Vice President, Cloud Engineering & Operations

Vice President, Cloud Engineering & Operations

• Vice President, Cloud Engineering & Operations

Vice President, Cloud Engineering & Operations

Salary : based on experience plus bonus

THE OPPORTUNITY

• Do you enjoy translating enterprise technology strategy into secure, resilient, scalable, and future-ready infrastructure and cloud environments?
• Are you energized by leading large-scale cloud transformation and modernization initiatives while balancing innovation, operational excellence, financial discipline, and risk management?
• Do you thrive in highly collaborative, regulated environments where technology reliability, resilience, and serve delivery are critical to organizational success?
• Are you a hands-on technology leader who can engage credibly with engineers and technical leaders while also serving as a strategic partner to executive leadership?

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Our client is a highly respected financial services organization committed to delivering exceptional service, operational excellence, and long-term stewardship. The organization operates within a sophisticated and highly regulated environment where technology resilience, security, reliability, and disciplined risk management are critical to its continued success.

Guided by a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and service, the organization is investing significantly in its technology capabilities to modernize infrastructure, expand cloud adoption, strengthen operational resilience, and build scalable technology platforms for the future.

This is an opportunity to play a critical role in shaping how infrastructure, cloud engineering, platform engineering, and technology operations evolve. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to make a meaningful enterprise-wide impact while leading a talented team through a period of continued modernization and transformation.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, the Vice President, Cloud Engineering & Operations serves as the senior leader responsible for the strategy, delivery, reliability, security, and operation of the organization’s infrastructure platforms and technology operations services.

The Vice President will lead an integrated organization spanning Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure, Platform Engineering, Site Reliability, Service Delivery, and Technology Operations. This executive will balance strategic planning with operational accountability, providing leadership for cloud transformation, infrastructure modernization, operational resilience, service delivery, and continuous improvement.

The Vice President serves as the principal leader for cloud transformation initiatives, including migration of enterprise workloads from traditional infrastructure and colocation-hosted environments to modern cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure while ensuring appropriate governance, reliability, risk management, and cost optimization.

Cloud Engineering & Technology Operations Strategy

• Partner with the Chief Technology Officer to develop and execute an enterprise cloud engineering and operations strategy aligned with the organization’s technology roadmap, business priorities, risk appetite, and financial objectives.
• Establish clear priorities, governance practices, performance expectations, and accountability across Cloud Engineering & Operations.
• Develop technology roadmaps that balance near‑term operational stability with long‑term modernization.
• Ensure infrastructure, cloud, and operational capabilities support the organization’s current and future business needs.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive and technology leadership on cloud, infrastructure, operations, resilience, and technology investment decisions.
• Translate complex technology considerations into clear business implications, alternatives, recommendations, and measurable outcomes.
• Lead the organization’s cloud adoption strategy and enterprise workload migration initiatives.
• Oversee the migration, optimization, and ongoing operation of enterprise workloads utilizing cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or similar platforms.
• Establish cloud governance, standards, architecture, and operating practices that promote secure, resilient, scalable, and cost‑effective services.
• Drive modernization initiatives that reduce technical debt, operational complexity, and key‑person dependencies.
• Advance cloud operating models that support sustainable growth, appropriate governance, and long‑term value realization.
• Provide strategic direction and executive oversight for enterprise infrastructure platforms, including compute, storage, virtualization, networking, systems administration, platform services, and related technologies.
• Oversee infrastructure hosted within organization-owned and third‑party colocation environments.
• Establish disciplined practices for lifecycle management, capacity planning, asset management, monitoring, availability, and operational controls.
• Advance platform engineering practices including automation, infrastructure as code, observability, self‑service capabilities, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure infrastructure investments improve scalability, resiliency, maintainability, interoperability, and operational efficiency.

Reliability, Resilience & Service Delivery

• Strengthen enterprise capabilities related to technology reliability, operational resilience, business continuity, disaster recovery, and recoverability.
• Establish and maintain effective practices for incident management, problem management, availability management, and recovery.
• Lead significant technology incidents and service disruptions with calm, decisive leadership, ensuring appropriate escalation, communication, restoration, root‑cause analysis, and organizational learning.
• Establish measurable service levels, operational metrics, key performance indicators, and key risk indicators to improve transparency and accountability.
• Ensure technology platforms consistently meet established reliability, availability, recovery, and resiliency objectives.
• Ensure Cloud Engineering & Operations functions operate within approved policies, standards, internal controls, regulatory requirements, and organizational risk appetite.
• Partner closely with Information Security, Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance, and Internal Audit to embed effective controls and address identified deficiencies.
• Maintain strong governance around cloud adoption, infrastructure operations, technology resilience, and third‑party services.
• Ensure the organization remains prepared for regulatory reviews, audits, and other oversight activities.
• Communicate technology risks, operational performance, investment needs, and remediation efforts clearly to executive leadership and other stakeholders.
• Develop and manage operating and capital budgets for Cloud Engineering & Operations.
• Establish technology investment priorities based on business value, risk, operational needs, and long‑term strategy.
• Manage strategic technology vendor relationships and ensure external providers deliver expected performance, service levels, and value.
• Continuously evaluate cloud consumption, infrastructure investments, and operating expenses to identify opportunities for optimization and efficiency.
• Establish financial discipline and transparency around technology investments and cloud consumption.

