DevOps Technical Lead

Speria; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Speria is seeking a hands-on DevOps/Infrastructure leader to guide a globally distributed team and own the operation of customer-facing SaaS environments on Microsoft Azure. The role combines senior technical work with team leadership, incident management and driving ongoing improvements in automation and deployment practices.

The ideal candidate has 7+ years in DevOps/SRE, strong Azure experience and a track record of delivering reliable, scalable systems while mentoring engineers across time

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience across DevOps, SRE, cloud infrastructure, systems engineering or production operations.
• Experience acting as a Technical Lead, Team Lead, Lead Engineer, Infrastructure Lead or Engineering Manager for infrastructure/operations teams.
• Demonstrated experience supporting business-critical or customer-facing production systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure.
• Strong knowledge of production Windows and/or Linux systems administration.
• Experience supporting relational databases, preferably SQL Server / Azure SQL.
• Strong understanding of networking, identity, access, security and cloud infrastructure concepts.
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code, preferably Terraform and/or Bicep.
• Experience developing and operating CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with modern monitoring, logging, alerting and observability practices.
• Strong incident-management and production-troubleshooting experience.
• Understanding of SRE concepts, including SLOs, availability, incident response, MTTR and operational automation.
• Experience working with globally distributed technical teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate infrastructure risks and technical issues for both engineering and business audiences.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the infrastructure supporting Speria's customer-facing SaaS environments.
• Maintain high standards for availability, reliability, performance, recoverability and operational readiness.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex infrastructure and production incidents.
• Lead root‑cause analysis and ensure corrective actions address recurring operational problems.
• Establish clear operational ownership across cloud, database, networking, server and application infrastructure.
• Improve production readiness as services move from Engineering into ongoing operations.
• Help build an operating model where infrastructure issues are identified and resolved proactively rather than reactively.
• Azure Cloud
• Lead the design, operation and continuous improvement of infrastructure within Microsoft Azure.
• Establish standards for cloud architecture, deployment, configuration, security, monitoring and lifecycle management.
• Improve cloud scalability, resiliency and cost effectiveness.
• Partner with Engineering and Architecture on cloud designs for new and existing services.
• Drive automation and Infrastructure as Code rather than relying on manual infrastructure changes.
• Guide the team on Azure platform capabilities and cloud engineering best practices

Skills

DevOps

SRE

Azure

CI/CD

Windows Admin

Linux Admin

SQL Server

Cloud Security

Infrastructure as Code

Leadership

Tools

Terraform

Bicep

Docker

Kubernetes

PowerShell

Python

Job description

This is a hands‑on leadership role at the intersection of DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), cloud infrastructure, database operations and systems administration. The DevOps Technical Lead will help ensure that the systems our customers depend on are reliable, secure, scalable, observable and operationally efficient.

The role will lead a globally distributed DevOps team of approximately seven people while remaining close enough to the technology to troubleshoot complex production problems, guide infrastructure decisions, improve operational practices and serve as a senior escalation point.

Speria's emerging global DevOps organization is bringing together cloud infrastructure, SRE, platform economics, systems administration and release engineering while partnering closely with Engineering, Software Architecture, IT, Cybersecurity and Customer Experience.

We're looking for someone who has operated production systems, not simply designed cloud architecture.

The strongest candidate will likely come from a Senior/Lead DevOps, SRE, Cloud Infrastructure or IT Infrastructure leadership background and be ready to take broader technical and team ownership.

Customer-Facing Infrastructure & Operations

• Provide technical leadership for the infrastructure supporting Speria's customer-facing SaaS environments.
• Maintain high standards for availability, reliability, performance, recoverability and operational readiness.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex infrastructure and production incidents.
• Lead root‑cause analysis and ensure corrective actions address recurring operational problems.
• Establish clear operational ownership across cloud, database, networking, server and application infrastructure.
• Improve production readiness as services move from Engineering into ongoing operations.
• Help build an operating model where infrastructure issues are identified and resolved proactively rather than reactively.
• Azure Cloud
• Lead the design, operation and continuous improvement of infrastructure within Microsoft Azure.
• Establish standards for cloud architecture, deployment, configuration, security, monitoring and lifecycle management.
• Improve cloud scalability, resiliency and cost effectiveness.
• Partner with Engineering and Architecture on cloud designs for new and existing services.
• Drive automation and Infrastructure as Code rather than relying on manual infrastructure changes.
• Guide the team on Azure platform capabilities and cloud engineering best practices

