Hire proven Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) professionals in Germany, matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
Find developers who build and secure Azure apps, connect storage and messaging services, and work with identity, monitoring, and deployment pipelines. Get fast, precise matching with vetted freelancers holding the Azure Developer Associate certification.
About the certification
What it proves
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate, also known as AZ-204, shows practical skill in building cloud applications on Azure. It is aimed at developers who work on application code, service integration, and delivery in real project settings.
Core skills
- Build Azure compute solutions for web, API, and serverless workloads
- Work with storage, queues, events, and messaging services
- Secure access with identity, secrets, and managed permissions
- Add monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance checks
- Support deployment and release workflows for Azure-based applications
Typical profiles
People who hold this certification are usually application developers, cloud developers, or software engineers who spend time inside the Azure platform. They often work on product teams, internal business apps, or client projects that need code-based cloud delivery rather than pure infrastructure work.
When companies hire them
This certification matters when a team needs someone who can build and adapt cloud-native features, not just configure services. In Germany, it is especially relevant for organizations running Microsoft-based stacks, modernizing legacy applications, or delivering remote project work with clear technical ownership.
What to expect from a holder
A freelancer with AZ-204 should be comfortable reading architecture needs and turning them into working Azure code. That usually means choosing the right service, handling authentication, wiring components together, and keeping applications observable and maintainable.
How it helps hiring
For companies, the certification is a useful signal of hands-on Azure development depth. It helps narrow down candidates for application buildouts, cloud migration support, API work, event-driven solutions, and ongoing feature development. For freelancers, it signals that they can contribute beyond basic platform use and take responsibility for real implementation tasks.
Meet FRATCH Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)
Halil Oeztoprak
Principal Cloud & DevSecOps Architect (AWS / Azure / Terraform / Kubernetes / CI-CD)
Last position:
Senior Cloud Operations & DevSecOps Engineer (Azure / Terraform / CI-CD) at KfW Bankengruppe
Regulated environment within a German banking group (approx. 8,500 employees, hybrid cloud strategy).
Responsible for operating, provisioning, and continuously securing business-critical platforms – including a GenAI chat application, a big data/AI platform, and data science workspaces based on Azure Virtual Desktops and VMs. Ownership of Azure DevOps projects for ShaiHulud and React2Shell, as well as BSI alerts – Security Operations improvements across the SDLC.
Deployment responsibility for the GenAI chat application, big data/AI platform (BDAI), and data science workspaces (AVD/VM-based) in the respective landing zones.
Deployment & release management: end-to-end responsibility for deploying portal and service applications across multiple Azure landing zones, including technical approvals, compliance with development team deployment guidelines, and ensuring ITIL-based change and release processes via ServiceNow.
Azure landing zones & network architecture: design, provisioning, and operation of Azure landing zones for 3-tier web applications with enhanced network segmentation, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, and firewall integration across separate subscriptions and tenants.
Azure DevOps governance & operations: ownership of the Azure DevOps organization, including projects, repositories, and CI/CD pipelines; implementation of governance requirements such as branch policies, approval gates, permission models, and audit-ready operating structures.
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): design, implementation, and operation of a modular Terraform architecture for standardized cloud infrastructure deployment, including state management, provider versioning, reusability, and policy-as-code approaches.
CI/CD pipeline engineering: design, operation, and optimization of complex YAML-based CI/CD pipelines with multi-stage deployments, template standardization, self-hosted agents, integrated secret management, and automated quality and security checks.
Git migration & platform consolidation: planning and execution of repository and pipeline migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD, including automated scripts, full Git history transfer, pipeline porting, and platform consolidation.
Container & platform operations (AKS): operation and security assessment of containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service, centralization of on-premises container registries for ACR.
OpenShift (OCP) security reviews: security assessment of code baselines, build pipelines, and deployment processes for on-premises OpenShift clusters with critical applications, and derivation of specific hardening recommendations.
