Cloud Operations Lead

Overview

Lead end-to-end cloud operations, ensuring the availability, reliability, security, performance and resilience of cloud platforms and services, and provide governance over a large third-party managed services organisation.

What you'll do

• Oversee cloud operations and drive operational excellence through automation and AI-driven solutions delivered by internal resources and third-party partners.
• Work with product and engineering teams to define operational support patterns for each cloud product.
• Oversee cloud infrastructure monitoring and ensure support when issues occur across multi-cloud (AWS, Azure and GCP), databases, Citrix, CMDB and scope management, FinOps, patching, vulnerability management, backup, incident, problem and change management, and compliance and audit support.
• Define and drive the cloud operations strategy through automation, AIOps and AI-driven capabilities to enable predictive operations, intelligent incident management and operational excellence.
• Champion self-service capabilities, operational dashboards and auto-healing frameworks to enhance service resilience, efficiency and scalability.
• Define and execute the Cloud Operations strategy and operating model, aligning operational objectives with business and technology priorities.
• Own the operational governance of a large third-party managed services provider, ensuring delivery against contractual commitments, KPIs, SLAs, OLAs and service quality standards.
• Drive vendor performance through Management Service Reviews (MSRs), governance forums, performance scorecards and continuous service improvement initiatives.
• Provide executive oversight of ITSM processes, including Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change and Service Request Management.
• Act as the senior operational escalation point for critical incidents, ensuring effective stakeholder communication and timely service restoration.
• Establish and monitor operational dashboards, KPIs, service health metrics and executive reporting to drive data-driven decision-making.
• Ensure cloud operations comply with security, risk, audit, regulatory and governance requirements.
• Lead operational readiness, capacity planning, resilience, disaster recovery and business continuity for cloud services.
• Collaborate with business, architecture, engineering, cybersecurity and platform teams to ensure seamless service delivery and continual improvement.
• Own performance reporting and provide clear, actionable insights to support operational governance and decision-making.
• Ensure cloud infrastructure is regularly checked to maintain availability and meet performance SLAs, and complete performance tuning and runbook activities when required.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field.
• Solid experience in IT Infrastructure and Cloud Operations, with significant experience leading enterprise-scale cloud operations.
• Proven experience managing cloud platforms (Azure, Google and/or AWS Cloud Platform) and hybrid cloud environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading large Cloud Operations teams, including governance of third-party managed service providers.
• Proven experience managing vendor performance through KPIs, SLAs, OLAs, contractual governance, Management Service Reviews (MSRs) and continuous service improvement.
• Strong understanding of cloud operations, infrastructure management, site reliability, operational resilience and service lifecycle management.
• Experience driving operational transformation through automation, AIOps, AI-enabled operations and self-service capabilities.
• Strong knowledge of ITSM processes, including Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Availability, Capacity and Service Level Management.
• Strong understanding of enterprise IT operations and service management platforms, including ServiceNow (e.g., ITOM Pro), and other industry-leading monitoring, observability and automation tools.
• Good understanding of cloud security, risk management, compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery principles, along with familiarity with vulnerability management and security tooling such as Qualys, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) and Wiz, and cloud-native security and patching capabilities across Azure, Google and AWS Cloud Platform.
• Familiarity with cloud-native monitoring, observability and AIOps platforms, and leading enterprise solutions such as Grafana, Prometheus, ELK Stack, Dynatrace, Splunk or similar technologies.
• Strong understanding of DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD and modern cloud operational practices.
• Deep understanding of cloud architecture with hands-on experience designing High-Level Designs (HLDs) and Low-Level Designs (LLDs) for new technology initiatives, proofs of concept (PoCs) and enterprise solutions, including AIOps, MLOps and automation platforms.
• Excellent leadership, people management, coaching and organisational development skills.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage effectively with business leaders, technology teams, vendors and executive management.
• Excellent analytical, decision-making and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage complex operational environments.
• Strong communication, presentation and influencing skills, with experience presenting operational performance and strategic initiatives to senior leadership.
• Hands-on experience in IT Operations and support with organisations operating in Mode 1 and 2.
• Understanding of enterprise IT management frameworks (e.g. ITIL v4 processes, DevOps, Agile).
• Strong, creative problem solving and analytical in nature.
• Self-motivated, energetic and tenacious, and working well under pressure.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise deadlines is a must.
• Good verbal and written communication and documentation skills with close attention to detail and accuracy.
• A keen interest in new technologies and willingness to research and self-study to keep technical skills relevant.
• Skilled in building a strong rapport with customer and internal support teams in a managed services environment.

Nice to have

• ITIL certification (Foundation, Managing Professional or Expert) or equivalent service management experience.
• Relevant cloud certifications (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS) are an added advantage.

Details

• Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
• Work mode: Hybrid, with teams in the office around four days a week.