Director, Cloud Engineering

Position Summary

The Director of Cloud Services is a senior leader responsible for setting strategic direction and driving operational excellence across the organization's on-premises cloud infrastructure portfolio. This individual brings visionary thinking paired with technical depth--architecting scalable cloud systems, championing innovation, and building high-performing teams that deliver measurable business outcomes. The role demands a decisive leader who can align cloud strategy with enterprise goals, cultivate a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, and serve as a trusted advisor to peers, stakeholders, and executive leadership.

Strategic Leadership & Core Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

• Define and own the enterprise on-premises cloud strategy--encompassing VMware, KVM, and Hyper-V platforms--aligning infrastructure direction with long-term business objectives and market opportunities.
• implement a forward-looking technology roadmap that integrates modern cloud automation, software-defined data center principles, and emerging industry innovations.
• Serve as a strategic advisor and technical authority for engineering staff, product development, sales engineering and cross-functional stakeholders on cloud infrastructure decisions, investments, and risk posture.
• Drive continuous improvement across service delivery, operational efficiency, and cost optimization while ensuring cloud investments yield measurable ROI.

Building & Leading High-Performing Teams

• Recruit, develop, and retain exceptional talent--building a diverse team of cloud engineers, network engineers, and engineering managers capable of executing at scale.
• Define clear roles, performance expectations, and career ladders that enable team members to grow into broader leadership responsibilities.
• Implement structured onboarding, knowledge-sharing programs, and succession planning to build organizational resilience and depth.
• Serve as an active coach and mentor to managers and senior engineers--investing in their technical mastery, leadership skills, and professional trajectories.
• Lead by example--demonstrating the technical credibility, executive presence, and leadership behaviors that set the standard for the organization.

Infrastructure & Operations

• Oversee the design, deployment, maintenance, and optimization of on-premises cloud infrastructure including VMware, KVM, and Microsoft Hyper-V.
• Ensure platform uptime, performance, and security across all cloud services while driving a proactive operational posture that anticipates and mitigates risk.
• Direct engineering efforts around automation, orchestration, and tooling that reduce toil and improve deployment velocity and reliability.
• Maintain technical authority across Windows Server, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu/Debian), networking (switches, routers, firewalls), and disaster recovery solutions (Zerto, Veeam/Acronis) for the cloud.
• Collaborate with product development to ensure cloud service offerings are well-defined, competitive, and delivered within designated timelines.
• Manage the full lifecycle of vendor relationships, from evaluation and selection through contract negotiation, performance governance, and renewal, ensuring alignment with organizational requirements and commercial objectives.
• Define and enforce vendor SLAs and escalation protocols, that protect service continuity.
• Evaluate the vendor landscape to identify consolidation opportunities, emerging technologies, and partnerships that reduce cost and increase capability.

Qualifications & Experience

• 7-10 years of progressive experience designing, implementing, and managing large-scale virtual server environments, with deep hands-on expertise across VMware (vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, vRealize Suite), KVM (CloudStack), Hyper-V, and Linux-based systems (RHEL/Ubuntu/Debian).
• Experience with disaster recovery solutions (Zerto) and backup platforms (Veeam/Acronis); familiarity with cloud automation and orchestration frameworks.
• Minimum 5 years in a senior leadership or management capacity, with a demonstrated track record of building and scaling high-performing technical teams in fast-paced, customer-facing environments.
• Proven executive presence and communication skills, able to translate complex technical concepts for executive audiences and discuss strategic decisions with data-driven recommendations.
• Strong command of security, networking, and storage principles within cloud environments, including software-defined data center (SDDC) architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and hire highly technical engineering staff.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience with relevant certifications (VCP, RHCE, MCSE) accepted.