Director, Cloud Engineering and Operations
About The Position
Enterprise AI Platforms & Infrastructure (EAIPI) powers Cisco’s digital transformation by owning and operating the full infrastructure stack—including data centers, GPU clusters, storage, orchestration, and full-stack observability—within a complex hybrid-cloud environment. Our mission is to provide robust AI and infrastructure capabilities to Cisco’s global enterprise, product business units, and workforce. We operate as "Customer Zero," partnering with Cisco product organizations to validate new technologies under real-world production conditions, ensuring operational excellence and reliability before external release. There is a strong preference for candidates based in San Jose (SJC) or Milpitas, California or Raleigh-Durham (RTP), North Carolina, to enable onsite collaboration 2-3 days per week. As the Director of Cloud Operations, you will lead the strategy, engineering, and operational excellence of Cisco’s enterprise multi-cloud ecosystem (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and others). Positioned at the intersection of infrastructure, security, developer velocity, and financial efficiency, you will influence how thousands of Cisco engineers build and operate cloud workloads. You will define and enforce cloud governance and compliance, drive developer enablement through a product-led approach, manage enterprise FinOps and cloud economics, and lead cloud operations toward autonomous, AI-native infrastructure. Success in this role means maintaining 24/7 operational resilience, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and scaling a diverse, world-class engineering organization.
Requirements
- 12+ years of progressive cloud engineering experience, including 5+ years in senior leadership managing managers and technical leads in large enterprises.
- 10+ years of expertise in multi-cloud architecture and operations across AWS, Azure, GCP, and hybrid environments.
- 5+ years of experience scaling FinOps frameworks, governance models, and cost-management tools (e.g., Cloudability or cloud-native tools).
- 5+ years of experience of modern SRE practices, observability platforms (Splunk, Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and CI/CD automation.
- AWS/GCP Professional Certifications and FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP).
- Experience with agentic workflows, AIOps, and AI-driven automation in enterprise IT.
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale organizational transformations and complex platform migrations.
- Exceptional communication skills to translate complex technical requirements into executive business strategy.
Responsibilities
- Lead the strategy, engineering, and operational excellence of Cisco’s enterprise multi-cloud ecosystem (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and others).
- Define and enforce cloud governance and compliance.
- Drive developer enablement through a product-led approach.
- Manage enterprise FinOps and cloud economics.
- Lead cloud operations toward autonomous, AI-native infrastructure.
- Maintain 24/7 operational resilience.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning.
- Scale a diverse, world-class engineering organization.
Benefits
- medical, dental and vision insurance
- a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
- paid parental leave
- short and long-term disability coverage
- basic life insurance
- grants of Cisco restricted stock units
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year
- 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
- paid year-end holiday shutdown
- 4 paid days off for personal wellness
- 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (non-exempt)
- flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
- up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
- annual bonuses (for non-sales roles)
- performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
No Education Listed
