Cloud Foundation Lead

Confidential; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential, a UAE-based leading institution building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation, is seeking a Cloud Foundation Lead. You will establish the Azure foundation, govern environments, and enable self-service for engineering teams at scale.

You will define landing zones, policy guardrails, and FinOps discipline, partnering with Security, Data & AI, and Engineering to deliver secure, compliant cloud platforms across the enterprise.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in cloud platform or infrastructure leadership.
• Deep experience with enterprise Azure design and governance.
• Experience with self-service platforms and automation.
• Strong Microsoft Entra expertise incl. workload identities.
• CI/CD and GitOps with IaC.

Responsibilities

• Own strategy, architecture and governance of Azure foundation.
• Define management groups, subscriptions, landing zones and policy guardrails.
• Create landing zones as a product with automated self-service provisioning.
• Lead cloud identity foundations using Microsoft Entra.
• Establish in-cloud networking foundation (hub-and-spoke).
• Drive automation for provisioning, policy enforcement and foundation management.
• Establish FinOps disciplines across the cloud environment.
• Collaborate with Information Security to translate requirements into controls.

Skills

Cloud leadership

Azure architecture

Terraform

GitOps/CI-CD

Security governance

FinOps

Kubernetes/AKS

Vendor relations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Azure Policy

OpenTelemetry

Azure Monitor

Kubernetes (AKS)

Job description

We're excited to be partnering with a leading institution in the UAE that is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to join at an early stage and help shape the technology, data, and platform foundations of a business with significant institutional backing and long-term ambition. If you're passionate about cloud engineering, platform foundations, and building scalable cloud environments, we'd love to hear from you.

As Cloud Foundation Lead, you will be responsible for establishing and governing the organisation's Azure cloud foundation, ensuring teams can securely consume compliant environments through a self-service platform model. Working closely with Infrastructure, Security, Data & AI, and Engineering teams, you'll help build the cloud platform that enables the entire organisation to operate at scale from day one.

This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for setting the strategy and direction of the Microsoft Azure foundation. You will define how the cloud environment is designed, governed and consumed, creating a platform that enables teams to self-serve rather than rely on traditional infrastructure request queues.

Azure will be the primary cloud environment, and you will oversee the foundations that underpin it, from management groups, landing zones and policy guardrails through to identity, networking, Infrastructure as Code and cloud cost management.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, architecture and governance of the enterprise Microsoft Azure foundation.
• Define and govern Azure management groups, subscriptions, enterprise landing zones and policy guardrails.
• Establish landing zones as a product, providing teams with secure, compliant and repeatable environments through automated self-service provisioning.
• Lead cloud identity foundations using Microsoft Entra, including workload identities, managed identities, privileged access and the appropriate governance controls.
• Define the in-cloud networking foundation, including hub-and-spoke architecture, DNS, private endpoints and private connectivity.
• Own and govern the shared Infrastructure as Code module library, establishing reusable and versioned Terraform modules that provide engineering teams with a consistent paved road for cloud deployment.
• Establish policy as code and automated guardrails across the Azure environment, embedding security and compliance requirements directly into the platform.
• Work closely with Information Security to translate security requirements into enforceable cloud controls while maintaining appropriate governance around exceptions.
• Establish FinOps disciplines across the cloud environment, including tagging, cost allocation, budgeting, optimisation, right-sizing, reservations and consumption visibility.
• Ensure teams have clear visibility of cloud consumption and accountability for the resources and services they use.
• Drive automation across provisioning, policy enforcement and foundation management, minimising manual infrastructure processes.
• Ensure all foundation changes are versioned, tested, auditable and delivered through established release controls.
• Establish appropriate controls for cloud residency, governance, regulatory and audit requirements, ensuring evidence can be generated directly from the platform.
• Drive the adoption of the shared cloud foundation across Data & AI, Engineering and other technology teams, ensuring workload platforms are built on approved landing zones and standards.
• Build, lead and develop the Cloud Foundation team, setting technical direction and maintaining high engineering standards.
• Manage key technology and vendor relationships and work closely with Microsoft and other strategic cloud partners.

Key Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience in cloud platform, cloud foundation or cloud infrastructure engineering, with experience setting technical direction and leading teams.
• Deep experience designing and operating Microsoft Azure at enterprise scale.
• Strong knowledge of Azure landing zones, management groups, subscriptions, Azure Policy and cloud governance.
• Experience designing cloud environments around a self-service platform model, enabling engineering teams to provision compliant environments through automation.
• Strong Microsoft Entra expertise, including workload identities, managed identities and privileged access.
• Extensive Infrastructure as Code experience, particularly with Terraform, including reusable module libraries and automated provisioning.
• Strong understanding of GitOps and CI/CD practices, including version control, testing, deployment controls and management of configuration drift.
• Deep understanding of Azure networking, including hub-and-spoke architecture, DNS, private endpoints and private connectivity.
• Experience establishing and operating FinOps and cloud cost management disciplines across a significant cloud environment.
• Strong knowledge of cloud security, governance and policy-as-code principles.
• Experience operating in a regulated environment, with a strong understanding of compliance, auditability, data residency and evidence requirements.
• Experience balancing engineering autonomy with appropriate security, governance and cost controls.
• Exposure to Kubernetes / AKS foundations and cloud-native observability, including technologies such as Azure Monitor and OpenTelemetry.
• Experience working with AI-assisted engineering tools within appropriate governance, review and audit controls.
• AWS experience would be advantageous alongside deep Azure expertise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline.
• Relevant Microsoft Azure certifications, such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert or Azure Administrator, would be advantageous.
• AWS certification would also be beneficial.