Director of Platform Engineering & Operations

Job Summary

NetApp is seeking a strategic and execution-oriented Director of Platform Engineering & Operations to lead a global organization responsible for enterprise compute, storage, and DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) services across on-premises and cloud environments. 

Based in RTP, this leader will oversee a globally distributed team across Bangalore, San Jose, RTP, and other key sites. The role carries full lifecycle accountability across platform engineering and 24x7 operations, with a strong emphasis on modern infrastructure management practices, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD-driven infrastructure delivery, AI-Ops enablement, and enterprise-scale automation. 

This leader will play a critical role in transforming and scaling NetApp’s internal infrastructure platforms to be resilient, secure, automated, and cloud-forward. 

Job Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Vision 

Define and execute the strategy for enterprise compute, storage, and DDI platforms across hybrid (on-prem and cloud) environments. 

Drive modernization of infrastructure services using IaC, GitOps, CI/CD automation, and policy-as-code frameworks. 

Lead the evolution toward self-service platform models with clear service catalogs, SLOs, and reliability metrics. 

Partner with executive stakeholders across IT, Security, Engineering, and Product to align platform capabilities with business priorities. 

Establish multi-year roadmaps for infrastructure transformation, cost optimization, resilience, and scalability. 

Platform Engineering (Build) 

Oversee architecture, engineering, and lifecycle management of: 

On-prem and cloud-based compute platforms 

On-prem and cloud-based storage platforms 

Global DDI services (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) 

Certificate lifecycle management  

Standardize infrastructure patterns across data centers and public cloud providers. 

Implement Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, etc.) as the default operating model. 

Integrate infrastructure provisioning and lifecycle management into CI/CD pipelines. 

Drive cloud-native and hybrid design principles including automation-first, immutable infrastructure, and blue/green deployment patterns. 

Ensure platforms are secure-by-design and compliant with enterprise and regulatory standards. 

Operations & Reliability (Run) 

Lead global 24x7 operations with clear accountability for uptime, performance, availability, and incident response. 

Implement and mature SRE-aligned practices including: 

SLO/SLI frameworks 

Error budgets 

Proactive reliability engineering 

Drive continuous improvement through post-incident reviews and operational analytics. 

Own operational governance including capacity management, change management, and problem management. 

Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities are tested and validated. 

AI-Ops & Automation 

Champion AI-Ops capabilities to enhance observability, predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and root cause automation. 

Integrate telemetry, logging, and monitoring platforms into unified operational dashboards. 

Leverage machine learning–driven insights to reduce MTTR and prevent incidents. 

Drive aggressive automation targets to reduce manual intervention and increase operational scalability. 

Promote event-driven remediation and self-healing infrastructure capabilities. 

Global Team Leadership 

Lead and develop a large, geographically distributed organization across Bangalore, San Jose, RTP, and additional global locations. 

Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, innovation, and collaboration. 

Develop succession planning, leadership bench strength, and talent development programs. 

Foster a “follow-the-sun” support model for global operational excellence. 

Promote inclusive leadership and strong cross-regional collaboration. 

Financial & Vendor Management 

Own budget planning, forecasting, and cost optimization across infrastructure platforms. 

Optimize cloud and on-prem infrastructure spend through FinOps practices. 

Manage strategic vendor relationships across compute, storage, networking, cloud, and DDI providers. 

Drive measurable efficiency gains through automation and standardization. 

Job Requirements

12+ years of progressive experience in infrastructure engineering and operations. 

7+ years of leadership experience managing global, distributed teams at scale. 

Deep expertise in: 

Hybrid compute platforms (virtualization, containerization, public cloud IaaS/PaaS) 

Enterprise storage technologies (block, file, object, hybrid architectures) 

Global DDI services (enterprise DNS, DHCP, IPAM architectures) 

Demonstrated experience implementing Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD-driven infrastructure delivery. 

Proven track record driving automation at scale across enterprise infrastructure. 

Strong experience with AI-Ops platforms, observability stacks, and operational analytics. 

Experience leading both engineering (build) and operations (run) functions within a unified organization. 

Preferred Qualifications 

Experience in a global technology or SaaS organization. 

Familiarity with NetApp storage technologies and hybrid cloud solutions. 

Strong understanding of security, compliance, and regulatory frameworks. 

Experience with FinOps methodologies and cloud cost governance. 

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience 

Leadership Competencies 

Strategic thinker with strong execution discipline 

Data-driven decision maker 

Change agent with transformation experience 

Collaborative cross-functional partner 

Talent builder and culture champion 

Customer-first mindset 

Education

IC - Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience.Mgr & Exec - Typically requires a minimum of 12 years of related experience.