Cloud Engineer

Part-Time Platform / Cloud Engineer (Azure)

Innovate R Ltd | Contract / Consultancy | Remote (UK / Europe preferred)

Innovate R is a new venture rethinking how clinical research sites and networks understand performance, capability, and readiness.

Across healthcare and research, organisations are data-rich but insight-poor. Innovate R is building a lightweight, evidence-driven benchmarking and analytics platform designed specifically for research networks — practical, fair, and usable in the real world.

We’re now looking for a part-time Platform / Cloud Engineer to help us take our MVP into a stable, production-ready environment on Microsoft Azure, working alongside an experienced external development team.

This role sits at the intersection of:

• a live, evolving product
• real Global and European research networks
• and a strong focus on doing things proportionately and well

You’ll be the person who helps ensure the platform is:

• secure
• cost-conscious
• operationally sound
• and ready to grow when the time is right

What you’ll be responsible for

Platform & Cloud Setup (initial focus)

• Set up and own the Azure hosting environment (VM-based, intentionally simple)
• Configure networking, storage, backups, and monitoring
• Support the first production deployment with the development team
• Ensure credentials, secrets, and access are handled cleanly
• Help document a clear, minimal runbook (deploy / rollback / restore)

Ongoing Platform Oversight

• Oversee monthly platform health and cloud costs
• Validate backup and recovery paths
• Apply or oversee OS-level patching and updates
• Act as the technical escalation point for production issues
• Provide pragmatic guidance as the platform evolves

Collaboration

• Work closely with a remote development team (feature delivery)
• Work directly with the Innovate R founder (product owner)
• Help translate technical decisions into operational and cost implications

What we’re looking for

• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure (VMs, storage, networking)
• Comfort owning small production systems end-to-end
• Experience deploying web applications (Node.js / similar)
• A pragmatic mindset — values simplicity and clarity over unnecessary complexity
• Comfortable working with early-stage products and founders

Nice to have:

• Exposure to healthcare, research, or regulated environments
• Familiarity with MongoDB or managed NoSQL services
• Understanding of GDPR-aligned system design

Time commitment

• Initial setup & first deployment: ~20–30 hours over a few weeks
• Ongoing oversight: ~4–8 hours per month
• Flexible engagement — designed to scale as Innovate R grows

Contract & location

• Contract / consultancy basis
• Remote
• UK or Europe preferred but open to ither locations with UK/ Europe experience

To apply

• Send a short note

within three days

• outlining:
• your Azure experience
• examples of production systems you’ve owned
• your availability and preferred contract setup

Interviews

• Remote
• First/second week of February.