Director of Cloud and Data Center Operations

Job Description

- Lead and manage the cloud and data center operations team, ensuring all operations, maintenance, support, and service management functions are performed to the highest standards.
- Develop and implement operational strategies to support the business on a 24x7x365 basis and meet performance and availability targets, including defining and measuring service levels, capacity planning, and cost optimization.
- Establish and maintain effective relationships with business stakeholders and technology partners, acting as a trusted advisor for operational best practices.
- Manage the technology environment, ensuring all security, compliance, and risk management requirements are met, including the development and implementation of disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
- Identify and implement opportunities for process improvements, automation, and innovation to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs.
- Develop and manage budgets, ensuring effective cost control and reporting.
- Provide regular reporting and communication to executive leadership on operational performance, risks, and opportunities.
- As a key member of the leadership team, this role contributes to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring the IO strategy is fully aligned, with business objectives.
- Introduces technologies, automation, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Operational practices to innovate and differentiate infrastructure and operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance employee productivity.
- Manage operations of all Cloud computing including Azure, AWS, GCP and Cloud Ops teams to achieve business objectives including the attainment of targets for service levels, resolution time, and project deadlines.
- Contain Cloud consumption costs through a structured FinOps capability to ensure a transparent and logical way to bill Businesses for consumption.
- Mature the use of native cloud services to displace third-party applications in partnership with IT peers and business stakeholders.
- Set Infrastructure Operations delivery objectives and targets and deliver a highly available and resilient SaaS platform.
- Lead tactical response to system errors, outages, and failures within the platform and hold a tight grasp on user experience and systems uptime.
- Develop and maintain operational procedures and policies consistent with compliance and security practices.
- Operates a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by Cloud teams. Supports periodic reviews by internal audit, compliance teams, and other risk-related functions as required.
- Leverages influencing and negotiation skills across IT and the enterprise to enable cost-effective and innovative shared solutions in the achievement of business goals.

Qualifications and Skills:

- At least 10 years of experience in cloud and data center operations, with experience managing large, complex hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
- Suitable tertiary qualifications, such as a degree in computer science, information technology, or related fields.
- Accredited certifications from Azure, AWS, or GCP, demonstrating a deep understanding of cloud and data center technologies and best practices.
- Strong leadership skills, with a proven ability to lead and manage teams, establish effective and collaborative relationships, and influence stakeholders at all levels of the business.
- Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to identify and address complex operational challenges.
- Experience supporting DevOps automation teams
- Demonstrated experience in managing budgets and controlling costs.
- Experience in developing and implementing disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
- Strong knowledge of security, compliance, and risk management requirements for cloud and data center environments.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation
- Thorough knowledge of Agile Scrum methods and recent experience working with such
- Strategic/holistic/broad-minded thinker able to convince with little or no authority Must have an innate curiosity about how things work. Tough enough to challenge where required and thrives on the ambiguity of structure, authority, and resources

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