Senior Director Cloud and Infrastructure Platforms

Job Overview:

This role owns the technical direction of enterprise infrastructure platform architecture across cloud, data center, networking, database, and compute domains. The position establishes the target-state architecture, engineering standards, migration patterns, operational controls, and modernization roadmap for the company’s hybrid infrastructure ecosystem. The role spans Azure infrastructure, enterprise networking, database services, virtualized compute estates, and the architectural control planes required to operate them at scale. Working closely with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, application teams, service operations, vendors, and executive leadership, this role ensures infrastructure platforms remain secure, resilient, supportable, cost-effective, and aligned to long-term business strategy.

Responsibilities/Essential Functions:

• Own the enterprise reference architecture for cloud platform, networking, database, and compute services, including target-state design for hybrid infrastructure, landing zones, subscription and management group strategy, tenant governance, platform segmentation, identity integration, and operational guardrails.
• Lead the technical architecture and migration engineering strategy for movement from on-premises data centers to cloud platforms, including application and infrastructure dependency mapping, workload suitability analysis, migration wave design, refactoring decision frameworks, cutover architecture, rollback strategy, and post-migration stabilization.
• Serve as the senior design authority for enterprise compute across virtual environments, with accountability for compute topology, virtualization standards, guest operating system strategy, performance engineering, resiliency design, high availability patterns, and lifecycle modernization.
• Define and govern enterprise networking architecture standards across WAN, LAN, wireless, cloud, and data center environments, including network segmentation, routing strategy, connectivity patterns, resiliency design, performance optimization, and integration with security controls.
• Provide architectural and operational ownership for Azure, and related Microsoft tenant services, ensuring secure configuration, scalable service design, platform policy enforcement, and alignment to enterprise architecture standards
• Establish enterprise database architecture and engineering standards for Oracle & SQL Server, Azure database platforms, and related database services, including availability design, performance optimization, lifecycle management, backup and recovery strategy, data platform modernization, and operational governance.
• Define engineering standards for infrastructure as code, automation, image management, configuration baselines, drift control, and repeatable platform deployments across cloud and virtualized environments.
• Lead enterprise vulnerability management, patch engineering, and operating system currency programs across all compute assets, including patch orchestration strategy, exception governance, remediation prioritization, unsupported OS retirement planning, and measurable reduction of platform risk exposure.
• Establish hardening patterns, privileged access architecture, monitoring telemetry requirements, logging standards, recovery controls, and platform security baselines in partnership with cybersecurity and risk teams.
• Provide technical oversight for core infrastructure services including networking, directory services, storage platforms, database environments, backup and recovery architecture, capacity forecasting, and platform observability.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex platform issues involving Azure infrastructure, Microsoft tenant services, enterprise networking, database platforms, virtualized compute, platform incidents, systemic defects, and engineering tradeoff decisions.
• Oversee Microsoft and other strategic infrastructure technology partners from both an architectural and commercial standpoint, including roadmap alignment, support escalation, technical design reviews, licensing implications, and coordination for major platform initiatives.
• Drive platform rationalization and standardization, reducing technical debt, minimizing platform sprawl, and improving consistency across infrastructure services, operating system versions, database platforms, management tooling, network architectures, and cloud service consumption patterns.
• Define and report engineering and control metrics such as migration velocity, workload stability, compute availability, network reliability, database performance, policy compliance, patch adherence, vulnerability aging, operating system currency, automation coverage, and mean time to recover.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Demonstrated success designing and leading complex migrations from on-premises infrastructure to cloud or hybrid platforms, including architecture definition, dependency analysis, migration engineering governance, and operational transition.
• Deep technical expertise in Azure infrastructure services, Microsoft tenant governance, identity and access integration, virtual infrastructure, enterprise networking, Windows and Linux server architecture, database platforms, and vulnerability remediation disciplines.
• Strong command of cloud landing zone design, WAN and LAN architecture, wireless networking, cloud networking patterns, network security integration, infrastructure automation, configuration management, observability, and resilience engineering.
• Experience architecting and governing enterprise database platforms, including high-availability designs, disaster recovery, performance optimization, operational controls, and modernization initiatives.
• Experience establishing platform standards for infrastructure as code, automation pipelines, policy enforcement, system hardening, operational engineering controls, and infrastructure governance across distributed environments.
• Proven ability to serve as the highest-level technical authority for infrastructure platforms while also leading teams, influencing senior stakeholders, and driving enterprise-wide adoption of architecture standards.
• Experience managing strategic vendor relationships, especially with Microsoft and key infrastructure partners, including executive engagement, support escalation, product roadmap alignment, and technical-commercial decision support.
• Strong understanding of risk management, cybersecurity principles, operational governance, compliance expectations, and audit-defensible infrastructure controls.

Experience/Qualifications:

• 15+ years of progressive experience in infrastructure engineering, cloud architecture, platform operations, networking, database services, or enterprise infrastructure leadership, including responsibility for large-scale production environments.
• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or related field preferred; advanced degree and certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator, CCNP, CISSP, Microsoft Certified Database certifications, or similar credentials are a plus.