Director Of Infrastructure

Neo Financial•Calgary, AB

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Infrastructure provides strategic leadership and oversight for Neo's entire technology foundation. This is a senior-level role designed to bridge the gap between technical day-to-day operations and the high-level business goals of the company. You will ensure that all technology infrastructure—including servers, networks, cloud services, and data centers—is reliable, scalable, secure, and cost-effective, allowing the entire business to operate without interruption. Additionally, the Director of Infrastructure maintains strong relationships with all business partners and peers to understand their needs and friction points. You will be responsible for making the appropriate adjustments to team structure and processes, ensuring that Neo supports its highest-value initiatives in a way that delivers value to customers quickly, securely, and with an industry-leading level of reliability.

Requirements

Over a decade of advanced background in technical infrastructure, cloud-native operations, or DevOps, featuring at least five years in executive-level leadership overseeing managers and diverse engineering departments.
Proven capability in managing large-scale infrastructure within highly regulated sectors, such as fintech, healthtech, or the broader financial services landscape.
A history of establishing and executing multi-year technical roadmaps that substantially improve system stability, security protocols, fiscal efficiency, or development speed.
Extensive background in directing 24/7 technical operations, encompassing command of major system incidents and the management of comprehensive post-mortem evaluation programs.
Experience assisting in the development of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) frameworks.
Significant proficiency with major public cloud ecosystems—including AWS, Azure, or GCP—focused on network topology, IAM frameworks, cost management, and complex multi-region designs.
Comprehensive mastery of contemporary infrastructure technologies, specifically Infrastructure-as-Code (such as Terraform), container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, ECS), automated CI/CD workflows (e.g., GitHub Actions, CodePipeline), and full-stack observability tools.
Deep understanding of core networking concepts like VPC architecture, DNS management, edge computing, and zero-trust security models, complemented by expert-level Linux administration.
Familiarity with the complex regulatory landscapes affecting finance (including SOC 2, PCI-DSS, RPAA) and the ability to convert these into concrete technical controls.
Practical knowledge of integrated security strategies, including secret rotation, identity governance, vulnerability mitigation, and the rigorous testing of recovery procedures.
Ability to synthesize commercial strategies into actionable technical plans while effectively articulating architectural trade-offs to executive boards and non-technical partners.
Experience overseeing substantial infrastructure budgets, with a focus on resource forecasting, cloud financial governance, and the negotiation of strategic vendor agreements.
Effective people management skills, including talent acquisition, professional development, and cultivating a workplace centered on extreme ownership and continuous operational refinement.
Sophisticated communication abilities, with the confidence to deliver high-impact presentations to C-suite leadership, external auditors, and board members.
University degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent level of industry experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience assisting in the development of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) frameworks, platform engineering units, or error-budgeting models.
Background in expanding technical foundations within rapid-growth startup environments or scale-up organizations.
Prior involvement in managing infrastructure for financial institutions operating across multiple jurisdictions or specifically within Canada.
Advanced professional certifications such as AWS Professional Architect or CISSP.

Responsibilities

Define and own the long-term strategic roadmap for all IT infrastructure, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Translate business needs and goals into clear, actionable technical requirements and a long-term plan for the infrastructure team.
Advise C-suite and executive leadership on technology trends, opportunities, and risks.
Lead, mentor, and manage a team of infrastructure professionals, including systems administrators, network engineers, and DevOps specialists.
Define the hiring strategy, manage performance, and foster a culture of operational excellence, innovation, and accountability.
Periodically adapt and align processes and team structures to meet current business needs and priorities.
Be ultimately accountable for the performance, reliability, and uptime of all technology infrastructure, ensuring adherence to critical Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Oversee and refine IT governance frameworks, policies, and procedures to optimize service delivery, including the continuous collection of evidence and periodic review and execution of key testing processes.
Lead and orchestrate the response to major incidents and system outages, ensuring rapid resolution and minimal business impact.
Develop and manage the IT infrastructure budget, making strategic decisions on technology investments and resource allocation.
Manage and negotiate relationships with key technology vendors and cloud service providers to ensure cost-effectiveness and service quality.
Partner with the Information Security team to implement robust security controls, policies, and practices across the infrastructure.
Oversee the development, implementation, and regular testing of disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
Identify and mitigate infrastructure-related risks to protect the company's data and systems.