Principal Cloud Platform Operations Lead

Herring Bank•Amarillo, TX

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Herring Bank is seeking a hands-on Principal Cloud Platform Operations Lead to oversee the bank’s cloud platform, DevOps, database, Linux, application operations, and deployment automation functions. This is a senior-level player/coach role requiring both technical leadership and hands-on operational expertise. The ideal candidate will lead engineers, establish technical direction, review deployment strategies, approve production changes, and actively participate in troubleshooting and operational governance. This position will play a key role in modernizing infrastructure and application operations while maintaining the operational discipline required within a regulated financial institution. Texas-based candidates are preferred. Hybrid or remote work may be considered for exceptional candidates; however, regular travel to Amarillo and other Herring Bank locations is required. An in-person interview will be required prior to any offer being extended.

Requirements

Strong technical leadership with the ability to remain hands-on in engineering and operational functions
Deep understanding of cloud infrastructure, DevOps, CI/CD, Linux administration, and application operations
Experience operating in regulated or high-control environments with strong governance expectations
Ability to communicate effectively with engineers, executives, auditors, vendors, and business stakeholders
Strong troubleshooting, operational governance, and production support experience
Ability to mentor technical teams while driving modernization and operational excellence
10+ years of progressive experience in cloud operations, DevOps, platform engineering, Linux administration, infrastructure engineering, or related technical roles
5+ years of experience leading technical teams or serving as a senior technical lead
Strong hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and production cloud operations
Experience building and supporting CI/CD pipelines
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or similar platforms
Strong Linux administration experience
Experience with container technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, Podman, or similar platforms
Experience supporting relational database platforms and production application environments
Experience reviewing production deployments, infrastructure code, and operational changes
Understanding of change management, operational controls, audit expectations, and risk management
Strong written and verbal communication skills

Nice To Haves

Experience within banking, financial services, healthcare, insurance, or other regulated industries
Experience with AWS or similar enterprise cloud platforms
Experience with mobile application deployment pipelines
Experience with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar tooling
Experience with Kubernetes, ECS, EKS, OpenShift, or similar orchestration platforms
Experience with secrets management, artifact repositories, image scanning, and software supply chain controls
Experience modernizing legacy Linux-hosted applications
Relevant cloud, Linux, DevOps, or infrastructure certifications are a plus

Responsibilities

Lead operational direction for cloud-hosted platforms and deployment automation
Build and govern CI/CD pipelines for application and infrastructure deployments
Establish Infrastructure-as-Code standards and deployment practices
Support modernization efforts toward containerized and automated production environments
Define deployment workflows, rollback procedures, monitoring standards, and operational support practices
Lead modernization of Linux-based and application-hosting environments
Support and improve containerized deployment practices
Establish operational standards for runtime support, patching, monitoring, backups, and lifecycle management
Balance modernization initiatives with production stability and business continuity
Oversee production deployment pipelines for cloud, application, and mobile workloads
Review infrastructure code, deployment changes, and automation prior to production release
Ensure releases are properly tested, documented, approved, and supportable
Review and approve change management requests while ensuring compliance with operational controls and audit requirements
Provide leadership over database operations and Linux platform administration
Ensure production systems are monitored, secured, patched, and maintained according to operational standards
Improve application operations through enhanced monitoring, documentation, and deployment consistency
Support legacy environments while driving practical modernization initiatives
Improve observability, alerting, dashboards, and service health monitoring
Participate directly in major incident response and root cause analysis
Translate operational lessons learned into improved automation, procedures, and reliability standards
Help define operational metrics surrounding deployment quality, vulnerability remediation, and platform stability