VP, Cloud Operations

Position Summary: The VP, Cloud Operations is responsible for establishing, scaling, and operating the CloudOps organization while transforming traditional middleware and database teams into modern, cloud-native, automation-driven CloudOps teams.

This role sits within the Cloud Transformation Office (CTO) and plays a critical role in driving operational excellence, platform reliability, and cloud modernization across the enterprise. The leader will bridge legacy operations and next-generation cloud platforms, ensuring a seamless transition to a self-service, SRE-aligned, and highly automated operating model.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

Build and Lead the CloudOps Organization

• Define the CloudOps vision, operating model, and organizational structure

• Establish 24x7 cloud operations capabilities across platforms (compute, middleware, databases, storage)

• Build high-performing teams aligned to:

  • Platform operations

  • Reliability engineering (SRE)

  • Automation and tooling

• Define roles, responsibilities, and career paths for CloudOps teams

Transform Middleware & Database Teams into CloudOps Teams

• Lead the transition of traditional middleware and DBA teams into cloud-native operations teams

• Upskill teams in:

  • Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

  • Automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

  • SRE practices

• Drive cultural shift from:

  • Ticket-based/manual operations → self-service and automation

  • Component-based support → platform ownership mindset

• Rationalize legacy platforms and align them to cloud strategy

Establish CloudOps Operating Model & SRE Practices

• Implement Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles across platforms:

  • SLIs, SLOs, error budgets

  • Incident management and postmortems

• Define and operationalize:

  • Monitoring and observability standards

  • Incident response and escalation frameworks

  • Reliability and resilience patterns

• Build runbook automation and self-healing systems

Drive Automation & Platform Engineering

• Lead adoption of:

  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation)

  • CI/CD for platform and database deployments

  • GitOps practices

• Establish self-service platforms for product teams:

  • Middleware stacks

  • Database provisioning

  • Integration services

• Build reusable platform blueprints and operational patterns

Enable Cloud Migration & Modernization

• Partner with Cloud Strategy, Architecture, and Engineering teams to:

  • Support workload migrations

  • Define operational readiness for cloud workloads

• Ensure legacy middleware and databases are:

  • Migration-ready

  • Optimized for cloud operations

• Define modernization playbooks for:

  • Re-platforming

  • Containerization

  • Managed service adoption

Governance, Security & Compliance

• Enforce operational governance for cloud environments

• Ensure adherence to:

  • Security policies

  • Compliance standards

  • Access control and audit requirements

• Partner with Security and Governance teams to embed policy-as-code

Stakeholder Engagement & Leadership

• Act as a key leader within the Cloud Transformation Office

• Collaborate with:

  • Application development teams

  • Enterprise architecture

  • Security and compliance teams

• Communicate transformation progress, risks, and value realization to executives

Qualifications Required:

Leadership & Transformation

• Proven track record of:

  • Building and scaling operations teams

  • Leading large-scale organizational change

  • Driving cultural transformation to DevOps/SRE models

Cloud & Platform Expertise

• Deep knowledge of at least one CSP:

  • AWS / Azure / GCP

• Work Experience with:

  • Cloud-native services

  • Managed databases and middleware platforms

  • Hybrid and multi-cloud environment

Middleware & Database Domain Knowledge

• Strong expertise in:

  • Traditional middleware (WebLogic, WebSphere, MQ, etc.)

  • RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2)

• Experience modernizing:

  • Middleware into containers/microservices

  • Databases into managed cloud services

CloudOps, DevOps & SRE

• Sound understanding of:

  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Cloud Formation, etc.)

  • CI/CD pipelines

  • Observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, etc.)

• Strong grounding in:

  • Reliability engineering

  • Incident management

  • Automation-first operational models

Automation & Engineering Mindset

• Experience building:

  • Self-service platforms

  • Automated provisioning systems

  • Operational tooling and frameworks