Systems Reliability & Automation Lead

On Direct Business Services Limited; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uncapped annual leave

Group Life Cover

Disability Income Cover

Trauma Insurance Cover

Fitness Cash Contribution

Pension Fund Contribution

Medical Insurance Contribution

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Cloud Direct is seeking a Systems Reliability & Automation Lead to drive reliability engineering, automation and operational excellence across managed services and internal systems. This hands-on leadership role focuses on reducing manual effort and scaling capabilities.

You will define strategy, standards and a roadmap, partner with Security and Business Systems, and mentor a growing team. The role requires Cape Town office presence two days a week and a proven track record in cloud platforms

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in Reliability Engineering or similar leadership
• 2+ years leading technical initiatives or teams
• Proven automation experience to reduce manual work
• Strong incident and problem management knowledge
• Experience with Azure and cloud-hosted platforms
• Scripting skills in PowerShell or Python
• Experience with monitoring/observability and alerting
• Ability to communicate with technical and operational stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Improve availability, performance and resilience of critical systems
• Establish monitoring, alerting and reliability standards across key platforms and services
• Lead root cause analysis activities and identify automation opportunities
• Define and report on reliability metrics and operational performance
• Design and implement automation to reduce human error
• Build and lead the Systems Reliability & Automation function
• Develop a roadmap aligned to business priorities and recruit/mentor future team members
• Collaborate with Managed Services, Business Systems and Security teams

Skills

Reliability engineering

Automation

Scripting (PowerShell/Python)

Azure cloud

CI/CD

API integration

Observability/Monitoring

Incident/problem management

Leadership

Tools

Azure Monitor

Log Analytics

Grafana

Terraform

Bicep

Docker

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

Job description

“A hands-on leadership role driving system reliability, automation, and operational excellence”

As a frontier partner, we grow through great people, smart tech, and teamwork between humans and AI.

The Systems Reliability & Automation Lead is responsible forapplying software engineering and automation practices to improvethe reliability, efficiency and scalability of Cloud Direct’s internal systems and managed service operations.This is a hands‑on leadership role focused on reducing operational effort through automation, improving service quality through reliability engineering, and creating the capabilities required to support Cloud Direct’s continued growth.

The role works closely with Managed Services, Business Systems,andSecurity teams to identify operational bottlenecks, eliminate repetitive manual activities and implement reliable, scalable solutions.The core focuswill be on elements such asreducing the workload caused bymonitoring and alerting.

As the first hire in this function, you will be expected to establish the Systems Reliability & Automation capability, define its strategy, standards and roadmap, and build a future team as the function matures.

Success in this role will be demonstrated by:

• Reduction in manual operational effort across Managed Services.
• Measurable reduction inalert volumes through automation and optimisation.
• Increased percentage of operational processes that are automated.
• Improved availability and reliability of critical business systems.
• Reduction in recurring incidents through effective root cause analysis.
• Establishment of a Systems Reliability & Automation function with clear standards, tools and operating procedures.

What you’ll be doing?

Reliability Engineering:

• Improve the availability, performance and resilience of Cloud Direct’s business-critical systems.
• Establish monitoring, alerting and reliability standards across key platforms and services.
• Lead or support root cause analysis activities for significant incidents, identifying opportunities for automation, resilience improvements and permanent corrective actions.
• Define and report on key reliability and operational performance metrics.

Automation & Operational Excellence:

• Identify and eliminate repetitive manual work across Managed Services operations.
• Design and implement automation solutions that improve efficiency and reduce human error.
• Improve alert management through intelligent routing, automation and remediation.
• Develop self-service capabilities that reduce operational overhead and improve user experience.
• Continuously identify opportunities to streamline operational processes through technology.
• Establish and lead the Systems Reliability & Automation function.
• Define standards, tooling and ways of working for the team.
• Build and maintain a roadmap of reliability and automation initiatives aligned to business priorities.
• Support future recruitment, mentoring and development of team members as the capability grows.
• Work closely with Managed Services teams to understand operational challenges and identify improvement opportunities.
• Partner with Business SystemsandSecurity teams to deliver reliable and scalable solutions.
• Provide leadership and guidance on reliability engineering and operational automation practices across the organisation.

What you’ll need:

• 5+years experiencein Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineering, DevOps, Automation Engineering, Systems Engineering or a similar technical leadership role.
• 2+ years leading technical initiatives, programmes or teams.
• Proven experience reducing operational effort/improving operational efficiency through automation in a Managed Services, IT Operations or enterprise technology environment.
• Strong understanding of incident management, problem management and operational best practices.
• Experience defining and measuring service reliability objectives and operational performance metrics.
• Strong scripting and automation skills using PowerShell, Python or similar technologies.
• Experience working with Microsoft Azure and cloud-hosted platforms.
• Experience implementingand improvingmonitoring, observability and alerting solutionsusing tools such as Azure Monitor, Log Analyticsand Grafana.
• Experience integrating systems and services through APIs, workflows and automation tooling.
• ExperiencewithCI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub or similar platforms.
• Ability to balance strategic planning with hands‑on technical delivery.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and operational stakeholders.
• Must be able to work in ourCape Townoffice 2 days a week.

Experience and Skills Desired:

• Experience with ServiceNow, or similar operational platforms.
• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot technologies.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code toolingsuch as Terraform or Bicep.
• Experience with Docker and Azure Container Apps.
• Experience with AIOps, intelligent automationorAI‑assisted operations.
• Previous experience establishing a new technical capability or team.

What we’re offering:

• Responsible Time off (uncapped annual leave)
• Group Life Cover /Disability Income Cover/ Trauma Insurance Cover (Injury / Disability)
• Fitness Cash Contribution
• Pension Fund Contribution
• Medical Insurance Contribution
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave
• Endless Growth Opportunities: We provide ample opportunities for professional development, mentoring, and advancement.
• Culture of Excellence: We foster a high-performance culture that recognizes and rewards exceptional talen

At Cloud Direct, we believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to our success. We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and strive to build a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We encourage candidates of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, abilities, and socioeconomic statuses to apply.

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