Bring An SRE Mindset To Speria's Production Environment, Including

• Service availability and reliability
• Monitoring and observability
• Alerting and incident response
• Root‑cause analysis
• Capacity planning
• Performance management
• Disaster recovery and resilience
• Runbooks and operational documentation
• Automation of repetitive operational work
• Reduction of manual intervention and operational toil

Database & Systems Operations

• Provide technical oversight for production database environments supporting Speria applications.
• Partner with Engineering and database specialists on Azure SQL / SQL Server reliability, performance, backup, recovery and operational support.
• Lead systems administration practices across cloud‑hosted Windows and Linux environments.
• Ensure infrastructure configurations are standardized, documented and maintainable.
• Identify system bottlenecks and drive technical improvements before they become customer‑impacting incidents.

DevOps, Automation & Release Engineering

• Improve infrastructure automation and repeatable deployment practices.
• Drive continuous improvement of CI/CD pipelines and release processes.
• Expand the use of Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Bicep or comparable technologies.
• Partner with software engineering teams to improve deployment reliability and production readiness.
• Reduce manual operational processes through scripting and automation.
• Improve deployment frequency while reducing failed deployments and recovery time.

Global Team Leadership

• Provide technical leadership and day‑to‑day direction for a globally distributed DevOps/Infrastructure team.
• Establish clear priorities, ownership and accountability.
• Coach engineers across DevOps, SRE, cloud infrastructure and systems operations.
• Raise technical standards while developing the capabilities of the team.
• Coordinate work across time zones and ensure effective operational coverage.
• Build a culture of ownership, urgency, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Remain hands‑on enough to understand technical problems and guide the team through critical situations.

Work Closely With

• Software Engineering
• Software Architecture
• Internal IT
• Cybersecurity
• Database Engineering
• Customer Experience
• Product and Platform teams

Required Experience

• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience across DevOps, SRE, cloud infrastructure, systems engineering or production operations.*
• Experience acting as a Technical Lead, Team Lead, Lead Engineer, Infrastructure Lead or Engineering Manager for infrastructure/operations teams.
• Demonstrated experience supporting business‑critical or customer‑facing production systems.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Microsoft Azure.
• Strong knowledge of production Windows and/or Linux systems administration.
• Experience supporting relational databases, preferably SQL Server / Azure SQL.
• Strong understanding of networking, identity, access, security and cloud infrastructure concepts.
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code, preferably Terraform and/or Bicep.
• Experience developing and operating CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with modern monitoring, logging, alerting and observability practices.
• Strong incident‑management and production‑troubleshooting experience.
• Understanding of SRE concepts, including SLOs, availability, incident response, MTTR and operational automation.
• Experience working with globally distributed technical teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate infrastructure risks and technical issues for both engineering and business audiences.

Preferred Experience

• Azure certifications such as Azure Administrator Associate, Azure Solutions Architect Expert or Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
• Kubernetes / AKS and Docker
• Terraform and/or Bicep
• Azure DevOps
• PowerShell, Python and/or Bash
• Application Insights / Azure Monitor or comparable observability platforms
• Enterprise SaaS infrastructure
• High‑availability architectures
• Disaster recovery and business continuity
• Cloud cost optimization / FinOps
• ITIL‑based incident, problem and change management
• Experience integrating traditional IT operations with modern DevOps/SRE practices

Leadership Profile We're Looking For

This Person Should Be

Hands‑on, but not the team's most expensive sysadmin.

Operationally accountable

When something fails in production, this person organizes the response, gets the right expertise involved and makes sure the underlying problem is addressed.

Comfortable bridging IT and Engineering

Candidates who have worked only in software CI/CD may be too narrow. Candidates who have worked only in traditional infrastructure administration may be too narrow as well.

A builder

Speria is strengthening a global DevOps capability, so the successful candidate should enjoy improving processes, ownership models, tooling, standards and team capability rather than simply maintaining an established environment.

Speria is building technology that supports food production around the world. Our software and technology platforms support customers operating complex, business‑critical environments, giving this role an opportunity to influence infrastructure that has direct customer impact.

The company is actively strengthening its global DevOps function to create greater alignment between software development and production operations and improve automation, reliability, scalability and operational efficiency across its SaaS platforms. [Strengthen...L Software | SharePoint]

For someone coming from a Senior DevOps, SRE or Infrastructure leadership position, this is an opportunity to move beyond maintaining infrastructure and help define how a growing global organization operates it.

Speria delivers operational intelligence solutions for food systems, helping producers and integrators improve efficiency, build predictability and enable greater productivity. This means improving feed conversion, reducing waste and emissions, and supporting animal health and welfare.