Technical Platform Services Leader

Job Summary

The Platform Services Leader is responsible for the strategy, delivery, governance, modernization, and operational excellence of enterprise platform services that underpin the organization's technology ecosystem. This role provides leadership across compute, storage, virtualization, database platforms, middleware, backup and recovery, operating systems, automation platforms, and hybrid cloud infrastructure, ensuring that platform services are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned with business objectives.
The Platform Services Leader will drive the transformation of traditional infrastructure toward an AI-enabled, automated, and cloud-integrated operating model. Working closely with Cloud, Security, Network, Workforce Services, Service Delivery Management, and Architecture teams, this role is accountable for platform stability, service performance, capacity planning, operational efficiency, technology modernization, and continual service improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Leadership
•    Develop and execute the enterprise Platform Services strategy aligned with business priorities, technology roadmaps, and digital transformation initiatives.
•    Define target-state platform architectures supporting infrastructure modernization, automation, cloud adoption, and technology standardization.
•    Lead operational and strategic planning activities for platform technologies and services.
•    Establish governance frameworks, operating standards, and performance objectives for platform services.
•    Serve as the executive owner for platform service delivery and transformation programs.
Platform Operations & Service Delivery
•    Lead the delivery and support of enterprise platform services, including servers, operating systems, virtualization platforms, databases, middleware, storage, backup, and related infrastructure components.
•    Ensure platform services achieve availability, reliability, performance, and recovery objectives.
•    Manage operational support activities across 24x7 service environments.
•    Oversee incident, problem, change, capacity, and availability management for platform services.
•    Ensure platform operations align with service management standards, governance requirements, and business expectations.

Key Responsibilities (continued)

Infrastructure Modernization & Transformation
•   Drive platform modernization initiatives, including cloud migration, infrastructure consolidation, virtualization expansion, and technology refresh programs.
•    Develop roadmaps to reduce technical debt and simplify platform complexity.
•    Lead migration from legacy platforms to modern cloud-enabled and software-defined environments.
•    Support enterprise transformation objectives through standardized and scalable platform services.
•    Partner with architecture teams to implement future-state technology capabilities.
Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure Enablement
•    Collaborate with Cloud and DevOps teams to establish integrated hybrid infrastructure solutions.
•    Ensure platform services support cloud-first strategies and application modernization initiatives.
•    Lead adoption of platform engineering and infrastructure-as-code capabilities.
•    Optimize platform resources across on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud environments.
•    Drive operational consistency across hybrid technology landscapes.

Key Responsibilities (continued)

Automation, AI & Operational Intelligence
•    Implement automation strategies focused on provisioning, monitoring, maintenance, patching, and service recovery activities.
•    Leverage AI-enabled operations (AIOps), analytics, and observability platforms to improve service quality and operational efficiency.
•    Drive predictive monitoring and proactive platform management practices.
•    Reduce manual intervention through orchestration, self-healing capabilities, and intelligent automation.
•    Partner with AI and automation teams to develop innovative platform management solutions.
Capacity, Performance & Resilience Management
•    Establish enterprise platform capacity planning, performance management, and demand forecasting processes.
•    Ensure infrastructure resources are aligned with business growth and technology requirements.
•    Oversee platform resilience, disaster recovery, backup, and business continuity capabilities.
•    Lead performance optimization initiatives across compute, storage, database, and middleware environments.
•    Ensure service resiliency through proactive risk identification and mitigation.

Key Responsibilities (continued)

Security, Compliance & Risk Management
•    Partner with Security Services teams to ensure platforms comply with enterprise security policies and governance standards.
•    Ensure secure configuration management, patching, vulnerability remediation, and access controls across platform environments.
•    Support audit, compliance, regulatory, and risk management requirements.
•    Maintain platform governance controls supporting operational and cybersecurity resilience.
•    Integrate security-by-design principles into all platform lifecycle activities.

Required Skills & Experience

Education
•    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Professional Experience
•    12+ years of experience in infrastructure operations, platform engineering, enterprise technology, or managed services environments.
•    Minimum 7 years of leadership experience managing platform, infrastructure, or data center services.
•    Proven experience leading large-scale platform transformation and modernization initiatives.
•    Experience working within complex, multi-vendor, enterprise-scale infrastructure environments.
•    Demonstrated success leading geographically distributed operations and engineering teams.

Required Skills & Experience (continued)

Technical Expertise
•    Deep expertise in server infrastructure, operating systems, virtualization, storage, backup, databases, and middleware technologies.
•    Strong understanding of hybrid cloud platforms and modern infrastructure architectures.
•    Experience with platform automation, orchestration, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and DevOps principles.
•    Knowledge of enterprise monitoring, observability, analytics, and AIOps platforms.
•    Understanding of capacity management, performance engineering, high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity disciplines.
•    Experience with cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.
•    Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks and platforms such as ServiceNow.
•    Strong understanding of infrastructure security, compliance, governance, and risk management practices.

Leadership & Business Skills
•    Exceptional leadership and organizational management capabilities.
•    Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
•    Ability to align platform strategies with business and operational objectives.
•    Strong analytical, financial, and decision-making skills.
•    Proven experience driving technology transformation and operational excellence initiatives.
•    Ability to influence strategic technology decisions across multiple stakeholder groups.
•    Customer-focused mindset with strong service orientation.

Certifications

Preferred Certifications
•    Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
•    AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional.
•    Google Professional Cloud Architect.
•    VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or equivalent virtualization certification.
•    Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or equivalent.
•    ITIL Managing Professional or ITIL Strategic Leader.
•    TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification.
•    Relevant automation, cloud, platform, or infrastructure certifications.

Success Measures
•    Achievement of platform availability, performance, and resilience targets.
•    Successful execution of platform modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
•    Improved operational efficiency through automation and AIOps adoption.
•    Reduction of platform incidents, outages, and technical debt.
•    Increased infrastructure standardization and service quality.
•    Successful delivery of cost optimization and resource efficiency objectives.
•    Strong compliance, security, and audit outcomes across platform services.
•    High stakeholder satisfaction and business confidence in platform capabilities.