Lead Cloud Automation & Governance Engineer

Nutanix; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Nutanix is seeking a Lead Cloud Automation & Governance Engineer to drive architecture, governance and automation across AWS, GCP and Azure. You will lead cross‑functional efforts, define guardrails, and own enterprise self‑service capabilities while enabling scalable, secure cloud operations.

The role emphasizes hands‑on leadership, advanced Terraform and GitOps, and collaboration with the IT Cloud Ops team to optimize FinOps and deployment processes.

Qualifications

• 7+ years building cloud infrastructure on AWS
• Experience with IAM, Organizations, cross‑account access
• Proficient with Terraform, GitOps and CI/CD pipelines

Responsibilities

• Define and govern cloud platforms across AWS, GCP and Azure
• Lead automation, security guardrails and operational standards
• Architect and implement multi‑account/multi‑region cloud solutions
• Drive FinOps, cost visibility and enterprise rollout of automation
• Mentor engineers and promote reusable tooling across teams

Skills

AWS

IAM & Organizations

GitOps

Terraform

Python/Go

GCP/Azure governance

Tools

GitHub Actions

CI/CD tooling

Terraform

Job description

Hungry, Humble, Honest, with Heart

The Opportunity

As a Lead Cloud Automation & Governance Engineer, you will operate as a senior individual contributor and technical lead within our G&A - IT Cloud Ops organization. You will define and implement how Nutanix governs, automates, secures, and optimises public-cloud infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure. This role allows you to own critical cloud governance, FinOps, and operational capabilities while increasing the team’s ability to scale securely and efficiently through automation.

About the Team

You will join the G&A - IT Cloud Ops team, reporting to the Sr. Manager of Service Engineering. We are a team focused on building reliable automation and establishing reusable standards that eliminate manual operational overhead. We value technical mentorship, clear documentation and cross‑functional alignment. This role is aligned to Pacific Time to support core team collaboration, and candidates who can work near Nutanix headquarters are preferred.

Your Role

Cloud Automation & Platform Architecture

Design, build and operate maintainable, reusable and observable cloud platforms and self‑service workflows using Python, cloud APIs and event‑driven patterns. Replace one‑off scripts with enterprise solutions across large, multi‑account and multi‑region AWS environments (including cross‑account access and account lifecycles). Establish operational ownership, testing, documentation, release management and rollback standards.

AWS Technical Leadership & Security

Serve as the principal SME for AWS architecture, governance and core services (IAM, Organisations, EventBridge, EC2, S3, billing and cross‑account roles). In partnership with InfoSec, define and enforce security guardrails, privileged access controls, resource policies, account hygiene, regional/service restrictions and exception workflows. Debug complex production issues involving IAM, networking, bucket policies and cross‑service integrations while evaluating new AWS capabilities for platform enablement.

GitOps, CI/CD & Delivery Automation

Implement auditable, version‑controlled GitOps and CI/CD pipelines using pull requests, peer reviews, branching strategies and progressive delivery. Integrate security, cost, compliance, policy‑as‑code, secrets management and automated testing directly into the software delivery lifecycle. Eliminate toil via event‑driven remediation, scheduled automation, clear runbooks and strict environment separation.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Configuration Management

Lead the architectural design, module creation and lifecycle management for IaC using Terraform (with exposure to Pulumi or similar). Standardise multi‑account/multi‑cloud state management, provider configurations and drift detection while enforcing code‑review discipline and safe state‑change practices. Rationalise platform tooling to eliminate brittle or duplicative automation.

Multi-Cloud Governance & FinOps

Drive a unified governance, visibility and cost‑optimisation model across AWS, GCP and Azure. Normalise cloud billing/usage data into actionable reporting models for business, finance and engineering stakeholders. Automate rightsizing, savings commitment strategies, tagging compliance and waste reduction – balancing cost efficiency against reliability, security and developer speed.

What You Will Bring

• 7+ years of professional experience operating or engineering cloud infrastructure in AWS.
• Demonstrated proficiency in AWS IAM, Organisations, account and access patterns, EC2, S3, EventBridge and cloud APIs.
• Strong hands‑on experience with GitOps and DevOps practices, including version control, CI/CD, automated testing and production change management.
• Strong Infrastructure as Code experience, especially Terraform.
• Strong automation and scripting ability in Python, Go or a comparable language.
• At least working knowledge of GCP and Azure governance, IAM, resource organisation, billing and automation concepts.

Learn More About the Technology: https://www.nutanixbible.com/

Work Arrangement: Hybrid: This role operates in a hybrid capacity, blending the benefits of remote work with the advantages of in‑person collaboration. For most roles, that will mean coming into an office a minimum of 3 days per week, however certain roles and or teams may require more frequent in‑office presence. Additional team‑specific guidance and norms will be provided by your manager.