Shift-left security & DevSecOps transformation: introduction of a company-wide shift-left approach for early security integration in development and deployment processes, enabling developers to perform self-led security checks and sustainably reduce vulnerabilities before production (IDE integrations, pre-commit hooks, local scanners).
Software supply chain security: analysis and mitigation of supply chain risks in NPM- and Yarn-based applications through dependency audits, CI/CD pipeline hardening, token rotation, and restriction of risky build and lifecycle mechanisms.
Frontend & framework security (React / Next.js): security assessment and coordination of critical vulnerability remediation across platform applications and web frameworks, including coordination and complementary technical mitigations with all teams following BSI alerts.
Software composition analysis (SCA): introduction and operation of automated vulnerability scans for container images, pipelines/artifacts, and third-party dependencies, including SBOM exports within CI/CD pipelines.
SAST/DAST integration: design and piloting of static and dynamic application security tests in close collaboration with security architecture and development teams, for continuous improvement of code and runtime security, and establishing operational acceptance tests.
Artifact & registry consolidation: analysis and consolidation of all package and container repositories for service applications and AKS workloads, aiming for a centralized, secured registry strategy with centralized vulnerability scanning and governance.
Dependency-Track & SBOM strategy: advising the compliance board on introducing a central SBOM and vulnerability management platform to increase enterprise-wide dependency transparency and accelerate CVE response capability.
CI/CD pipeline hardening: security analysis and cleanup of the existing pipeline landscape by removing unused pipelines, improving secrets hygiene, implementing least-privilege principles, and isolating build agent environments.
Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) optimization: analysis and tuning of existing Azure WAF rules (OWASP Top 10 Core Rule Set, DSR/SDC, custom rules) to defend against known vulnerabilities and exploit patterns, including reducing false positives and improving threat detection.
Documentation & stakeholder communication: creating and maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture overviews in Jira and Confluence, as well as active knowledge transfer between operations, development, security, and compliance stakeholders.
Tan Pham
DevOps & Fullstack Engineer
Last position:
DevOps Engineer in the DevOps Team at Rise-World
- Implementation of specified DevOps solutions to automate infrastructure (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation, Ansible) on-premises datacenter (Ovirt, Proxmox, Ceph Cluster, MinIO) and private cloud.
- Administration, configuration and implementation of CI/CD DevOps pipelines (GitLab, GitFlow) to support development process (Artifactory, Prometheus, Istio, service mesh, Helm Chart, OpenShift (Red Hat Enterprise) / Kubernetes cluster), Red Hat Satellite.
- Administration, setup, monitoring and patching of Linux infrastructure based on Red Hat Enterprise for Dev, Test and QA.
- Use of Scrum and Kanban methods.
- Administration, configuration and implementation of security standards for deploying on Dev, Test, QA and Prod stages of the new ePA applications.
- Development of new plugins and add-ons needed on current infrastructure.
- Database support.
- Data analytics support (Python, Spark, Pandas, Power BI, Splunk Enterprise).
- Implementation of best practices for DevSecOps and BizDevOps using GitOps (ArgoCD), Streamlit framework, Semaphore Ansible UI.
- Configuration and testing of iperf, uperf, sysbench using benchmark-operator for external source data and IoT/MDM devices, creating reports via ELK / OpenSearch.
- Building a new Databricks platform to collect and analyze big data from different sources and IoT devices into Hadoop framework (Python, Pandas, PySpark, Power BI, Apache Airflow).
- Building backend data aggregation and processing to automate configuration deployment between different OpenShift clusters and big data framework (Python, Pandas, PySpark, Apache Spark, PostgreSQL, Django 2, Ansible Automation, Jira JSM).
- Building a new ML pipeline platform using Kubeflow, TensorFlow, KServe.
- Data extraction, transformation and loading from different data sources including structured and unstructured data to analytic DWH / big data cluster using Python, Pandas, Polars, Power BI, Django backend and PostgreSQL.
- Setup of new DevOps Test and QA HashiCorp Vault cluster for PKI and IAM.
