Digital Workplace Operations Lead

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies•Irvine, CA

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Digital Workplace Operations Lead to be the operational and technical anchor for a team that owns the platforms the entire company works on — Google Workspace, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence), Slack, Zoom, AV, AI tooling, and the security, licensing, and custom solutions that surround them. This role balances delivery ownership, process discipline, and hands-on technical judgment. You will lead a mixed team of engineers and program/project managers, own the operating cadence, and act as the senior point of contact for key stakeholders who expect a direct, accountable owner rather than a hand-off. You'll partner closely with senior leadership to drive clarity, alignment, and impact across the organization while also acting as a key external-facing representative of the business. This role reports directly to the Sr. Manager, Digital Workplace and is 3 days flex a week in our Irvine, California office

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
7+ years in IT engineering, platform operations, or digital workplace/collaboration engineering, with 2+ years leading people or owning delivery for a team.
Hands-on depth in one or more core collaboration platforms — Google Workspace, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence), Slack, or Zoom — and the judgment to lead across the full stack.
Proven ability to run a delivery cadence across mixed work types (project work, fast-turn requests, and operational support) and drive accountability without micromanaging.
Strong understanding of ITIL/ITSM practices (Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request) and how they apply to platform operations.
Experience leading platform migrations or large change programs end to end.
Excellent stakeholder management — comfortable being the accountable owner in front of demanding internal and partner stakeholders.
Comfort working in a fast-moving, scaling environment with ambiguity and shifting priorities.
Bias toward automation, root-cause elimination, documentation, and operational excellence.
Experience with IT service management tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management).

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with infrastructure monitoring tools.
Experience with vendor contract negotiation and management.
Project management experience or certification (e.g., PMP).
Exposure to AI/productivity tooling and platform governance (e.g., Glean, Gemini, Claude, developer tooling) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end delivery across two lanes of work: roadmap-driven platform programs (sprints and milestone delivery) and operational service engineering covering run-the-business support, fast-turn business requests, and SLA-bound incident and request work.
Run the team's weekly operating cadence — sprint planning, standups, priority and PM syncs — and keep cross-squad dependencies visible and unblocked.
Serve as the senior technical and operational point of contact for key stakeholders, providing direct ownership and continuity on commitments.
Drive delivery on critical migration and platform programs (e.g., ServiceNow → JSM, Google decoupling, Microsoft tenant migration, app rationalization), partnering with program/project managers on scope, timeline, and risk.
Set and enforce operational discipline across the platforms we own — change review before production changes, documentation standards, and ownership clarity across every squad.
Establish a problem-management mindset: identify recurring platform issues, trigger root-cause analysis, and ensure permanent fixes rather than repeat firefighting.
Lead, mentor, and develop engineers and PMs. Create clear ownership and accountability so work doesn't route back through a single point of escalation.
Own platform reliability and performance reporting — SLA adherence, backlog health, incident and request trends — and report regularly to leadership.
Partner with the Security & Compliance function to ensure platforms meet governance, audit, and identity/SSO requirements.
Drive automation and self-service across collaboration and productivity workflows to reduce manual operational load.
Support licensing optimization and vendor performance, ensuring contracted outcomes and SLAs are met.
Contribute to the Digital Workplace roadmap and continuous-improvement initiatives as an active voice on platform direction.