Manager, DevOps

Job Title:                              Manager, DevOps                       

Reports To:                         Senior Director, Engineering

FLSA Status:                       Exempt

Department:                      IT

JOB SUMMARY:  Responsible for leading the design, implementation, and operation of the organization's cloud infrastructure, platform services, and DevOps practices. This role oversees infrastructure reliability, security, automation, and cloud cost optimization while supporting the delivery of scalable, secure, and highly available technology solutions. The Manager, DevOps, leads and develops a team of DevOps engineers and partners closely with Engineering, Security, and Product teams to support business and technology objectives.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Leadership and Strategy:
  • Lead, mentor, and grow a team of DevOps/platform engineers
  • Define and drive the infrastructure roadmap aligned with product and engineering goals
  • Establish and enforce DevOps best practices, standards, and operational runbooks
  • Partner closely with software engineering, security, and product teams
• Hands-On Engineering:
  • Architect, deploy, and manage Kubernetes (K8s) clusters across AWS (kOps, EKS) and GCP (GKE)
  • Manage and optimize Apache Kafka infrastructure for event-driven and streaming workloads
  • Implement and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Helm, or similar tools
  • Actively contribute to infrastructure code, configurations, and automation — not just reviews
• Networking and Security:
  • Design and manage cloud networking including VPCs, subnets, peering, Transit Gateway, etc
  • Configure and maintain load balancers, API gateways, DNS, and TLS/SSL certificate management
  • Implement zero-trust networking principles and enforce least-privilege access controls
  • Collaborate with security teams to ensure compliance with fintech regulatory requirements (SOC 2, PCI-DSS, etc.)
  • Manage firewalls, WAFs, and network security groups across cloud environments
• Cloud Cost Optimization:
  • Own cloud cost visibility, budgeting, and optimization across AWS and GCP
  • Identify and eliminate wasteful spend through rightsizing, reserved instances, and autoscaling strategies

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the minimum knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• 7+ years of experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, or infrastructure roles
• 2+ years in a leadership or management capacity with direct reports
• Proven hands-on experience — this role requires someone who still codes and builds, not just manages
• Deep expertise with Kubernetes (K8s) including cluster management, RBAC, & autoscaling
• Strong experience with AWS (EKS, EC2, RDS, S3, IAM, VPC, Route 53, etc.)
• Solid experience with GCP (GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud Networking, IAM)
• Hands-on experience managing Apache Kafka clusters and streaming infrastructure
• Strong networking fundamentals — TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/S, load balancing, VPN, VPC peering, and service mesh
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, or CloudFormation
• Demonstrated success in cloud cost optimization with measurable results
• Scripting and automation skills in Python, Bash, or Go
• Strong understanding of security best practices in cloud-native environments

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Knowledge of FinOps practices and frameworks. (We currently use DoIt for Finops)
• Knowledge of observability tools (e.g., Grafana, Prometheus)
• Experience with GitLab features including security dashboards and CI/CD configurations.
• Prior experience migrating from Atlassian tooling (Bitbucket, Bamboo) to GitLab in an enterprise environment
• Fintech Domain Experience:
  • Familiarity with loan origination systems (LOS)
  • Experience working with loan servicing platforms (e.g., Loanpro)
  • Understanding of end-to-end lending workflows including application intake, underwriting, decisioning, funding, and post-close processes
  • Knowledge of consumer lending products such as personal loans, auto loans, mortgages, or lines of credit
  • Awareness of regulatory and compliance requirements in lending (e.g., TILA, RESPA, ECOA, HMDA)
  • Experience integrating with credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) or third-party data providers for identity verification and risk decisioning

COMPETENCIES:

• Customer Service: Exceptional attitude and a passion for providing outstanding service to internal customers.
• Technical Leadership: Provides technical direction and guidance for infrastructure, cloud platforms, and DevOps practices. Makes sound technical decisions that support scalability, reliability, security, and business objectives.
• People Leadership & Development: Builds, develops, and motivates high-performing teams through coaching, mentoring, performance management, and talent development.
• Operational Excellence: Establishes and maintains processes, standards, and controls that drive system reliability, availability, performance, security, and continuous improvement.
• Execution & Results Orientation: Effectively prioritizes work, manages resources, and drives the successful delivery of infrastructure and platform initiatives while balancing speed, quality, and operational risk.
• Automation & Continuous Improvement: Promotes automation, efficiency, and innovation through the adoption of DevOps best practices, infrastructure as code, and continuous integration and deployment methodologies.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partners effectively with Engineering, Product, Security, and business stakeholders to align priorities, resolve issues, and achieve organizational goals.
• Business & Financial Acumen: Understands the business impact of technology decisions and effectively manages cloud resources, vendor relationships, and infrastructure investments to optimize cost and value.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY
This position is responsible for the direct supervision a designated group of software developers.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, reach, and sit for a minimum of 8 hours with or without reasonable accommodation. The employee is required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects and/or tools. The employee is required to talk or hear with or without reasonable accommodation and must sometimes lift and move up to 10 pounds.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
While performing the logistics duties of this job, the employee is frequently exposed to moderate noises such as computers, printers, and other light traffic noise in an office setting.

This role is in-office. Remote work may be performed from a pre-approved location, as arranged, and scheduled by team management and approved by department leadership.

OTHER DUTIES

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be supplemented at any time with or without notice.