- Configuration and testing of automated patching based on CVSS score, SIEM-integrated CVEs.
- Use of Nexpose and InsightVM to scan vulnerability events in network, host, container and application.
- Design and implementation of secure and scalable AWS architectures including VPC, EC2, S3, RDS and Route53 and similar setups on Azure and GCP.
- Automated system provisioning and deployment using CloudFormation templates.
- Configuration of IAM roles, policies and permissions to ensure secure access control.
- Patch management, backup automation and disaster recovery setup on AWS infrastructure.
- Monitoring and optimization of system performance using AWS CloudWatch and AWS Trusted Advisor.
- Support of VMware services (vSphere, Aria, Horizon) and the virtual desktop environment.
- Development and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD and AWS CodePipeline with interface to Nutanix.
- Configuration of AWS CloudWatch to monitor application performance and system events.
- Planning and execution of migration of on-premises applications to AWS cloud platforms.
- Deployment of containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes in AWS environments.
- Deployment of internal software packages between availability zones using AWS CodeDeploy.
- Building and deploying ML models using Scikit-learn, XGBoost and Spark MLlib including hyperparameter tuning, model evaluation and production deployment.
Marijn Scholtens
Cloud Solutions Architect or Senior Software Engineer
Last position:
Senior Software Engineer at Puls Security GmbH
Optimizing and acceleration of our Gitlab CI pipeline
Conceptual work for the PoC of the Zero Trust system
Extension of the policy-engine backend in Go
Extension of the policy-testing mechanism in Python
Architectural design of the PEP component of Zero Trust
Documentation of the product
Technologies: Zero Trust, Go, Python, Gitlab CI, Docker, JWT, Domain-Driven Design
Manuel Reinfurt
Cloud Architect & Lead Developer
Last position:
Cloud Architect & Lead Developer
- Responsible for the 5-head development team and Scrum + DevOps approach
- Designed and implemented the cloud architecture for the application landscape
- Lead development for the user management on Azure Cloud using .NET 8/C#
- Development for the user management frontend using React (TypeScript)
- Technologies: Azure AD, Functions, Storage, CosmosDB, Service Bus, AKS, Monitor, Pipelines, Key Vault, MSSQL, Bicep, App Service, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Cost Management
- Backend: .NET/C#; Frontend: Angular (TypeScript)
- Unit testing: NUnit, xUnit, Moq
- CI & CD: Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
- DevOps & IaC: Bicep, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes
- Security & Compliance: ISO 27001, DevSecOps
- Software development approach: Scrum, SAFe, Kanban
Mohamed Ghassen Brahim
Founder & CEO
Last position:
Lead / Principal Cloud, AI & Security Architect at Freelancer / CC Conceptualise GmbH
Projects:
Project: RWE – Development of a company-wide Zero Trust cybersecurity architecture (CITADEL) Role: Senior Enterprise Cybersecurity Architect / Zero Trust Architect Company: RWE AG Description: Concept and implementation of the strategic CITADEL cybersecurity target architecture at RWE, based on the Zero Trust architecture principle and aligned with regulatory requirements such as NIS2, ISO 27001 and company-wide security governance policies. The goal was to build a measurable, auditable and scalable security architecture with a strong focus on Identity Governance, compliance transparency and operational manageability. Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Zero Trust architecture design: Developed a company-wide Zero Trust reference architecture (Identity, Device, Network, Application, Data) including trust zones, control points and enforcement mechanisms according to NIS2.
- Identity & Access Governance (IGA): Designed and introduced IGA governance structures including role models, recertification processes, segregation of duties (SoD) and lifecycle management for identities and access.
- Security governance & KPIs: Defined and implemented security KPIs and metrics to manage Zero Trust maturity, identity risks and compliance at the management level.
- Compliance & reporting: Built standardized compliance reports and dashboards to support internal audits, external assessments and regulatory evidence (e.g. NIS2).
