Director, Technical Program Management (Infrastructure/Kubernetes)

ABOUT THE ROLE

Rafay is seeking a hands-on Director of Technical Program Management to lead strategic customer deployments and drive execution across Rafay’s Kubernetes and GPU PaaS platform initiatives. This is a highly visible leadership role responsible for overseeing complex enterprise implementations while remaining deeply engaged in technical delivery, customer architecture discussions, and cross-functional execution.

The ideal candidate combines strong program leadership with deep technical expertise in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, GPU/AI workloads, and enterprise platform delivery. This leader will serve as a trusted advisor to customers and internal stakeholders, helping drive successful onboarding, modernization, migration, and adoption initiatives across large-scale enterprise environments.

Unlike a traditional people-management-only director role, this position requires hands-on involvement in technical project execution, customer solutioning, escalation management, and operational leadership.

TOP 3 REQUIRED SKILLS / EXPERIENCE

• Proven leadership managing complex enterprise technical programs and customer-facing implementations in cloud, Kubernetes, AI/ML, or infrastructure environments.
• Deep technical expertise in Kubernetes, GPU workloads, cloud platforms, containers, and modern infrastructure architectures.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence customer leadership, engineering teams, and cross-functional partners.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead and oversee strategic customer implementations for Rafay’s Kubernetes and GPU PaaS platform offerings.
• Serve as the primary technical program leader for large-scale onboarding, migration, modernization, and platform adoption initiatives.
• Drive program execution across multiple concurrent enterprise engagements while maintaining hands-on involvement in technical planning and delivery.
• Partner directly with customer engineering, platform, infrastructure, DevOps, and executive stakeholders to define scope, align priorities, and ensure successful outcomes.
• Lead customer discovery workshops, architecture reviews, technical planning sessions, and implementation governance.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Pre-Sales, and Partner teams to align delivery priorities and remove execution blockers.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance around Kubernetes, GPU infrastructure, cloud-native architectures, AI/ML platform deployments, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud implementations.
• Establish scalable delivery processes, implementation methodologies, operational best practices, and program governance frameworks.
• Own program risk management, escalation handling, dependency tracking, and executive-level communication throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Drive accountability across internal and external teams to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned with customer expectations.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex customer issues, deployment challenges, and critical implementation risks.
• Mentor and guide TPMs, solutions architects, and technical delivery resources while helping scale Rafay’s customer delivery organization.
• Maintain hands-on familiarity with supporting technologies and frameworks including Observability, DevSecOps, CI/CD, GitOps, FinOps, GPU orchestration, and cloud infrastructure tooling.
• Contribute to strategic initiatives that improve customer onboarding, operational efficiency, deployment automation, and overall customer experience.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in technical program management, technical project management, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise software delivery.
• 5+ years leading complex enterprise customer deployments involving Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, infrastructure modernization, or AI/ML platforms.
• Strong hands-on technical expertise with Kubernetes, containers, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), networking, infrastructure, and distributed systems.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical teams in fast-paced startup or high-growth technology environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture, cloud operations, infrastructure scalability, and modernization initiatives.
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with executives, architects, engineers, and customer stakeholders.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent programs with complex dependencies and executive visibility.
• Preferred certifications include PMP, AWS Solutions Architect, CKA/CKAD, or equivalent cloud/Kubernetes certifications.

WHY JOIN RAFAY?

Rafay is at the forefront of GPU PaaS technologies and Kubernetes and we offer unique opportunities to join a winning team working on foundational technology for cloud and AI/ML services and enterprises. We work in a collaborative environment that rewards creative thinking and provides opportunities to advance professional careers in advanced technology development. On top of this we offer a fun and dynamic work environment, a competitive salary, robust benefits and attractive stock options. As the first of our kind, we are truly in a class of our own.