Infrastructure and Cloud Operations Lead

Infrastructure and Cloud Operations Lead

Location: City of Industry, CA (On-Site)

Full-Time Employment with CLIENT

Position Summary

Our Direct client is seeking an Infrastructure and Cloud Operations Lead to provide hands-on ownership and directional leadership of their hybrid IT environment across all offices nationally.

As a lean IT organization, this role combines direct technical execution with responsibility for guiding the evolution of their cloud and infrastructure strategy. The individual will actively manage day-to-day operations while helping define, standardize, and mature the infrastructure/cloud posture over time.

This position establishes durable operational accountability, strengthens reliability, and ensures disciplined execution across cloud, on-premises, and end-user environments.

Core Responsibilities

Hybrid Infrastructure and Cloud Leadership (Hands-On)

• Directly administer public cloud and on-premises systems
• Operate and optimize Microsoft-centric cloud stack (Entra, Intune, Azure IaaS/PaaS)
• Lead evaluation, direction, and optimization of cloud architecture and platform strategy
• Define infrastructure standards and configuration baselines
• Ensure system availability, scalability, and performance
• Perform troubleshooting, optimization, and lifecycle improvements
• Maintain current infrastructure documentation and architecture diagrams

Operational Governance and Change Discipline

• Implement and enforce structured change management processes
• Establish monitoring, alerting, and operational visibility standards
• Reduce configuration drift and unmanaged system variance
• Ensure disciplined patching, maintenance, and upgrade cycles
• Maintain clear documentation of system changes and infrastructure state

Security Implementation and Infrastructure Hardening

• Partner with fractional CISO to execute infrastructure security initiatives
• Implement identity, access, endpoint, and network security controls (Entra, Conditional Access, EDR/NDR)
• Maintain secure configuration baselines across cloud and on-prem systems
• Remediate vulnerabilities and support audit requirements

Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity

• Maintain and optimize backup and recovery architecture
• Conduct periodic disaster recovery testing
• Refine recovery procedures and improve recovery time performance
• Strengthen infrastructure resiliency across locations

IT Service Delivery and End-User Support

• Oversee and actively support service desk operations
• Provide escalation support for complex technical issues
• Coordinate desktop support across offices
• Track service metrics and identify recurring issue trends
• Drive root-cause resolution to improve stability

IT Asset Management and Technology Lifecycle

• Maintain accurate tracking of hardware, software, and cloud resource utilization
• Support technology lifecycle planning and replacement forecasting
• Provide visibility into asset inventory and infrastructure-related spend
• Identify redundant or underutilized resources

Vendor and Partner Coordination

• Serve as operational lead for infrastructure-related vendors
• Evaluate managed services and cloud providers as needed
• Ensure effective knowledge transfer from modernization initiatives
• Align vendor performance with internal operational standards

Qualifications and Experience

• 7+ years of progressive, hands-on infrastructure engineering experience
• Strong experience designing and operating hybrid cloud environments (Azure and OCI a primary focus)
• Experience guiding cloud architecture decisions in small-to-mid-sized organizations
• Comfort operating in lean IT environments requiring direct execution
• Working knowledge of IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks (e.g., ITIL)
• Familiarity with IT Asset Management best practices
• Solid networking fundamentals (firewalls, VPNs, SD-WAN, routing, subnets)
• Experience supporting multi-site / multi-branch organizations preferred

Technical Skills

• Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) administration
• Conditional Access policy design and enforcement
• Microsoft Intune (device management, compliance, endpoint configuration)
• Azure Infrastructure (Virtual Machines, networking, resource governance)
• Azure Virtual Desktop (general understanding and support)
• Azure hybrid infrastructure and networking (on-prem to cloud integration)
• Windows Server administration and Active Directory management
• Multi-site network architecture, routing, and subnet design
• Branch connectivity technologies (SD-WAN concepts and operations)
• Firewall platforms (Palo Alto preferred)

Security & Monitoring Tooling (Preferred Experience)

• Threat & Vulnerability Management (e.g., Tenable)
• Network Monitoring (e.g., WhatsUp Gold or equivalent)
• Endpoint Detection & Response (e.g., Cortex or equivalent)
• Network Detection & Response (e.g., Darktrace or equivalent)

Preferred Certifications

(At least one strongly desired, in priority order)

• MD-101 – Modern Desktop Administrator (Entra / Intune focus)
• AZ-800 – Windows Server Hybrid Administrator
• AZ-104 – Azure Administrator (core infrastructure)
• MS-102 – Microsoft 365 Administrator