- Architecture & stakeholder alignment: Worked closely with Enterprise Architecture, IT operations and business units to integrate the CITADEL architecture into existing IT and security landscapes.
- Strategic security consulting: Advised programs and projects on Zero Trust compliance, identity centricity and regulatory requirements in the energy and critical infrastructure (KRITIS) environment. Technologies & Methods: Zero Trust Architecture, NIS2, Identity Governance & Administration (IGA), IAM, RBAC, SoD, Entra ID, SailPoint, Zscaler, Terraform / IaC, Policy as Code, security KPIs, compliance reporting, NIST 2.0, ISO 27001, Enterprise Security Architecture, governance frameworks, risk & control management
Project: Scalable AI Workbench Platform on Microsoft Azure Role: Cloud Architect & Engineer Company: Siemens Energy Description: Design, development and operation of a secure, modular cloud infrastructure to support Data Science, Machine Learning and AI applications for various engineering teams at Siemens Energy. Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Cloud architecture: Designed and implemented an Infrastructure-as-Code solution (Terraform) for automated provisioning of Azure resources (Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Cosmos DB, Application Insights, networking, PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Registry).
- Developer portal: Used Backstage with custom frontend and backend plugins (Node.js, TypeScript, React.js, PostgreSQL, Container Apps) to enable self-service and empower developers, data scientists and AI/ML engineers.
- Role-based access control: Implemented Azure RBAC to grant targeted access (e.g. Storage Blob Data Contributor, Reader) to engineering groups (e.g. AI Engineers) for relevant resources.
- Data platform engineering: Built and configured a multi-layered storage landscape (Raw, Curated, Vector data), including automated container creation and access control for advanced analytics and AI workloads.
- DevOps integration: Integrated with Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipelines to automate deployment, monitoring and compliance.
- Security & compliance: Implemented Private Endpoints, network policies and Managed Identities to ensure data protection and regulatory compliance.
- Collaboration: Worked closely with cross-functional teams to align the cloud infrastructure with business and technical requirements and drive digital transformation at Siemens Energy. Technologies: Azure, Terraform, Azure DevOps, Cosmos DB, Application Insights, Azure Storage, Private Endpoints, Azure Synapse, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Entra ID, RBAC, Backstage, Node.js, React.js, PostgreSQL, Python (automation), Git
Mahesh Simha
Azure Solution Architect
Last position:
Azure Solution Architect at Automotive industry
Implementation of complex Azure resources using Terraform IaC and Azure DevSecOps pipelines with network security and zero-trust governance policies
Optimization of the existing network design, firewall and database migration
Implementation of governance and network policies as Policy as Code (PaC)
Establishment of company-wide Azure connectivity using Azure VPN as an IPSec tunnel
Implementation of hybrid on-premises multi-cloud connectivity (GCP, Azure) using Terraform
Development of Azure Functions for scheduled cron jobs and Service Bus message queuing with topics
Optimization of messaging with Service Bus premium features and IP whitelisting
Stakeholder management, customer communication and creation of Architectural Decision Records (ADR)
Responsible for cost-efficient quick wins in Azure and on-premises systems
Timo Schrader
Business Central & Dynamics NAV (Development/Consulting)
Last position:
Developer (AL) & Consultant at IT service provider
- Development of an application suite for AppSource (7 apps) focusing on customs processing & compliance
Karan Shah
Senior Software Engineer
Last position:
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys Ltd
- Forecasting Cost Tool (PCCT) imports data via SSIS from CSV files and processes modules for administrator, user management, train operations, and fleet operations.
- Conducted requirement analysis and effort estimation.
- Designed database and developed web pages.
- Tested the application.
