the resource utilization and architectural dependencies of applications currently running on on-premises virtual machines to determine the optimal Azure cloud topology. Evaluate and recommend whether applications should be migrated as traditional Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) virtual machines or refactored into cloud-native Azure resources (such as App Services, Azure SQL, or container instances) to maximize scalability and cost-efficiency. Provide technical guidance to developers regarding cloud deployment pathways, access control configurations, and performance optimization on Azure.
• Cloud Security, Identity, & Monitoring: Manage cloud governance, object lifecycles, and secure identity mapping through Azure Active Directory (Azure AD / Entra ID). Configure comprehensive observability setups using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to establish proactive system alerts, log analysis, and performance tracking. Implement infrastructure hardening, security controls, and operational best practices across all deployed cloud frameworks.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Cloud Engineering, System Administration, or related technical fields. A minimum of 3 years of professional experience in system administration, IT infrastructure operations, or cloud platforms architecture is required. Candidates must demonstrate hands-on experience deploying, administering, and monitoring production cloud environments using Microsoft Azure. Proven experience building automated CI/CD pipelines and developing infrastructure deployments utilizing Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Bicep, or ARM Templates) is essential. Candidates should have experience collaborating directly with software development teams to extract application performance metrics, translate software requirements into infrastructure specifications, and plan application modernization strategies. Solid technical proficiency in scripting with PowerShell and configuring core infrastructure services, including Windows Server, Linux, and Azure Active Directory, is desirable. Practical technical experience supporting or executing system migrations from on-premises hypervisors (specifically Proxmox VE or VMware) to public cloud environments (Microsoft Azure) is highly desirable. Official Microsoft certifications (e.g., Azure Administrator Associate, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, or Azure Solutions Architect Expert) are also highly desirable.

Educational Background:
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Cloud Engineering, System Administration, or related technical fields is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree as part of their application. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed, emphasizing the importance of providing all necessary documentation.

Experience:
Candidates must have a minimum of 3 years of professional experience in system administration, IT infrastructure operations, or cloud platforms architecture. This experience should include demonstrated hands-on work with Microsoft Azure, particularly in deploying, administering, and monitoring production cloud environments. Proven experience in building automated CI/CD pipelines and utilizing Infrastructure as Code tools is also required, along with experience in collaborating with software development teams to optimize application performance and infrastructure specifications.

Languages:
Fluency in English is required for this position, as it is one of the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Knowledge of Arabic is desirable, as it is a working language of ESCWA. Fluency is defined as a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas: speaking, reading, writing, and understanding. Knowledge of Arabic is considered a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas, which indicates a good level of proficiency in the language.

Additional Notes:
This position is recruited on a local basis, meaning that the incumbent must have the legal right to live and work in Lebanon. The expected duration of the contract is 6 months. It is important to note that the United Nations does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including application, interview, or training. The organization does not request information regarding applicants’ bank accounts, ensuring a transparent and fair recruitment process.