Head of Cloud and DevOps Consulting

We’re hiring a Head of Cloud & DevOps Consulting!Employment Type: Full-Time/Direct HireLocation: Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC, New York City & Charlotte, NC Metro AreasLocation Type: Hybrid - 1-2 days onsite per week - Home Office/Local Ippon office 
About Ippon:The Ippon story started in 2002 in Paris, France - cue in the accordion. Our founder and CEO Stéphane Nomis used his unique experience as an international Judo champion to create a culture based on the sports values of ambition and excellence. Our USA Headquarters office is located in Richmond, VA, with additional offices in New York, NY,  Washington DC, and Atlanta, GA. We are a technology consulting firm that specializes in helping accelerate our client’s digital roadmap in the areas of Product Management, Cloud, DevOps, Data, AI, and Software Engineering. Expanding partnerships is the top priority in our strategy, and we are proud to be a Premier Snowflake Partner and an Advanced AWS Partner. Ippon stands out through its industry expertise, technical excellence, and a distinctive coaching mindset.
About the position:Ippon is seeking an experienced and dynamic Head of Cloud and DevOps Consulting to lead and manage a team of highly-skilled cloud engineering, architecture, and DevOps consultants. The Head of Cloud Consulting is a hands-on consulting leader with technical, business, and people responsibilities. This role acts as the subject matter expert and thought leadership advocate for Ippon’s services, responsible for developing, managing, and expanding the practice, and demonstrating standards for collaboration and drive.

Roles and Responsibilities:

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Technical Strategy & Architecture
• Conduct thorough assessments of client environments using methodologies like the Well-Architected Framework to identify key strengths, address potential weaknesses, and uncover opportunities for optimization and innovation.
• Architect future-proof infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop comprehensive roadmaps and strategic plans for client solutions, aligning technology initiatives with business objectives and ensuring scalable, future-proof infrastructure that drives long-term success.
• Create PoCs and reference implementations of infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines.
• Assure security practices such as secrets management, access control, and audit logging are considered in solutions.
• Leverage AWS services for building scalable and cost-effective cloud infrastructure solutions, ensuring high availability, security, and scalability.
• Drive AI and machine learning initiatives, identifying opportunities to integrate AI-driven solutions within client environments to optimize performance and business outcomes.

Client Engagement & Pre-Sales Support
• Support pre-sales activities by collaborating with clients to understand their needs, developing tailored solutions, and presenting compelling proposals that highlight the value of our cloud and DevOps services.
• Communicate with client stakeholders at all levels, including C-suite, technical, and non-technical audiences.
• Stay ahead of emerging technology trends within the Financial Services and Insurance sectors, leveraging industry insights to drive innovation and recommend cutting-edge solutions that enhance client competitiveness and efficiency.

Business Development & Thought Leadership
• Drive brand awareness and generate sales leads by leading thought leadership initiatives, including organizing and hosting events, publishing insightful blogs and white papers, and sharing customer success stories to position the company as an industry leader.
• Analyze new technologies and propose new offers.
• Propose and manage product partnerships.

Leadership & Team Development
• Build, manage, and maintain a team of Junior, Mid-Level, and Senior Cloud/DevOps Engineers and Subject Matter Experts.
• Articulate job requirements and support the talent acquisition team.
• Provide leadership and foster growth within the team by guiding technical and career development, offering mentorship, and promoting a collaborative, high-performance culture.
• Engage as a leader in our Black Belt Mentoring Program (Cloud/DevOps Sensei).

Competencies we are looking for:

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Minimum Qualifications:
• 5+ years of consulting experience
• 10+ years of professional experience in Operations or DevOps
• Experienced in building scalable CI/CD pipelines for the enterprise
• 7+ years working with AWS services (EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, etc.) in cloud infrastructure design, deployment, and management.
• Familiarity with AI technologies and platforms (such as AWS SageMaker, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.) to leverage in building advanced solutions.
• Experience with Deployment Management tools such as Chef, Ansible, Terraform or Puppet
• Experience with backend infrastructure tools such as Consul, Vault, and Istio
• 7+ years of experience Production Support experience in Unix and Windows environments
• 7+ years of experience in technology delivery in a DevOps environment
• 7+ years of experience with Linux server automation and scripting
• 7+ years of experience with Container technology using Docker, ECS or Kubernetes
• 7+ years of database experience with Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field
• Advanced AWS certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer).
• Experience with AI/ML implementation in cloud environments, especially within AWS or other cloud platforms.
• Understanding of regulatory requirements and compliance standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) within the Financial Services and Insurance industries.
• Experience working with Agile Development practices.
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively in interpersonal and written formats
• Knowledge of IT strategy and management is desirable
• Demonstrated experience of presenting talks at conferences, publishing white papers, and public speaking.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary –   Great starting salaries for well qualified candidates
• Generous Paid Time Off policy - Ippon offers flexible time off to help you be your best
• Health, dental, and vision insurance – We are dedicated to helping our employees live healthier lives through comprehensive health programs
• 401k with company match - Ippon offers an industry leading 401(k) matching plan 
• Family Leave - We support the importance of family and offer maternity, paternity and family medical leave plans   
• The chance to work in a startup-esque environment with a fun, smart, and healthy work environment, focused on our values and teamwork

We value the diversity and different perspectives each of our employees bring to Ippon Technologies.
Ippon Technologies is an equal-opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, veteran, or disability status.
Visit us on LinkedIn or at https://ipponusa.com/ to learn more.
So, do YOU speak Ippon?