Cloud Operations Service Strategy Lead

Company Description

Meet Unit4. With over 40 years of heritage, we’re an agile, fast growing, Cloud company that is on a mission to redefine Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for mid-market people-centric organisations.

With our innovative, self-driving, adaptive and intuitive software, our customers can spend more time on meaningful high-value work.

At the heart of what we do lies a simple yet profound purpose: Improve how people work by focusing on what truly matters. — A powerful statement that enables different priorities for different people.

We’re shaping how work should feel, and we empower our people by providing them with the right tools to achieve the autonomy they need - it's what makes us unique.

Job Description

Cloud Operations Strategy Lead

Role Summary

The Cloud Operations Service Strategy Lead serves as the strategic bridge between Cloud Operations, Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Customer Support, and Partner Management to drive service quality, operational excellence, and platform reliability across the company's cloud portfolio.

This role acts as a Cloud Operations evangelist, ensuring operational considerations are incorporated into product design, service delivery, and long-term platform strategy. The position influences engineering practices, service governance, and operational standards while leading initiatives that improve reliability, scalability, performance, and customer experience.

The Cloud Operations Service Strategy Lead also drives large-scale transformation programs, promotes operational best practices across products, and ensures lessons learned are translated into portfolio-wide improvements.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Operations Advocacy & Strategy

• Act as a Cloud Operations evangelist across the organization.
• Represent operational needs and customer experience considerations in strategic discussions and planning activities.
• Partner with leadership teams to continuously improve service delivery models and operational effectiveness.
• Promote a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Product, Engineering & Architecture Partnership

• Work closely with Product and Engineering teams to define service limits, intended usage patterns, and operational requirements.
• Drive initiatives that improve service stability, scalability, resilience, and performance.
• Influence product roadmaps by ensuring operational considerations are incorporated into design and development decisions.
• Collaborate with Engineering Architecture teams to provide operational feedback, review architectural decisions, identify operational risks, and help shape platform designs that are scalable, supportable, and resilient.
• Ensure operational readiness and supportability are considered throughout the service lifecycle.

DevOps & Service Quality

• Influence the evolution of DevOps methodologies and engineering practices.
• Define and promote service quality gates for new features, platform changes, and releases.
• Drive adoption of standards for observability, monitoring, reliability, and operational readiness.
• Champion automation and operational excellence initiatives that reduce risk and improve service quality.

Operational Intelligence & Problem Analysis

• Conduct deep-dive investigations into recurring service issues, performance challenges, and operational risks.
• Identify underlying product, engineering, architectural, or process deficiencies contributing to incidents and customer-impacting issues.
• Translate operational findings into actionable recommendations for Product, Engineering, and Architecture teams.
• Ensure lessons learned are documented, shared, and transformed into measurable improvements.

Program & Transformation Leadership

• Participate in Cloud Operations strategic programs and major transformation initiatives.
• Lead or support cross-functional projects involving large-scale operational improvements, service transitions, or platform modernization efforts.
• Act as a Program Manager or Project Manager when required to coordinate stakeholders and drive successful outcomes.
• Facilitate alignment between business objectives, technical priorities, and operational capabilities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Customer Support, Partner Management, Security, and Operations teams.
• Serve as a trusted advisor during major incidents, escalations, service reviews, and strategic initiatives.
• Drive alignment and shared accountability across teams for service quality and customer outcomes.

Standards & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and promote common operational standards, governance models, and best practices across product portfolios.
• Facilitate sharing of lessons learned, patterns, and operational improvements between product teams.
• Drive consistency in service management, reliability practices, operational readiness, and supportability standards.
• Ensure successful practices and operational innovations are adopted across multiple products and services.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Cloud Operations, IT Operations, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Platform Engineering, DevOps, or related technology leadership roles.
• Proven experience working across Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Operations, and Customer-facing teams.
• Experience managing complex stakeholder environments and influencing outcomes without direct authority
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, and/or Google Cloud Platform).
• Deep knowledge of IT Operations, Service Management, Reliability Engineering, and operational governance.
• Understanding of modern software delivery practices, including DevOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and automation.
• Familiarity with security, compliance, risk management, and operational controls within cloud environments.
• Ability to translate operational insights into strategic recommendations and business outcomes.
• Strong program and project management capabilities with experience coordinating cross-functional initiatives.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage audiences ranging from engineers to executive leadership.

Additional Information

Who we are

We are a people-first community that nurtures all the areas that surround your working experience. With us, you’ll be surrounded by a high-performance team that supports your authentic self and celebrates your uniqueness.

We believe that ‘How work should feel’ is an evolving statement. Work goes beyond tasks and everyday responsibilities it’s about feeling valued, empowered, promoted, impactful, seen, and appreciated.

We are reimagining how work makes people feel.

What we offer

• a culture built on trust and accountability - giving you the freedom and autonomy to be successful and make an impact

• balance - with our Flexible Leave Paid Time Off policy, remote working opportunities, Global Wellbeing Days, and other great benefits

• growth opportunities - we provide the tools and guidance required so that you can focus on what really matters to you and so, ultimately, you can achieve your best work

• talented colleagues, role models and mentors - work, learn and be inspired by some of the best talent in the software industry

• a commitment to sustainability - with initiatives such as our Environmental, Social, and Governance strategy and Act4Good programme

• a safe and inclusive working environment – supported by our Employee Resource Groups, which are open to all.

Our commitment to equity

Unit4 is committed to ensuring equal opportunity for everyone. We make our hiring decisions solely based on skills, qualifications, and our current business needs. We know that diversity brings fresh perspectives, ideas, and solutions to our company. This is the essence of our culture. We also welcome and encourage people who are pregnant and/or parents-to-be to apply. If you would like to know more about our commitment to diversity, visit our blogs:

• Our focus to DEI remains central to who we are

• Inclusive hiring at Unit4: Building equal opportunities for all

Background check

This role may require security clearance required for customer projects and access to sensitive (customer) data. That means that after you have accepted our offer, we could ask for background checks. Subject to applicable local laws, such security checks may require disclosure of personal information including criminal record declaration, right to work, personal identification and work history. No worries – we'll handle it according to local privacy laws and keep your information safe. Questions? Feel free to reach out!