Talent Development & Organizational Leadership

• Build and develop a high‑performing Cloud Engineering & Operations organization spanning multiple technical disciplines and leadership levels.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop technical leaders while strengthening succession planning and organizational capabilities.
• Establish a culture of accountability, collaboration, empowerment, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
• Delegate authority effectively, providing leaders with the context and guardrails needed to make sound decisions.
• Create an environment where teams can innovate responsibly while maintaining clear ownership, accountability, and operational discipline.
• Build trusted relationships with business leaders, technology stakeholders, regulators, auditors, vendors, and external partners.
• Communicate complex technology concepts with clarity and candor to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Act on behalf of the broader organization, balancing competing priorities and ensuring Cloud Engineering & Operations decisions support enterprise objectives.
• Invite constructive challenge, integrate diverse perspectives, and resolve conflicts in the best interests of the organization.
• Maintain current knowledge of cloud computing, infrastructure technologies, operational practices, financial services technology trends, and emerging capabilities.

IDEAL CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline; advanced degree and relevant cloud, infrastructure, or operations certifications preferred
• Fifteen or more years of progressive technology experience, including at least ten years of leadership responsibility across infrastructure, cloud engineering, operations, or related technology functions
• Senior leadership experience overseeing enterprise‑scale Infrastructure and Operations organizations comprised of multiple technical disciplines and leaders
• Experience within financial services, banking, insurance, fintech, or another highly regulated and risk‑sensitive environment
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise cloud adoption and workload migration initiatives utilizing Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or similar cloud platforms
• Experience overseeing data center environments hosted within third‑party colocation facilities
• Strong understanding of infrastructure services, including networking, compute, storage, virtualization, systems administration, platform operations, and service management
• Experience establishing and advancing disaster recovery, business continuity, operational resilience, and resiliency testing programs
• Proven ability to lead significant technology incidents, direct recovery activities, and drive root‑cause analysis and remediation
• Experience developing technology roadmaps, operating and capital budgets, investment priorities, and vendor management strategies
• Strong understanding of technology governance, internal controls, regulatory expectations, risk management, and audit readiness
• Demonstrated success developing leaders, building high‑performing teams, and creating effective succession plans
• Strong financial acumen and ability to evaluate technology investments based on business value, risk, and long‑term organizational objectives

KEY PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Strategic and enterprise‑mindful leader who balances modernization with operational stability and risk management
• Technically credible with the ability to engage deeply with engineers, architects, and technical leaders while communicating effectively with executives and business stakeholders
• Calm, decisive leader who performs effectively during significant technology incidents, ambiguity, and organizational change
• Highly collaborative with strong communication, relationship‑building, and influencing skills
• Strong judgment and risk awareness, particularly within regulated environments
• Empowering leader who develops talent, builds leadership capability, and avoids becoming the decision bottleneck
• Accountable and results‑oriented, with a strong commitment to measurable outcomes and operational excellence
• Naturally curious with a commitment to continuous improvement, automation, modernization, and emerging technology
• High integrity and strong sense of ownership, stewardship, and organizational responsibility

THE PAYOFF

• Shape and lead the future of cloud engineering, infrastructure, and technology operations for a respected financial services organization
• Influence enterprise‑wide cloud transformation, infrastructure modernization, and strategic technology investments
• Partner closely with the Chief Technology Officer and senior leadership on high‑impact technology and business decisions
• Lead a talented, multi‑disciplinary organization while developing the next generation of technology leaders
• Drive meaningful improvements in technology reliability, resilience, operational effectiveness, and scalability
• Help establish modern cloud, platform engineering, automation, and operational practices across the organization
• Join a collaborative, values‑driven organization committed to innovation, accountability, and long‑term success

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

This role is based in Cincinnati, Ohio; preferred out-of-town candidates will be offered relocation assistance. The organization offers a hybrid working environment.