Senior Director, Cloud Ops

Position Overview: 

We are seeking a strategic, hands-on leader to serve as the Senior Director, Cloud Operations. In this role, you will drive the company’s technology vision, overseeing the design and execution of cloud infrastructure that supports business growth, AI/ML platforms, and customer needs. You will play a key role in influencing the organization’s cloud strategy, balancing a hands-on approach with strong leadership to ensure our cloud environments are secure, scalable, and operationally efficient.

The ideal candidate will be a proven leader with experience managing cloud infrastructure for AI/ML platforms and MLOps, driving transformational change, and developing high-performing teams. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to align cloud initiatives with business objectives, while ensuring compliance with security standards such as HIPAA and HITRUST. Additionally, this role requires someone who can lead by example, remaining close to the technical work while fostering an environment of innovation, growth, and excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive the evolution of cloud infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure platforms, influencing our overall cloud strategy and technological transformation to meet evolving business goals, including support for AI/ML platforms and MLOps.
• Develop and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) practices using tools like Terraform and Kubernetes to automate deployment, scalability, disaster recovery, and the integration of AI/ML workflows and platforms.
• Lead the DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams to optimize CI/CD pipelines and MLOps processes, ensuring best practices for automation, monitoring, and security across the cloud infrastructure.
• Ensure efficient data ingestion, transformation, and integration processes within cloud environments, optimizing performance and enabling seamless data workflows.
• Cultivate and grow a high-performing team by mentoring and developing talent, fostering innovation, and ensuring alignment with the company’s strategic goals.
• Oversee cloud spend across platforms by collaborating with finance teams to optimize investments through FinOps strategies, ensuring cost efficiency while delivering business value.
• Partner with the Security organization to lead cloud security initiatives, focusing on SecOps, Zero Trust, and Identity and Access Management (IAM), while ensuring compliance with HIPAA, HITRUST, and other regulatory frameworks.
• Collaborate with development, data, and AI teams to support platform scalability, AI/ML infrastructure, and seamless integration of cloud infrastructure with evolving business needs.
• Drive operational excellence by implementing observability, monitoring, and incident management processes, and continuously improve SRE practices to ensure high availability and reliability across cloud and AI/ML platforms.
• Optimize vendor relationships and cloud service agreements, managing contracts and service-level agreements (SLAs) with external vendors to ensure alignment with business goals and high-quality service delivery.

Qualifications:

• Lead through change and influence cloud strategy while driving transformational technology initiatives, including cloud infrastructure for AI/ML platforms. Demonstrate a strong track record of building and managing high-performing teams in dynamic environments.
• Ability to be hands-on, contributing to key deliverables and maintaining a strong technical presence while leading the team.
• Bring extensive experience in cloud infrastructure leadership with deep expertise in AWS, GCP, and Azure environments.
• Apply expertise in DevOps, IaC, automation tools, and MLOps, including Terraform, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines. Implement best practices for automation, monitoring, scalability, AI/ML workflows, and data integration.
• Manage large-scale cloud budgets, optimizing infrastructure spending in alignment with business priorities.
• Optimize vendor relationships and manage cloud service agreements, ensuring alignment with strategic business goals and maximizing value from cloud investments.
• Apply knowledge of cloud security practices such as Zero Trust, IAM, and SecOps, ensuring compliance with HIPAA, HITRUST, or similar regulations.
• Collaborate with business, engineering, and operations teams to align cloud and AI/ML initiatives with organizational goals, influencing both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. A Master’s degree is preferred.
• Certifications in AWS, GCP, or Azure platforms are highly desirable.