Cloud Operations Lead

Job Overview

The Cloud Operations Lead serves as the primary technical and operational authority for a comprehensive AWS cloud infrastructure. This position encompasses various aspects of cloud operations, including governance, security, reliability, cost management, and ongoing enhancements. The role collaborates closely with teams focused on cloud, infrastructure, security, architecture, applications, and management, while providing technical direction to Cloud Operations engineers responsible for daily support. This is a leadership and escalation role for L2/L3 issues, distinct from typical L1 business as usual (BAU) support functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee the operational management and ongoing enhancement of the AWS cloud environment.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation contact for cloud-related incidents, operational challenges, and intricate service requests.
• Deliver technical leadership and mentorship to Cloud Operations and support engineering teams.
• Develop and maintain cloud operational standards, including aspects such as monitoring and alerting, incident and problem management, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, patch and change management, security and compliance, and cloud resource lifecycle management.
• Evaluate and approve cloud architecture and operational modifications in collaboration with EA/SA, Security, and CCOE stakeholders.
• Facilitate AWS Security Hub remediation and enhancements in cloud security with Security/SecOps and application teams.
• Lead initiatives for AWS cost optimization and FinOps, focusing on resource utilization, rightsizing, tagging, and cost governance.
• Assist with Landing Zone, IAM, network, logging, and cloud governance requirements.
• Supervise Infrastructure-as-Code methodologies, particularly Terraform, to ensure controlled cloud configuration changes.
• Organize activities related to cloud migration, onboarding, go-live, and transition to operations.
• Direct or coordinate disaster recovery planning and drills, including readiness assessments and stakeholder engagement.
• Collaborate with application owners and vendors to evaluate the impact of cloud infrastructure modifications on applications.
• Engage in CCOE governance, architecture, security, and operational discussions.
• Manage operational risks, dependencies, and escalations to upper management.
• Coordinate with AWS and other technology and service providers as necessary.

Qualifications

• Approximately 7+ years of experience in infrastructure or cloud environments, with a solid background in AWS production.
• Several years' experience in roles such as Cloud Lead, Cloud Platform Lead, Senior Cloud Engineer, or Cloud Operations Lead.
• Extensive hands-on expertise with essential AWS services:
• Compute and containers: EC2, Lambda, EKS/ECR
• Networking: VPC, Transit Gateway, ALB/NLB
• Storage and databases: S3, RDS
• Identity and security: IAM, Secrets Manager
• Operations and monitoring: Systems Manager, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Security Hub, AWS Backup
• Proficient in Terraform / Infrastructure as Code methodologies.
• Familiarity with CI/CD and Git-based deployment workflows.
• Strong foundation in monitoring and observability, incident/problem/change management, as well as backup, recovery, and disaster recovery.
• Good understanding of cloud security and compliance standards.
• Experience in FinOps and AWS cost optimization strategies.
• Exceptional troubleshooting and decision-making skills.
• Capable of effective communication with both technical teams and senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable managing coordination among multiple application teams, security teams, and external vendors.

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, or similar certifications.
• Experience within a Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCOE) governance framework.
• Background in leading cloud migration and transition-to-operations projects.
• Experience conducting disaster recovery drills in large enterprise settings.