Azure Product Owner (m/f/d)

We are looking for a Azure Product Owner (m/f/d) for one of our clients in Germany.

Start: 06.05.24 / ASAP
End: 31.12.24
Volume: fulltime
Location: Remote
Language: English

Project description:
The services mentioned in the task description will be provided within the framework of an agile development method. The client has set up AKS clusters in the Microsoft Azure Cloud and is using Azure DevOps as development platform. These services require improvements based on best practices in order to have a state-of-the-art setup as described in the detailed task description.

Background: At our client the knowledge of Azure Kubernetes Services is limited to only a few resources, which are all involved in running projects. None of the internal employees has sufficient expertise in both areas to fill the advertised role.

Agile work environment:
The services shall be provided within the framework of an agile development method. The concrete activities required in each case to implement the services commissioned shall be agreed iteratively between the parties within the framework of sprint meetings and implemented by the consultant within the respective sprints following the sprint meetings. Prior to each sprint meeting, the consultant shall independently check, on the basis of its professional expertise, which individual services are reasonable and feasible within the scope of the assignment in the respective sprint. The sprints each have a duration 2 weeks. Within the individual sprints, the contracting parties shall coordinate the respective technical requirements for the services to be provided in daily meetings in order to achieve the compatibility of the individual components of the Azure Kubernetes Service, Container Apps and Azure DevOps. The technical requirements for the services to be provided are assessed by the consultant on the basis of its own technical assessment. After completion of a Sprint, the Parties shall conduct a "Sprint Review'' in which the consultant reports on the feasibility and status of the services performed by it in the previous Sprint and makes a recommendation on how to proceed with regard to the services that proved to be unfeasible in the respective Sprint. All of the meetings and exchanges described above shall take place exclusively in the presence of a central contact person named by our client, who shall coordinate the project on our internal side. The organisation and scheduling of the meetings described above in which the consultant is involved shall be organised and carried out by the consultant and coordinated with the team.
The external consultant will act as Product Owner.

Tasks (performed independently):
- Steer project planning sessions to implement the scope defined below, determine suitable timelines, define tasks, and outline an external project team as necessary based on professional expertise and the information provided in advance with team
- Monitor the progress of projects/deadlines by checking the status of work items in the Azure DevOps project and interviewing the team members in the daily meetings
- Raise issues with quality or time of delivery of external team with supplier coordination team
- Provide project progress update in regular bi-weekly team meetings and to upper management as necessary

Scope of the tasks to be steered that are executed from the external project team
1. Improve AKS policies according to best practices (AKS = Azure Kubernetes Service)
2. Improve AKS alerting based on current industry standards
3. Operate and improve shared AKS cluster environments with latest technology configurations
4. Technical consultation application teams for the above topics and Introduce GitOps for shared AKS cluster deployments
5. Provide internal and external documentation for 1-4
6. Provide rollout to application teams (info sessions, Intranet articles, trainings) for 1-4
7. Conduct proof of concepts for 1-4 as necessary

Must have skills:
* Excellent knowledge of Azure Kubernetes Services
* Excellent knowledge of Azure DevOps
* Good understanding of Github
* Ability to manage a team of external offshore consultants in an agile way
* Good presentation skills
* Fluent English language skills (verbal, writing)
* Very good understanding of Microsoft Azure
* Experience in software development
* Docker knowledge

Nice to have skills:
* Microsoft Azure certifications
* Experience with Terraform
* German language skills.