Sr. Director Cloud Operations

What part will you play? If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it.

The work we do at Markel gives people the confidence to move forward and seize opportunities, and you’ll find your fit amongst our global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We’re always pushing each other to go further because we believe that when we realize our potential, we can help others reach theirs. Join us and play your part in something special! This Senior Director ensures the technology landscape of a Fortune 500 insurance company remains robust, secure, efficient, and compliant within a highly regulated industry. We are seeking a dynamic and experienced leader to head our Technology Operations department. This role will oversee and manage Cloud Operations, DevOps, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Quality Assurance functions across our US and Bermuda operations. The ideal candidate will drive operational excellence, continuous improvement, and innovation through automation, strategy development, and cross-functional collaboration. 

Job description:

• Lead and manage Cloud Operations, DevOps, and GRC activities for all applications and IT resources in US and Bermuda. 
• Own and oversee Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) initiatives to ensure high availability, performance, and resilience of applications and infrastructure. 
• Manage and support Disaster Recovery (DR) planning, execution, and testing to safeguard business continuity. 
• Lead the Quality Assurance (QA) team to ensure high-quality standards for application development, delivery, and operational processes. 
• Continuously monitor application and infrastructure health; implement proactive alerting, tracking, and remediation processes. 
• Drive automation initiatives across Cloud and DevOps to improve efficiency, reliability, and scalability. 
• Develop and implement operational efficiency practices including FinOps to optimize cloud spending and resource utilization. 
• Improve and enforce Governance, Risk, and Compliance policies to meet regulatory requirements and internal standards. 
• Develop and communicate the strategic vision, roadmap, and operational plans for Technology Operations. 
• Collaborate closely with Enterprise Architecture, IT Delivery, and other key stakeholders to align technology strategy and execution. 
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and operational excellence within the team. 

Required Qualifications: 

• Extensive experience (10+ years) in technology operations, security, SRE, and quality assurance, ideally within a large, regulated enterprise environment, preferably in the insurance industry. 
• Proven leadership experience managing multi-disciplinary teams (Cloud Operations, DevOps, SRE, QA, GRC). 
• Strong expertise in cloud platforms (Azure, AWS) and cloud operations best practices. 
• Deep understanding of DevOps tools and automation frameworks (e.g., Jenkins, Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker). 
• Hands-on experience with Site Reliability Engineering principles, monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog), and incident management. 
• Experience leading Disaster Recovery planning and execution. 
• Strong knowledge of Governance, Risk, and Compliance frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA). 
• Solid understanding of QA methodologies and tools. 
• Experience in financial operations (FinOps) and cloud cost management. 
• Excellent strategic thinking, planning, and communication skills. 
• Proven ability to develop and implement technology roadmaps and operational strategies. 
• Strong collaboration skills with the ability to work across multiple teams and geographies. 

Preferred attributes: 

• Certifications such as Azure/AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), or ITIL. 
• Experience working in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, etc.). 
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks and agile delivery methodologies. 
• Experience with large-scale, distributed systems and multi-cloud environments. 
• Strong project management and vendor management skills. 

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US Work Authorization

US Work Authorization required. Markel does not provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future.

Who we are: 

Markel Group (NYSE – MKL) a fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insuranc