Platform Operations Director

The Director of Platform Operations is the single accountable owner for ClearCourse's entire technology operations estate — from end-user devices across 40+ portfolio companies through to cloud production environments. Reporting to the CTTO, the role owns infrastructure, internal IT, SRE, security operations implementation, and vendor cost management. The role operates at the intersection of operational excellence and commercial discipline — owning cloud FinOps outcomes, leading DR and BCP processes, and providing the senior escalation point for incidents and infrastructure risk across the group. With a target reduction from 15 to 10 FTE by 2027, it requires a leader who can build operational maturity while simultaneously rationalising the team. Key Accountabilities: Infrastructure & Cloud End-to-end accountability for the technology estate: cloud (Azure), colocation, commodity hosting, internal IT, and end-user environments across all portfolio companies. Owns cloud and hosting strategy in conjunction with Head of Infrastructure — central management of Azure cost optimisation, reserved instances, and FinOps discipline. Security Operations Owns security operations implementation end-to-end; liaises with DevSecOps and the CISO who provides governance counterbalance. Manages joiner/leaver management and identity/access management across the estate, informed by the CISO on policy. Resilience & Continuity Accountable for DR planning, backup testing, and BCP across the portfolio. Senior escalation point for incidents, infrastructure risk, and business continuity across the group. Internal IT & Systems Manages internal IT and business systems administration (M365, NetSuite, SuccessFactors, SharePoint) —infrastructure, integrations, and IAM. Ensures observability and SRE capability is fit for purpose across cloud, hosted, and end-user environments. Vendor & Cost Management Drives cloud and vendor cost discipline — manages the Vendor & FinOps Lead; accountable for FinOps outcomes. Primary interface to the CTTO on governance and to Platform Engineering on DevSecOps integration. Key Relationships: CTTO — Direct line manager. Governance, infrastructure risk, and FinOps accountability. CISO (Head of Security) — Close working relationship. Security operations implementation, IAM policy, and incident escalation. Director of Platform Engineering — Coordinates on DevSecOps integration and CI/CD infrastructure requirements. • Head of Infrastructure & Cloud — Direct report. Hosting strategy, cloud platform, and FinOps execution. Head of SRE — Direct report. Observability, on-call, and DR/BCP processes. • Head of Internal Services — Direct report. Internal IT, business systems, and end-user support. Finance — Direct report. Cloud cost visibility, savings plans, and vendor negotiations. Essential Infrastructure and cloud operations leadership at portfolio or group scale — Azure at production scale with IaC (Terraform or equivalent) governance experience Track record managing internal IT operations across a distributed estate — multiple sites or subsidiaries Commercial awareness: has owned cloud cost management and FinOps outcomes with measurable results Incident management and on-call leadership — has run major incident response at group level Strong vendor management: MSP relationships, colocation contracts, cloud provider negotiations Desirable PE-backed multi-entity experience — integrating new acquisitions into a group infrastructure estate Experience standing up SRE practices from scratch in a distributed environment M365 and Microsoft tooling estate management at scale Competitive base salary with uncapped commission 25 days holiday plus bank holidays Hybrid and flexible working options Private medical cover Health cash plan Life assurance Access to the Calm wellbeing app Perkbox employee benefits platform Enhanced parental leave Cycle to work scheme Volunteering days Employee Assistance Programme Ongoing learning, development, and career progression across the ClearCourse Group