Director, Cloud Engineering - Hands On Technical Leader

Zelis; Missouri; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 248,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with employer match

Flexible paid time off

Health benefits

Parental leave

Job summary

Zelis is modernizing the healthcare financial experience across payers, providers, and consumers. We are seeking a Director of Cloud Engineering to own the Cloud Center of Excellence across Azure and AWS, lead the cloud engineering team, oversee the MSP partnership, and set the technical direction for how we build, secure, and operate in the cloud.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on architecture, focusing on Infrastructure as Code, security controls, resilience, and cost

Qualifications

• 10+ years in infrastructure, cloud, or platform engineering with leadership experience.
• Proven experience leading cloud engineering teams.
• Deep production experience with Azure or AWS; both preferred.
• Strong IaC experience, with Terraform or CDK.
• CI/CD, automation, and modern infrastructure delivery expertise.
• Experience with regulated environments and translating HIPAA into cloud controls.
• Experience managing MSPs or external technology partners.
• Excellent cross-functional communication with technical and executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve cloud strategy, architecture standards, landing zones, and guardrails.
• Lead architecture decisions for cloud migrations and major infrastructure initiatives.
• Provide senior technical leadership during complex engineering challenges and escalations.
• Drive policy-as-code and automated security controls across Azure and AWS.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the cloud engineering team and MSP oversight.
• Partner with finance for forecasting and cost optimization; communicate progress to stakeholders.

Skills

Cloud leadership

Azure & AWS

Security & compliance

IaC (Terraform/CDK)

CI/CD & GitOps

MSP management

Communication

Tools

Terraform

CDK

Job description

At Zelis, we Get Stuff Done. So, let’s get to it!

A Little About Us

Zelis is modernizing the healthcare financial experience across payers, providers, and healthcare consumers. We serve more than 725 payers, including the top five national health plans, regional health plans, TPAs and millions of healthcare providers and consumers across our platform of solutions. Zelis sees across the system to identify, optimize, and solve problems holistically with technology built by healthcare experts – driving real, measurable results for clients.

A Little About You

You bring a unique blend of personality and professional expertise to your work, inspiring others with your passion and dedication. Your career is a testament to your diverse experiences, community involvement, and the valuable lessons you've learned along the way. You are more than just your resume; you are a reflection of your achievements, the knowledge you've gained, and the personal interests that shape who you are.

Position Overview

Lead Our Move to the Cloud

We’re continuing a significant cloud transformation, and we’re looking for a leader to help drive it.

As Director of Cloud Engineering, you’ll own our Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) across Azure and AWS, lead our cloud engineering team, oversee our managed service provider (MSP) partnership, and set the technical direction for how we build, secure, and operate in the cloud.

The role balances strategic and people leadership with active involvement in architecture, technical decision-making, and complex escalations. You’ll inherit a capable team, an active migration agenda, and an opportunity to shape the next stage of our cloud maturity.

Our environment spans traditional and cloud-native technologies, including virtual machines, containers, Kubernetes, serverless services, and software-defined networking. Infrastructure as Code is central to our modernization strategy, with a focus on automation, scalability, resiliency, security, and operational efficiency.

We also operate in a regulated environment, making security, compliance, and resilience fundamental to how we design and operate our platforms.

What You’ll Do

Cloud Strategy & Technical Leadership

• Own and evolve the CCoE across Azure and AWS, including cloud strategy, architecture standards, landing zones, and guardrails.
• Lead architecture and design decisions for cloud platforms, migrations, and major infrastructure initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership during complex engineering challenges and production escalations, working with internal teams and the MSP to drive resolution.
• Evaluate new cloud capabilities and guide adoption based on business needs, technical fit, security, and risk.

Governance, Security & Resilience

• Establish cloud governance standards across identity, networking, resource management, security, and policy enforcement.
• Partner with security, compliance, and risk teams to translate HIPAA, HITRUST, and other requirements into practical cloud controls.
• Drive policy-as-code and automated security and compliance controls across Azure and AWS.
• Establish resilient architecture, backup, and disaster recovery practices aligned with business RTO and RPO requirements.
• Ensure DR capabilities are documented, tested, and continuously improved.

