Manager - Software DevOps

Description

Whisker is the maker of Litter-Robot, Feeder-Robot, and Litterbox.com. At Whisker, we believe pet parenthood can always get better.

As leading innovators in pet tech and refined pet accessories, we work tirelessly to solve problems and deliver smarter insights for pet parents while enriching the lives of pets. Whether it’s a self-cleaning litter box that automates scooping, an automatic feeder that helps pets develop healthier eating habits, or a modern cat tree that delights both humans and felines, we strive to deliver better solutions for consumers while transforming pet care along the way. To us, having a pet is the best thing ever. At Whisker, life together just keeps getting better.

Whisker is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Juneau, Wisconsin with 600+ passionate team members.

What You’ll Do:

The Manager of DevOps will lead the continued development and management of our infrastructure and operations, focusing on cloud platforms, applications, IoT integrations, CI/CD pipelines, security, monitoring, and team growth to ensure seamless delivery of our digital products. This position will drive the adoption of cutting-edge DevOps practices to support innovation and deliver exceptional customer experiences globally.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all-inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as deemed necessary.

• Designs, builds, and maintains scalable, secure, and highly available deployment systems to support Whisker’s products and services.
• Leads the design and implementation of automated CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) to improve efficiency, scalability, and reliability.
• Establishes and enforces security best practices, ensuring alignment with industry standards, GDPR compliance, and robust data protection mechanisms.
• Manages the AWS IoT stack, ensuring seamless connectivity and performance for IoT devices while optimizing cloud infrastructure for cost and efficiency.
• Develops proactive monitoring, alerting, and logging systems to ensure uptime and reliability. Leads incident management processes to minimize downtime and improve recovery times.
• Recruits, mentors, and leads a high-performing DevOps team. Fosters growth, collaboration, and technical expertise within the team.
• Partners with Engineering, Product, and Security teams to align DevOps strategies with product and business goals. Facilitates communication and integration across disciplines.
• Oversees cloud resource utilization, identifying and implementing cost optimization strategies without compromising performance.
• Defines and tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) for uptime, deployment speed, and system reliability. Regularly reports progress and improvements to stakeholders.
• Evaluates and integrates new technologies, ensuring Whisker remains at the forefront of DevOps innovation.
• Oversees the design, deployment, and maintenance of scalable, secure cloud infrastructure.
• Drives continuous improvement of DevOps practices to meet evolving business needs.
• Represents the DevOps team in executive meetings, providing insights and updates on infrastructure and operations.
• Leads crisis management efforts to resolve critical infrastructure and system issues quickly.
• Will perform additional responsibilities as required. 

Leadership Responsibilities:

Directly supervises department Teams. Carries out supervisory responsibilities following Whisker policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, training, and hiring, planning, assigning and directing work, appraising performance, addressing team issues, and upholding safety and quality guidelines. 

Requirements

What You’ll Bring:

• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s in Computer Science or a related field and / or equivalent years of experience. 
• 6+ years of experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, or Infrastructure Engineering roles, with 3+ years in leadership positions.
• Strong expertise in AWS, including EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, and IoT-specific services.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible.
• Proven experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI).
• Deep knowledge of containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools like Datadog, Prometheus, or Grafana.
• Strong understanding of security best practices and compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR).
• Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale IoT and cloud deploym