Azure Cloud & DevOps Engineer

At Sprocket Sports, We are currently seeking an Azure Cloud & Dev Ops Engineer to join our Team. The ideal candidate has a passion for youth sports and managing a best‑in‑class software platform that will be used by thousands of youth sports club administrators, coaches, parents and players.

Sprocket Sports is a fast‑growing technology company based in Chicago and a national leader in the youth sports space. Our software and services help clubs streamline operations, reduce costs, and grow faster, so they can focus on what really matters: kids playing sports. We’re also proud to be a certified Great Place to Work® 2024
, with a culture that balances high standards, accountability, and fun.

As an experienced Dev Ops / cloud engineer you will help us scale and maintain a high‑performing, reliable, and cost‑effective cloud infrastructure. As an Azure Cloud Engineer, you will be the backbone of our cloud infrastructure, ensuring our platform is always available, fast, and secure for our users. You will manage our resources in Microsoft Azure, focusing heavily on performance optimization, cost control, and proactive system health monitoring.

This role is perfect for someone passionate about cloud technology, Dev Ops principles, and continuous improvement. In this role you will interact with our software engineers, product managers and occasionally with operational stakeholders. We are seeking individuals who like to think creatively and have a passion for continually improving the platform.

• Resource & Cost Optimization:
• Manage, provision, and maintain our complete suite of Azure resources (e.g., App Services, Azure Functions, AKS, VMs).
• Proactively manage and reduce cloud costs by identifying and implementing efficiencies in resource utilization and recommending right‑sizing strategies.
• Security and Compliance:
• Ensure security best practices are implemented across all Azure services, including network segmentation, access control (IAM), and patching.

• System Health and Monitoring:
• Ongoing monitoring of application and system performance using Azure and Data Dog to detect and diagnose issues before they impact users.
• Review system logs, metrics, and tracing data to identify areas of concern, bottlenecks, and opportunities for performance tuning.
• Performance Testing
• Lead efforts to conduct load testing and performance testing on the system.
• Database Performance Tuning:
• Review and optimize SQL performance by analyzing query plans, identifying slow‑running queries, and recommending improvements (indexing, schema changes, stored procedures).
• Manage and monitor our Azure SQL Database resources for optimal health and throughput.
• Incident Response:
  Participate in on‑call rotation to provide 24/7 support for critical infrastructure incidents and drive root cause analysis (RCA).

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC):
• Implement Infrastructure‑as‑Code (ARM, Bicep, or Terraform) to maintain consistent, auditable deployments.
• Work closely with the development team to automate and streamline deployment pipelines (CI/CD) using Azure Dev Ops, ensuring fast and reliable releases.
• Configuration Management:
  Implement and manage configuration for applications and infrastructure.

• Bachelor's degree in a Computer Science or related field.
• 3+ years of professional experience in Cloud Engineering, Dev Ops, or a similar role, with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure.
• Deep hands‑on experience with core Azure services and strong networking fundamentals.
• Solid experience with monitoring and observability platforms, specifically Data Dog.
• Scripting proficiency in Power Shell.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and optimize relational database performance (SQL/T‑SQL).
• Strong problem‑solving skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills; ability to analytically defend design decisions and take feedback without ego.
• Strong attention to detail and accountability.

• 🤝 Mission‑driven team with a big vision
• 🚀 Fast‑growing startup with room to grow
• 📊 401(k) with company match
• 🩺 Comprehensive medical and dental
• 🎉 A culture built on Higher Standards, Greater Accountability, and More Fun