Automation & Platform Engineering

• Establish Infrastructure as Code as the standard for cloud provisioning, with Terraform as the primary platform.
• Drive reusable modules, CI/CD, GitOps and automated delivery practices.
• Promote self-service platform capabilities that improve consistency, accelerate delivery, and reduce manual effort.
• Improve observability, reliability, performance, and cloud cost efficiency.

Team & MSP Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the cloud engineering team, setting clear priorities, accountability, and technical expectations.
• Build technical depth across Azure and AWS and foster a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Provide technical and operational oversight of the MSP, holding the partner accountable for service levels, engineering quality, responsiveness, and issue resolution.
• Ensure critical cloud knowledge and technical ownership remain within the organization.

Business Partnership

• Partner with application, security, infrastructure, architecture, and business teams to deliver scalable cloud solutions.
• Communicate cloud strategy, risks, priorities, and progress to technical and executive stakeholders.
• Manage cloud engineering priorities and investments, partnering with Finance and FinOps on forecasting and cost optimization.

Required

What You Bring

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure, cloud, or platform engineering, including significant technical or engineering leadership experience.
• Proven experience leading and developing cloud engineering teams.
• Strong technical depth with the ability to review architectures, challenge designs, troubleshoot complex issues, and guide engineers and partners.
• Deep production experience with Azure or AWS; experience across both is strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of cloud compute, containers, networking, identity, security, data platforms, resiliency, and observability.
• Strong Infrastructure as Code experience, with Terraform or CDK required.
• Experience with CI/CD, automation, and modern infrastructure delivery practices.
• Experience leading or providing technical direction for large-scale cloud migrations.
• Experience working in regulated environments and translating requirements such as HIPAA into cloud controls.
• Experience managing MSPs, consulting partners, or other external technology providers.
• Strong communication skills across engineering, business, vendor, and executive audiences.

Preferred

• Production experience across both Azure and AWS.
• Experience building or leading a CCoE or platform engineering function.
• Experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, policy-as-code, and observability.
• Experience supporting HITRUST assessments or certification.
• FinOps and cloud cost optimization experience.
• Relevant Azure, AWS, Terraform, CISSP, or CCSP certifications.

What Success Looks Like

• Clear, well-adopted cloud architecture, governance standards, landing zones, and reusable patterns.
• Secure and resilient cloud platforms with automated controls and tested disaster recovery capabilities.
• Consistent infrastructure delivery through IaC, automation, and standardized pipelines.
• A strong cloud engineering team with clear ownership and growing technical depth.
• An effective and accountable MSP partnership with critical knowledge retained internally.
• Predictable cloud migrations and measurable improvements in reliability, security, delivery speed, and cost efficiency.

Please note at this time we are unable to proceed with candidates who require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Location and Workplace Flexibility

Zelis is headquartered in the U.S., with multiple locations across the country and in Hyderabad, India. Check out our locations to learn more about our offices. All employee work locations are based on the needs of the position and are determined by the Leadership team. In-office work and activities vary based on work and team objectives in accordance with Company policies.

While location expectations vary by role, candidates within approximately 50 miles of a U.S. office are generally preferred to support collaboration when needed. Our hybrid approach is flexbile, and in-office presence is guided by team and business needs rather than a fixed weekly schedule.

Base Salary Range

$180,000.00 - $247,500.00

At Zelis we are committed to providing fair and equitable compensation packages. The base salary range allows us to make an offer that considers multiple individualized factors, including experience, education, qualifications, as well as job‑related and industry‑related knowledge and skills, etc. Base pay is just one part of our Total Rewards package, which may also include discretionary bonus plans, commissions, or other incentives depending on the role.

Zelis’ full‑time associates are eligible for a highly competitive benefits package as well, which demonstrates our commitment to our employees’ health, well‑being, and financial protection. The US‑based benefits include a 401k plan with employer match, flexible paid time off, holidays, parental leaves, life and disability insurance, and health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Zelis is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications for the role. We believe in the value of diverse perspectives and experiences and are committed to building an inclusive workplace for all.

Accessibility Support

We are dedicated to ensuring our application process is accessible to all candidates. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require a reasonable accommodation with any part of the application and/or interview process, please email [e-mail].

Disclaimer

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities, duties, and skills from time to time.