Head - IT Infrastructure and Operations

About the position:

The Head of Infrastructure will lead the design, operation, security and scalability of enterprise IT infrastructure across data centers, cloud platforms, networks and end-user computing. This role ensures high availability, performance, security, compliance and cost efficiency of technology platforms supporting business growth and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

Data Center & Cloud Operations

• Manage on-premises data centers, disaster recovery (DR) and hybrid/multi-cloud environments
• Oversee DR drills, business continuity planning (BCP) and RTO/RPO compliance
• Ensure 99.9%+ availability, performance and capacity planning
• Optimize cloud costs through FinOps and vendor management

Infrastructure Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute an infrastructure strategy aligned with business objectives
• Drive transformation across data center, cloud, network and end-user computing
• Lead modernization initiatives including cloud adoption, automation, SRE and AIOps
• Act as the senior escalation point for critical outages and incidents

Network, Security & Resilience

• Own enterprise network architecture (LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, VPN, Internet)
• Collaborate with CISO on infrastructure security, IAM, PAM and Zero Trust frameworks
• Protect systems against cyber threats such as DDoS and ransomware
• Maintain a secure, resilient and segmented infrastructure

Platform, OS & Middleware Management

• Oversee Linux, Windows and Unix platforms
• Manage middleware such as web servers, application servers, MQ and API gateways
• Ensure patching, hardening, configuration management and standardization

Service Management & Reliability

• Implement and govern ITIL / ITSM processes
• Define SLA, SLO, KPI and availability metrics
• Drive Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and automation initiatives
• Lead problem management and root cause analysis (RCA)

Vendor & Financial Management

• Manage infrastructure vendors, OEMs and cloud providers
• Lead contract negotiations, renewals, audits and cost optimization
• Control CAPEX / OPEX budgets and justify ROI for infrastructure investments

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure compliance with ISO 27001 and regulatory requirements (SEBI, RBI, CERT-In, UIDAI)
• Support internal, external and regulatory audits
• Maintain infrastructure documentation and SOPs

Team Building

• Build and mentor high-performing infrastructure teams
• Define roles, on-call models and succession plans
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement

Required Skills & Experience:

• 12+ years of experience in IT Infrastructure & Operations
• 3+ years in a senior leadership role
• Proven experience managing large-scale, mission-critical platforms
• Strong expertise in AWS / Azure / GCP, data centers and virtualization
• Experience with Linux, Windows, enterprise networking, DR and BCP
• Hands-on exposure to automation tools (Ansible, Terraform, scripting)
• Strong understanding of ITSM / ITIL, monitoring, observability and AIOps