Infrastructure / Cloud Operations Lead

INFRASTRUCTURE AND CLOUD OPERATIONS LEAD


Location; City of Industry, CA


JOB DESCRIPTION


The company is seeking an Infrastructure and Cloud Operations Lead to provide hands-on ownership and directional leadership of our hybrid IT environment across all offices nationally.


As a lean IT organization, this role combines direct technical execution with responsibility for guiding the evolution of our cloud and infrastructure strategy. The individual will actively manage day-to-day operations while helping define, standardize, and mature our infrastructure / cloud posture over time.


This position establishes durable operational accountability, strengthens reliability, and ensures disciplined execution across cloud, on-premises, and end-user environments.


This role aims to provide accountable, hands-on leadership across infrastructure, cloud direction, service delivery, and asset management, ensuring reliability, operational discipline, and scalable cloud maturity within a lean IT organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Hybrid Infrastructure and Cloud Leadership (Hands-On)
  • Directly administer public cloud and on-premises systems.
  • Operate and optimize Microsoft-centric cloud stack (Entra, Intune, Azure IaaS/PaaS).
  • Lead evaluation, direction, and optimization of cloud architecture and platform strategy.
  • Define infrastructure standards and configuration baselines.
  • Ensure system availability, scalability, and performance.
  • Perform troubleshooting, optimization, and lifecycle improvements.
  • Maintain current infrastructure documentation and architecture diagrams.

• Operational Governance and Change Discipline
  • Implement and enforce structured change management processes.
  • Establish monitoring, alerting, and operational visibility standards.
  • Reduce configuration drift and unmanaged system variance.
  • Ensure disciplined patching, maintenance, and upgrade cycles.
  • Maintain clear documentation of system changes and infrastructure state.

• Security Implementation and Infrastructure Hardening
  • Partner with fractional CISO to execute infrastructure security initiatives.
  • Implement identity, access, and endpoint security controls (Entra, Conditional Access, EDR/NDR).
  • Maintain secure configuration baselines across cloud and on-prem systems.
  • Remediate vulnerabilities and support audit requirements.

• Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity
  • Maintain and optimize backup and recovery architecture.
  • Conduct periodic disaster recovery testing.
  • Refine recovery procedures and improve recovery time performance.
  • Strengthen infrastructure resiliency across locations.

• IT Service Delivery and End-User Support
  • Oversee and actively support service desk operations.
  • Provide escalation support for complex technical issues.
  • Coordinate desktop support across offices.
  • Track service metrics and identify recurring issue trends.
  • Drive root-cause resolution to improve stability.

• IT Asset Management and Technology Lifecycle
  • Maintain accurate tracking of hardware, software, and cloud resource utilization.
  • Support technology lifecycle planning and replacement forecasting.
  • Provide visibility into asset inventory and infrastructure-related spend.
  • Identify redundant or underutilized resources.

• Vendor and Partner Coordination
  • Serve as operational lead for infrastructure-related vendors.
  • Evaluate managed services and cloud providers as needed.
  • Ensure effective knowledge transfer from modernization initiatives.
  • Align vendor performance with internal operational standards.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of progressive, hands-on infrastructure engineering experience.
• Strong experience designing and operating hybrid cloud environments (Azure and OCI a primary focus).
• Experience guiding cloud architecture decisions in small-to-mid-sized organizations.
• Comfort operating in lean IT environments requiring direct execution.
• Working knowledge of IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks (e.g., ITIL).
• Familiarity with IT Asset Management best practices.
• Solid networking fundamentals (firewalls, VPNs, SD-WAN).
• Experience supporting multi-site organizations preferred.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) administration.
• Conditional Access policy design and enforcement.
• Microsoft Intune (device management, compliance, endpoint configuration).
• Azure Infrastructure (Virtual Machines, networking, resource governance).
• Azure Virtual Desktop (general understanding and support).
• Azure hybrid infrastructure and networking (on-prem to cloud integration).
• Windows Server administration and Active Directory management.
• Multi-site network architecture, routing, and subnet design.
• Branch connectivity technologies (SD-WAN concepts and operations).
• Firewall platforms (Palo Alto preferred).

SECURITY AND MONITORING TOOLING (PREFERRED EXPERIENCE)

• Threat and Vulnerability Management (e.g., Tenable).
• Network Monitoring (e.g., WhatsUp Gold or equivalent).
• Endpoint Detection and Response (e.g., Cortex or equivalent).
• Network Detection and Response (e.g., Darktrace or equivalent).

PREFERRED CERTIFICATIONS
(At least one strongly desired, in priority order)

• MD-101 - Modern Desktop Administrator (Entra / Intune focus)
• AZ-800 - Windows Server Hybrid Administrator
• AZ-104 - Azure Administrator (core infrastructure)
• MS-102 - Microsoft 365 Administrator

Platinum Resource Group is a professional level consulting firm, providing resources to Fortune 1000 client companies in the areas of technology, human resources, accounting, finance, business systems and supply chain, on a contract and interim basis. PRG has operations in Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As a W-2 employer we offer our consultants direct deposit bi-weekly payroll, health, dental, vision benefits, and referral bonuses.