Manager, Cloud Engineering

Overview

The Manager of Cloud Engineering role at the Human Resources Department of Ras Al Khaimah Government is a pioneering position established to develop and lead the organization's cloud capabilities. This role will facilitate the transformation from a primarily on-premises infrastructure to a secure, strategically governed cloud environment with a focus on Microsoft Azure and UAE data residency compliance. The position combines strong technical expertise with leadership responsibilities as it will build and command a cloud engineering team.

Core Responsibilities

• Evaluate the current infrastructure including Azure cloud footprints, SaaS applications, and existing data centers to form a foundational understanding for adopting cloud services.
• Create and maintain the cloud strategy and migration plan, detailing workload priorities, target architecture models, phased implementation, and cost assessments.
• Develop and enforce cloud architecture guidelines, including standardized patterns and guardrails for IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS to ensure scalable, secure, and efficient cloud adoption.
• Define approved solutions for common cloud scenarios such as hosting, integration, identity, security logging, and disaster recovery, providing well-founded technical advice on trade-offs.
• Stay informed of advancements in Azure services and evaluate their relevance to the department’s cloud roadmap.
• Lead the comprehensive migration of applications and workloads from VMware-based on-premises environments to Azure using Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery tools.
• Conduct workload evaluation, dependency mapping, phased migrations including rollback strategies, and validate post-migration performance and stability.
• Map traditional data center components such as compute, storage, and backup systems to appropriate Azure infrastructure services.
• Collaborate with application and infrastructure teams to optimize workloads for cloud operation rather than performing simple lift-and-shift approaches.
• Ensure all migration plans include comprehensive operational criteria for stable, recoverable, and supportable services.
• Design, implement, and operate Azure cloud infrastructure including networking, compute, storage, identity, and platform services.
• Establish infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or Bicep, enabling automated and version-controlled cloud resource management.
• Define operational processes for cloud environments addressing monitoring, alerts, incident response, capacity, and disaster recovery.
• Design hybrid connectivity solutions integrating on-premises networks with Azure via Site-to-Site VPN, ExpressRoute, MPLS, and SD-WAN technologies.
• Implement robust network architectures employing networking fundamentals and Azure network security controls including firewalls, routing, and traffic management.
• Provide cloud security architecture leadership, defining identity and access management, network security, encryption, and audit logging strategies.
• Implement hybrid identity solutions combining Active Directory and Entra ID, including Azure AD Connect, SSO, MFA, and Conditional Access.
• Design and oversee disaster recovery and backup systems aligning with recovery time and point objectives by utilizing Azure site recovery and backup solutions.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for complex cloud architecture issues, managing relationships with Microsoft and other vendors.
• Develop and maintain cloud operational documentation, standards, and training materials to foster cloud expertise across teams.
• Build and mentor a cloud engineering team, initially leading one engineer and expanding to up to five as necessary.

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, engineering, or related technical disciplines.
• Mandatory Microsoft Azure certifications, with Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) as the minimum requirement; additional certifications in Azure DevOps (AZ-400) or Azure Security (AZ-500) are highly desirable.
• Preferably familiar with Azure Cloud Adoption Framework and multi-cloud certifications (AWS, GCP) are advantageous.
• 8 to 12 years of experience in infrastructure and cloud engineering, including a minimum of 5 years dedicated hands-on Azure experience in production settings.
• Proven track record leading end-to-end migration projects from VMware-based data centers to Azure, including planning, execution, and post-migration optimization.
• Experience in developing enterprise-scale cloud architectures and governance practices within organizations transitioning from limited cloud adoption.
• Proficient management of Windows and Linux environments, including hybrid operations and domain migration.
• Hands-on expertise with hybrid identity management and infrastructure-as-code tools integrated with CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience designing and implementing cloud security measures aligned with zero trust principles.
• Knowledge of hybrid network connectivity methods and cloud monitoring tools such as Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.
• Experience working within government or public sector environments is beneficial.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English (both written and spoken) is required.
• Arabic language skills are an advantage.