Varo is an entirely new kind of bank. All digital, mission-driven, FDIC insured and designed for the way our customers live their lives. A bank for all of us.
About the Job
We are seeking a skilled Director to lead our Hybrid Infrastructure and Platform Operations unit at Varo Bank. This role involves maintaining 24/7 system uptime and production resiliency, serving as the primary bridge between internal engineering teams and critical third-party vendors like AWS, Accenture, and Visa. The ideal candidate will have experience leading massive infrastructure shifts, such as cloud migrations or data center shutdowns, and expertise in AWS and cloud cost governance. In this role, you will be responsible for cloud cost governance and the technical lifecycle of the platform, including patching and compliance. You will also act as an "enforcer" for technical debt, ensuring that developers prioritize stability and performance over just shipping new features. Our team thrives on a highly autonomous, "ownership-first" work style, where individuals treat uptime as a personal mission rather than a 9-to-5 task.
What you'll be doing
System Resiliency: Maintain 24/7 uptime and production stability, acting as an "enforcer" for technical debt to prioritize performance over feature shipping.
Strategic Vendor Management: Serve as the primary liaison and manager for critical third-party partners, including AWS, Accenture, Visa, and the Fed.
Executive Alignment: Collaborate directly with the CTO and SVP to ensure the platform roadmap supports the bank’s broader AI and resiliency objectives.
Cloud & Lifecycle Governance: Lead the development and implementation of cloud cost governance and technical lifecycle strategies.
Modernization Leadership: Drive the large-scale migration from legacy infrastructure to modern, automated platforms.
Cross-Functional Coordination: Manage "dotted-line" relationships with TPMs and PPF teams to synchronize infrastructure requests and product needs.
Crisis Response: Act as the first point of contact for fintech partners during outages, coordinating real-time responses and ensuring strict SLA compliance.
You'll bring the following required skills and experiences
Executive Infrastructure Leadership: Proven Director-level experience leading large-scale transformations, including cloud migrations and data center transitions.
SRE & Automation Mastery: Deep expertise in Site Reliability Engineering and AI-driven automation to transition teams from manual firefighting to self-healing operations.
Strategic Vendor Governance: Adept at managing high-value delivery partnerships with major providers like Accenture, AWS, and Temenos.
Observability & Incident Management: Expert in incident frameworks and "single-pane-of-glass" tools (e.g., Datadog, CloudWatch) to ensure system visibility.
Cloud Financial Operations: Specialized in cloud cost governance, technical lifecycle management, and optimizing infrastructure spend.
Crisis Decisiveness: Ability to maintain a calm, authoritative presence while navigating high-stakes ambiguity and critical system outages.
Cross-Functional Influence: Strong leadership skills to bridge technical and business gaps between architects, engineering teams, and external stakeholders.
