Lead Azure & Technical Operations

We are looking for an experienced Operations Lead to oversee the day-to-day technical operations of a large-scale, cloud-based digital platform. The role will be responsible for ensuring high availability, reliability, security, performance, and scalability while leading a team of technical operations and support professionals. The successful candidate will have strong experience in cloud operations, Azure/GCP, DevOps, infrastructure, incident management, IT service management, and technical team leadership. You will work closely with engineering, architecture, security, project management, vendors, and business stakeholders to maintain operational excellence and drive continuous improvement. Key Responsibilities Lead day-to-day technical and platform operations, ensuring availability, reliability, and performance. Manage and mentor technical operations and support teams. Monitor and optimize Microsoft Azure / Google Cloud infrastructure, resources, performance, and costs. Establish and manage incident, problem, change, and service management processes. Lead response and resolution of critical incidents and service disruptions. Develop and maintain disaster recovery, business continuity, and emergency response plans. Conduct capacity planning and ensure infrastructure can scale with business requirements. Work closely with security and compliance teams to maintain appropriate security controls and standards. Identify operational risks and develop mitigation and remediation plans. Manage third-party vendors, technology partners, and service providers. Drive automation and operational improvements using DevOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices. Maintain technical documentation, operational procedures, architecture information, and runbooks. Establish and monitor operational KPIs, SLAs, availability, performance, and service health metrics. Prepare regular operational reports and present key issues, risks, and performance indicators to senior management. Support operational budgeting, forecasting, and expenditure tracking. Promote ITIL and service management best practices across technical operations. Collaborate with engineering, solution architecture, project management, security, and business teams on major initiatives. Continuously identify opportunities to improve reliability, efficiency, scalability, and operational maturity. Requirements Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline. 8+ years of experience in technical operations, infrastructure, cloud operations, or similar environments, including experience in a leadership capacity. Strong hands-on knowledge of Microsoft Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, networking, compute, storage, monitoring, security, and scalability. Experience with DevOps practices and Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Strong experience in incident, problem, change, and service management. Experience managing critical production environments with high availability requirements. Knowledge of disaster recovery, business continuity, backup, and resilience strategies. Strong understanding of cybersecurity, cloud security, compliance, and operational risk management. Experience with technical monitoring, performance management, capacity planning, and troubleshooting. Proven experience leading technical teams and managing multiple priorities. Experience managing technology vendors and third-party service providers. Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder-management skills. Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, enterprise technology environment. Preferred Certifications Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect ITIL certification Relevant DevOps / Cloud certifications