Director, DevOps & AI Support Leader

Celestica; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Celestica is seeking a Director, DevOps & AI Support Leader to build and operate modern platform engineering, CI/CD automation, AI developer enablement infrastructure, and specialized developer desktops supporting 2,500 engineers. The role reports to the VP and guides internal platform strategy to accelerate execution while enforcing governance and security across cloud and on-prem environments.

The candidate will lead a distributed team across Santa Clara, Toronto, and CRT, defining DevEx KPIs

Qualifications

• 10+ years of leadership in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or R&D Systems Engineering within tech/hardware sectors.
• Experience scaling large R&D organizations (2,000+ engineers) with high velocity.
• Deep expertise in CI/CD orchestration, Kubernetes, containerization, and IaC tooling.
• Hands-on with enterprise AI developer tools (Vertex AI, LLMs) and AI governance guardrails.
• Strong Linux desktop/endpoint background optimized for developers.

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale automated CI/CD runners and IaC deployment pipelines across cloud and on-prem systems.
• Oversee AI enablement infrastructure, and govern AI toolchains and data privacy boundaries.
• Direct Linux desktop engineering and partner with IT to ensure endpoint security without developer friction.
• Mentor a distributed team of senior DevOps engineers, AI specialists, and security leads across multiple sites.

Skills

Leadership

Platform engineering

DevOps

Executive communication

AI governance

Tools

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

IaC

Job description

Req ID: 141775

Region: Americas

Country: USA

State/Province: California

City: San Jose

Role Overview

The Director, DevOps & AI Support Leader is responsible for building and operating the modern platform engineering, CI/CD build automation, AI developer enablement infrastructure, and specialized developer desktop environments that support 2,500 hardware and software product engineers.

Reporting directly to the VP, HPS Product & Engineering IT, this role leads the internal developer platform strategy to enable execution velocity. The Director balances high-throughput build pipelines and state-of-the-art AI developer tools (Vertex AI, code generation, autonomous agents) with robust model security boundaries and containerized infrastructure guardrails.

Key Responsibilities

1. DevOps & Pipeline Automation

• Architect, scale, and optimize automated CI/CD runners, containerized build environments, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) deployment pipelines across cloud and on-premises systems.

• Minimize build, test, and pull-request wait times for silicon simulation, firmware compilation, and software engineering toolchains.

• Standardize automated artifact management, release packaging, and deployment orchestration across R&D squads.

2. R&D AI Enablement & Governance

• Oversee the deployment and operational governance of the AI Control Tower, enterprise Vertex AI cloud environments, and autonomous AI agents.

• Manage IDE code-completion infrastructure (GitHub Copilot, Cursor instances) and LLM toolchain integration across developer workstations.

• Enforce strict AI prompt and data privacy boundaries to ensure proprietary silicon IP, firmware binaries, and source code do not leak to external AI models.

3. Developer OS & Workplace Engineering

• Direct dedicated Linux desktop engineering and endpoint optimization to deliver high-performance local development environments for product engineers.

• Partner with Global IT Operations to integrate required endpoint security controls (e.g., ThreatLocker, container isolation) without creating developer friction or performance degradation.

4. Team Leadership & Strategic Execution

• Directly manage and mentor a distributed team of senior DevOps engineers, AI specialists, Linux OS engineers, and cloud-native security leads across Santa Clara, Toronto, and CRT.

• Establish Developer Experience (DevEx) KPIs tracking build success rates, pipeline latency, system uptime, and AI tool productivity gains.

Key Qualifications & Experience

• Experience: 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or R&D Systems Engineering within high-growth technology, semiconductor, or networking hardware/software companies.

• Engineering Scale: Proven track record supporting large-scale R&D organizations (2,000+ hardware and software engineers) operating at high velocity.

• Technical Depth: Deep expertise in CI/CD pipeline orchestration (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), Kubernetes, containerization, and IaC (Terraform, Ansible).

• AI & Automation: Hands-on experience deploying enterprise AI developer tools (Vertex AI, local LLMs, AI coding assistants) and implementing AI governance guardrails.

• OS & Endpoint Knowledge: Strong background in Linux desktop distributions (Ubuntu, RHEL) optimized for developer environments.

• Leadership & Communication: Outstanding executive presence with the ability to interface directly with HPS product engineering directors, CTO architects, and central Celestica IT leadership.

Physical Demands

Duties of this position are performed in a normal office environment.

Duties may require extended periods of sitting and sustained visual concentration on a computer monitor or on numbers and other detailed data. Repetitive manual movements (e.g., data entry, using a computer mouse, using a calculator, etc.) are frequently required.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.

Celestica is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.

This policy applies to hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral and other aspects of employment and also states that retaliation against a person who files a charge of discrimination, participates in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposes an unlawful employment practice will not be tolerated. All information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Celestica is an E-Verify employer.