Sr. Director, Cloud Engineering

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze®, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

The Sr. Director, Cloud Engineering, is responsible for the deployment and operation of the platforms that support Early Warning’s cloud infrastructure. Continuing with the transition of workloads to the cloud, this leader will play a critical role in designing and implementing the technology, processes, platforms and operational discipline that are required to meet the next phase of our strategic business goals. This highly visible role will collaborate with technology and business leaders to define the roadmap for platform solution requirements. The Sr. Director, Cloud Engineering is accountable for the service level and performance of the company’s cloud platforms and has a direct hand in driving positive user outcomes.  

Essential Functions 

• Strategic Vison, Planning, Standards Ownership and Oversight – In collaboration with the VP of Infrastructure Engineering, develop, implement and manage Early Warning’s cloud systems vision, architecture, standards and strategy, making strategic decisions about the development and modification of cloud applications and services. Ensure these plans align, augment and accelerate Early Warning’s long term corporate strategic direction and achievement of business goals. 

• Be the voice of cloud infrastructure – Provide senior stewardship of the various cloud functions and implement multi-year strategies. Be adept at identifying and presenting enterprise opportunities to continually enhance how cloud infrastructure can better support the business.  Be constantly reducing technical debt.    

• Lead a multi-disciplined, high-performance team – Provide exceptional leadership in developing highly engaged, high-performance cloud leadership teams to deliver against departmental and company objectives.    

• Own the outcome – Develop a plan for a phased evolution from current to future state with key milestones and measures of success in the areas of platform performance, security, flexibility, customer experience, efficiency and cost.    

• Influence functional strategy – Partner with other departments to understand technical solutions to presenting challenges and help define ROI to proposed solutions.    

• Cross functional partnerships – Collaborate closely with security teams across the organization to align on policies, manage risk and support solution development. Partner with Finance to monitor and optimize cloud expenditure, ensuring aligning with budgetary goals and financial strategies.  

• Manage risk effectively – Support the company’s commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data by ensuring system and data confidentiality, observability, and availability is maintained.    Support adherence with relevant regulatory and compliance standards and obligations. 

• Innovation and Best Practices – Maintain up-to-date, extensive knowledge of cloud products, technology and best practices, pursing solutions or alternatives to best meet the businesses needs while complying with and ensuring all regulatory requirements are met.  

• Performance Monitoring – Develop and implement processes and standards to inspect and audit Early Warning’s cloud procedures and approaches, ensuring comprehensive documentation of processes, standards and practices to support consistency and knowledge sharing. 

Minimum Qualifications 

• Education and experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor's degree in computer information systems/computer science    

• 15 or more years of experience managing complex cloud infrastructure including at least 8 years of leadership experience.    

• User-first mindset that is highly focused on business outcomes in a dynamic, cross functional environment. 

• Extensive experience designing and managing scalable solutions using AWS services  

• High degree of cross-functional cloud experience spanning architecture, security, implementation, DevOps and operations.
• Strong experience with AWS environment  
• Developing and operating platforms (IaaS, PaaS, and/or SaaS) at Web-scale 

• Leveraging cloud infrastructure to deliver highly performant and secure microservice based solutions.  

• Ability to mentor and energize people showcasing technical and leadership skills  

• Deep understanding on how cloud computing integrates within the business and how the sub-functions collectively integrate within the function to achieve optimized outcomes 

• Strong familiarity with DevOps & SRE best practices to improve velocity and operational reliability  

• Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills. Must convey responsiveness and competence when dealing with internal customers, staff, peers, senior management, and vendors.   Work experience that demonstrates a strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.    

• Background and drug screen.   

The base pay scale for this position in:
Chicago, IL in USD per year is: $206,000 - $275,000.
Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Physical Requirements 

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers. 

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation. 

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States at the date of hire. 

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. 

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

•  Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees. 

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify.