Senior Cloud Platform & Site Reliability Engineering Lead

Please note that we do not offer visa sponsorship for this position.

Role Summary

The Senior Cloud Platform & Site Reliability Engineering Lead partners with business and technical stakeholders to lead cloud platform design, engineering, and integration efforts. This individual has a proven track record of driving continuous improvement across infrastructure, platform services, and application reliability.

This role is a senior technical leadership position within the National Life Group IT Shared Services team. You will represent cloud and platform engineering in project initiatives, architecture design, and operational excellence while collaborating across a vibrant technical community. We’re looking for an inquisitive individual with a passion for continuous learning, attention to detail, and a drive to follow-through. This role can be located in Dallas (Addison), TX; Montpelier, VT.

This position currently offers an onsite work schedule, with the expectation that you are in the office four (4) days per week during onsite core days.  Our current onsite core days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The work schedule type and core days are subject to change with advance notification and manager discretion.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Cloud Platform & Infrastructure Delivery

• You will lead design and delivery of cloud-native solutions within Microsoft Azure and other.
• You will lead development and enhancement of CI/CD, SRE, and observability capabilities.
• You will drive infrastructure automation using Infrastructure as Code (Bicep, ARM, other).
• You will serve as a subject matter expert in pipeline configuration, code repository management, and related controls.
• You will help lead incident resolution and business issue remediation.
• You will lead identifying and managing capacity, performance, and risk.
• You will adhere to and promote firm Change Management and Problem Management policies (ITIL).
• You possess the ability to communicate effectively with appropriate detail across all levels.

SRE & Platform Engineering

• You will lead adoption of SRE practices including SLIs/SLOs and reliability engineering principles.
• You will drive improvements in system reliability, scalability, and performance.
• You will leverage Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and APM tools such as New Relic for observability.
• You will promote automation and AI-assisted operations to reduce manual effort and improve outcomes.

Infrastructure Architecture & Strategy

• You will drive innovation and remain current on Azure and emerging cloud technologies.
• You will define and promote Azure architecture standards (networking, identity, security).
• You will lead adoption of cloud-native patterns (AKS, serverless, PaaS services).
• You will collaborate with development, QA, and operations teams to integrate CI/CD and observability practices.
• You will communicate effectively with stakeholders across engineering and business teams.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, preferred in Computer Science; or relevant work experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on with CI/CD pipelines, APM tools, source code management, infrastructure, cloud, or platform engineering experience with at least 4 years in a technical leadership role.
• Open-minded with proven ability to work collaboratively with others.
• Show up consistently with a positive attitude.
• Demonstrated ability to lead in a highly matrixed, heavily outsourced organization through influence and partnership.
• Ability and interest in mentoring technical staff and raising collective technical competencies.
• Ability to manage change and operate effectively in complex environments.

Technical Expertise

Broad engineering awareness with strong expertise in multiple of the following areas –

• Microsoft Azure (compute, storage, networking, identity, monitoring)
• Infrastructure as Code (Bicep, ARM, Other)
• Pipeline Technologies (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, CI/CD)
• Code Repository Management (GIT)
• Monitoring & Instrumentation Tools (Azure Monitor, Application Insights, New Relic or similar)
• Containers & Serverless (AKS, Azure Functions)
• Proficiency in scripting and automation (Python, PowerShell, etc.)
• DevSecOps tools (SonarQube, JFrog, SwaggerHub or similar)
• Experience with AWS or other cloud platforms is a plus
• Exposure to AI technologies in development and application performance (AIOps)

AI Proficiency Expectations

At National Life Group, we view AI as an enabler of human potential. We use AI to help us work smarter, serve more clients, and keep our promises, while remaining a relationship-driven business where our people are our greatest strength.

All applicants are expected to:

• Leverage approved AI tools, where appropriate, to improve the efficiency, quality, and impact of their work.
• Stay curious and open to new AI-enabled ways of working.
• Exercise sound judgment by reviewing and validating AI-generated content.
• Maintain accountability for the accuracy, quality, fairness, and integrity of work products by adhering to National Life’s AI guiding principles.
• Use AI responsibly and in accordance with company policies related to confidentiality, data privacy, security, compliance, retention and intellectual property.

Benefits

• Your benefits start day one and are flexible and customizable to your and your family’s specific needs. Check out the BENEFITS of a Career at National Life!