Lead IT Operations Developer

Position Summary 

The Lead IT Operations Developer provides advanced technical support, maintenance, and platform engineering for GCP-based data infrastructure and business applications. This role combines deep expertise in data security architecture, cloud platform operations, and application support to ensure the reliability, security, and performance of critical data systems. The ideal candidate brings extensive experience in GCP data platform engineering, enterprise data security implementation, and cross-functional technical leadership — serving as a go-to subject matter expert for production support, security remediation, knowledge transfer, and continuous platform improvement. 
 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

• Advanced Application & Platform Support: Provide high-level operational support for GCP data platform services — including Big Query, Cloud Composer, Pub/Sub, Firestore, and Dataflow — addressing complex platform queries, service disruptions, and technical issues promptly and effectively. 

• Data Security Engineering & Operations: Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing operations of enterprise data security controls — including column-level and row-level access restrictions, event-driven security workflows, metadata management, and data classification policy enforcement — ensuring consistent, auditable data protection across all critical datasets. 

• Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution: Diagnose and resolve complex platform and application issues involving row-level and column-level security, service account access failures, and interactions between data security, transformation, and query execution layers. Coordinate across functional teams to identify root causes and implement effective, lasting solutions. 

• GCP Security Hardening & Compliance: Drive GCP platform security posture by responding to critical and high-severity vulnerability findings, remediating secret exposure incidents, addressing Prisma Cloud alerts, and executing dependency and container image scanning for data workloads. Ensure all platform components comply with security policies and regulatory requirements. 

• Performance Monitoring & Big Query Optimization: Monitor application and platform performance, ensuring systems run efficiently. Architect and govern Big Query workload management strategies including slot usage monitoring and cost optimization reporting to reduce platform spend and maintain operational health. 

• IAM Governance & Access Management: Provide IAM role justification and least-privilege remediation for GCP service. Conduct access governance reviews and support overprovisioned access removal to maintain security standards. 

• Incident and Problem Management: Manage and prioritize platform incidents and service requests, ensuring timely resolution and clear stakeholder communication. Serve as the senior escalation point for production incidents involving data security, cloud infrastructure, and platform stability. 

• Development and Enhancement: Develop and implement platform enhancements, security configuration changes, and operational improvements based on business requirements. 

• Change Management: Lead and participate in change management processes including ServiceNow RITM approvals, access provisioning governance, and platform maintenance activities. Ensure platform changes are thoroughly tested and deployed with minimal disruption. 

• Documentation and Knowledge Management: Maintain comprehensive documentation of platform configurations, data security architecture, support procedures, and troubleshooting guides. Create process artifacts such as security flow diagrams, workflow examples, and runbooks to enable team capability and operational continuity. 

• Mentorship and Leadership: Mentor and guide junior and mid-level engineers in GCP data platform operations, security frameworks, and Big Query optimization techniques. Lead knowledge transfer sessions to build team capability and ensure operational handoff. 

• Continuous Improvement: Identify process improvements and automation opportunities to enhance platform support and efficiency. Lead initiatives to implement improvements across data security workflows, Big Query operations, and cloud platform governance. 

• Perform other assigned job-related duties that align with our organization's vision, mission, and values and fall within your scope of practice. 
   

Qualifications 

Education: Bachelor's Degree or relevant experience. Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or a related field preferred. 

Preferred Certification(s): Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer, or any relevant IT Certification. 

Experience: 5+ years of relevant and practical experience in GCP data platform engineering, cloud security, and application/platform operations support. 
 

Special Skills: 

• Advanced Technical Skills: Expert knowledge of GCP data platform services — Big Query, Cloud Composer, Pub/Sub, Firestore, Dataflow, and Cloud Run — with the ability to escalate and resolve complex platform issues. 

• Data Security Expertise: Deep with column-level and row-level security and enterprise data security architecture and operations. 

• Security & Compliance: Strong background in vulnerability management, Prisma Cloud, container/image scanning, IAM governance, and least-privilege access remediation. 

• Programming Knowledge: Proficiency in SQL, Python, GoLang, or relevant scripting languages to support platform troubleshooting, automation, and operational workflows. 

• Project Management: Ability to lead platform projects and coordinate across data engineering, security, and application teams. 

• Effective Communication: Ability to communicate complex platform and security concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 

• Mentoring: Demonstrated ability to train and mentor team members, sharing GCP platform knowledge, security best practices, and operational procedures. 

• Leadership: Strong leadership skills to guide platform operations, drive security remediation, and develop strategic solutions aligned with organizational goals. 
   

Soft Skills: 

• Influential Team Leader: Presents ideas and leads technical discussions with clarity and confidence. Demonstrates empathy and self-awareness in managing team dynamics. 

• Problem-Solving: Resolves complex, cross-system production incidents involving data security, cloud infrastructure, and platform operations. 

• Customer Service: Maintains a customer-oriented approach to platform support, ensuring high satisfaction levels across internal stakeholders and business users. 

• Adaptability: Demonstrates high adaptability in responding to evolving platform requirements, security findings, and organizational priorities. 

• Change Management: Guides the organization through platform migrations, deprecations, and technology transitions with minimal disruption. 

• Stakeholder Management: Builds and maintains effective relationships with data engineering, security, analytics, and business teams.