Frank Eppink
DevOps
Last position:
DevOps at Lauck-IT
Operations and extensions of Azure DevOps pipelines
Operations and extensions of AWS services
Citrix (Windows 10, Bitwarden)
AWS: ECR, EKS, CloudFront CDN, Route 53, VPC peering and CNI upgrade, Atlas MongoDB, S3 buckets, static website hosting
Azure: build and deploy with DevOps pipelines
Moritz Freyburger
AWS Developer/DevOps Engineer (Energy Trading)
Last position:
AWS Developer/DevOps Engineer (Energy Trading) at RWE Supply & Trading GmbH
- Further development and partial new development of a distributed cloud application for delivering data in energy trading
- Independently implementing the infrastructure (IaC)
- Creating automated CI/CD pipelines, containers, REST APIs, and Lambdas
- Constant cost and performance optimization
- Collaboration in an international Scrum team and with energy trading experts
- Technologies: C#/ASP.NET Core; EF Core; PostgreSQL; Terraform/AWS CloudFormation; HTTP; REST/Web API; Swagger/OpenAPI; Azure DevOps; Rider; VS Code; git; Docker; AWS (S3, EC2, Fargate, Lambda, Step Functions, Secrets Manager, VPCs, ALB/NLB, RDS, Cloudwatch, AWS CLI, Amazon MQ); Redis; OAuth; OpenID Connect
- Languages: C#; TypeScript; HCL; Docker; Bash; PowerShell; YML; JSON
Andreas Grutz
Senior Fullstack Developer · .NET & Angular · AI Integration · Cloud · DevOps
Last position:
Senior Fullstack .NET (Core) & Angular Developer at IT service provider
- Supported an agile team in the development of a new CRM tool
- Web frontend development (Angular 17 with MDB-Bootstrap, microfrontends, DDD)
- Backend development (C# & .NET 7-9, MongoDB, MassTransit, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch, microservices, DDD)
- Coordination with stakeholders & product owners
- Assisted in sprint planning
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) statistics
Typical experience
17 years
Average project duration
1.2 years
Certifications per freelancer
17
Top business areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance
Top industries
Information Technology, Banking and Finance, Transportation
Most common languages
German, English, French
Bachelor's degree or higher
91%
Master's degree or higher
73%
Salary / Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers holding this certification are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Curious about FRATCH? Find the answers you need
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) validates hands-on Azure development skills. It shows that the freelancer can build cloud applications, connect services, work with identity and security, and support deployment and monitoring. For companies, it is a strong sign that the person can turn requirements into working Azure solutions.
AZ-204 is focused on application development, not platform administration or solution design at a high level. An Azure administrator usually manages resources and operations, while an architect shapes broader system decisions. AZ-204 sits closer to the code and the delivery of app features on Azure.
Azure Developer Associate fits software developers who already build web apps, APIs, or cloud services and want to prove their Azure skills. It is also relevant for freelancers who want to work on Microsoft-based cloud projects with a stronger technical profile. If you spend your time writing code and shipping features, this certification is a natural fit.
A freelancer holding Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate is well suited to cloud application builds, API development, serverless workflows, and service integration work. They are also a good fit for modernization projects where an existing application moves into Azure. In Germany, this often comes up in enterprise teams that use Microsoft technologies and need remote or hybrid delivery.
AZ-204 covers building compute solutions, working with Azure storage and messaging, securing access, monitoring applications, and handling deployment concerns. It is not just about knowing service names; it is about using them together in real solutions. That makes the certification useful for implementation work where reliability and maintainability matter.
There is no fixed formal prerequisite for Azure Developer Associate, but Microsoft expects practical development experience before attempting it. Candidates usually already know at least one programming language and have worked with cloud services, APIs, and deployment workflows. The exam is easier when the person has real project exposure rather than only theoretical study.
Good preparation for AZ-204 combines Azure documentation, hands-on labs, and building small application scenarios. The best candidates practice with storage, identity, messaging, and deployment until they can solve tasks without relying on memorized steps. Real coding experience matters more than passive reading.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate is maintained through Microsoft’s online renewal process. Holders should review current Azure development practices and keep up with service changes so their knowledge stays current. For companies, renewal is a useful sign that the freelancer is still active in the platform and follows recent changes.
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