Director, Cloud Engineering
Role Overview
The Director, Cloud Engineering is responsible for the strategy, operation, security, governance, and financial stewardship of Magnet's cloud platform and shared engineering services. This leader partners closely with Engineering, Product, UX, Security, IT, Compliance, Finance, and Go-to-Market teams to ensure our cloud platform enables rapid product innovation while meeting the highest standards for reliability, security, compliance, and cost efficiency.
This role combines technical acumen, operational excellence, cloud strategy, AI enablement, Financial Operations ("FinOps") discipline, vendor management, and organizational leadership. The Director will lead teams responsible for cloud infrastructure, platform operations, observability, identity services, CI/CD pipeline, compliance initiatives, and cloud cost management across Magnet's SaaS portfolio.
What You'll Do
Cloud Platform Strategy & Operations
- Define and execute the cloud platform strategy that supports Magnet's SaaS products and long-term business objectives.
- Establish and drive operational excellence practices, including service reliability, observability, incident management, disaster recovery, and platform governance.
- Partner with engineering leaders to deliver highly available and scalable cloud services.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives that improve platform consistency, operational maturity, and engineering effectiveness across product teams.
- Champion platform architecture standards and participate in technical governance and architectural review processes.
- Lead cloud platform readiness for security and compliance frameworks, including FedRAMP and other regulatory requirements.
- Partner with Security and Compliance teams to implement secure-by-default platforms, policies, and operational controls.
- Drive vulnerability management, security remediation, and platform-wide operational security initiatives.
- Evaluate emerging regulatory and sovereign cloud requirements and develop strategies to support global customers.
- Own cloud cost governance, forecasting, budgeting, and optimization programs across the organization.
- Develop and maintain cloud financial management practices that provide transparency and accountability.
- Partner with Finance and Engineering leaders to align technology investments with business priorities.
- Introduce automation and operational tooling to improve forecasting accuracy and cost visibility.
- Establish frameworks that balance innovation, performance, and cost control.
- Drive responsible adoption of AI technologies across Engineering and Shared Services.
- Evaluate, operationalize, and govern AI platforms, services, and tooling.
- Develop strategies for monitoring, managing, and optimizing AI-related infrastructure and spend.
- Identify opportunities to improve productivity, operational efficiency, and decision-making through AI-enabled workflows.
- Partner with business and engineering stakeholders to maximize organizational value from AI investments.
- Lead evaluation, selection, negotiation, and lifecycle management of cloud providers, technology platforms, and engineering tools.
- Develop strategic relationships with key technology vendors and service providers.
- Manage major cloud and software licensing agreements.
- Assess emerging technologies and vendors to ensure Magnet continues to operate with modern, efficient, and scalable platforms.
- Build, develop, and lead high-performing cloud and platform engineering teams.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
- Improve the developer experience by reducing friction, enhancing tooling, and enabling self-service platform capabilities.
- Create an environment where engineering teams can build, deploy, and operate software efficiently and reliably.
Security, Compliance & Regulatory Enablement
Cloud Financial Operations (FinOps)
AI Strategy & Operational Enablement
Vendor & Technology Management
Engineering Leadership & Developer Experience
What We're Looking For
10+ years of experience in software engineering, cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or related technical disciplines.
5+ years of leadership experience managing engineering managers and/or technical teams.
Deep expertise with public cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
Experience with building and maintaining a private cloud infrastructure.
Experience operating large-scale SaaS platforms in production environments.
Strong understanding of cloud security, compliance, governance, and risk management.
Experience with cloud financial management, budgeting, forecasting, and cost optimization.
Proven track record leading cross-functional strategic initiatives.
Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
Experience evaluating and managing technology vendors and strategic partnerships.
Nice to Have Skills
Experience building platform engineering or developer experience organizations.
Familiarity with AI and machine learning infrastructure, governance, and operational practices.
Experience leading identity and access management initiatives.
Knowledge of observability, cloud operations, and reliability engineering practices.
Experience working within high-growth SaaS organizations.
This is a highly visible leadership role responsible for ensuring Magnet's cloud platform remains secure, reliable, compliant, cost-effective, and capable of powering the next generation of digital investigation products.