Director, Cloud Operations

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Job Description

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Hires, leads, and develops engineering leaders to create high-performing teams.
• Aligns with and provides feedback on the governance of Operational Excellence guidelines for operations engineering practices in partnership with Enterprise Architecture.
• Leads and drives outcomes in alignment with the plan and budget for infrastructure and operational delivery and maintenance.
• Establishes and maintains a complete portfolio of systems and their associated metrics, including automation capabilities, authentication and access, observability, and AWS networking, in conjunction with the Director of Infrastructure Operations.
• Establishes and maintains infrastructure/operations key performance indicators for capacity management and forecasting. Understands and applies the core DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) principles to IaC (Infrastructure as Code) and security remediation.
• Performs regular cost containment exercises for our cloud provider, AWS.
• Provides day-to-day staff management, coaching, mentorship, and development, particularly to junior leaders with Ed Tech.
• Stays current with industry trends and engineering training to grow team and individual talent.
• Aligns with and reinforces University culture.
• Frequently interacts with Senior Directors, VPs, and SVPs to discuss and align with the University's strategic and tactical goals.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

• Leader or leadership skills and experience.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Strategic and tactical planning skills and experience, for growth and management of the engineering capacity.
• Budgeting and financial skills and experience.
• Ability to grow and develop future leaders.
• Ability to drive innovation and improvements to engineering practices and standards.
• Ability to manage and develop individuals' performance against department and organizational goals.
• Good risk management and decision making skills.
• Understanding of IaC (Infrastructure as Code) as realized through Terraform.
• Ability to understand, practice, and mentor team on the appropriate use of Agile within and infrastructure and operational environment, to facilitate planning and delivery.
• Knowledge and experience with AWS (Amazon Web Services) as an implementor.
• Practical experience with change management and communications.
• Practical experience with ITIL and delivery management.
• Ability to manage a team of managers and professionals, with responsibility for creating workforce and staffing plans.
• Ability to oversee the hiring, firing, promotion, performance management, employee training, and other personnel decisions within the department.
• Ability to complete functional tasks, but primarily achieves goals through leading a team.
• Ability to engage collaboration with colleagues and leaders as a primary form of execution.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field
• 9 years of experience in Cloud Operations, preferably in higher education
• 3 years recent experience in an AWS environment.
• 5 years of experience leading an infrastructure team, with at least 3 years at Senior Manager or Director level.

Experience in lieu of education
An equivalent combination of training, experience, credentials, or accomplishments demonstrating the ability to perform the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements.

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.