Director Platform Ops, & Platform Enablement

Seeking a dynamic Director – Platform Ops & Platform Enablement Lead to drive operational excellence and enablement across enterprise data and analytics platforms spanning both cloud and on-prem environments. This role will be pivotal in ensuring the stability, scalability, and performance of platform infrastructure supporting global data programs.

Lead and manage end-to-end platform operations, including reliability, performance optimization, governance, and lifecycle management across Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-prem platforms.

• Drive platform enablement by establishing standardized frameworks, best practices, and reusable capabilities that empower Data Engineering, Analytics, and AI/ML teams to build and operate efficiently.
• Ensure high availability, scalability, automation, and governance of enterprise platforms supporting data pipelines, analytics, and business intelligence workloads.
• Oversee the implementation of observability, monitoring, and automation frameworks to enhance platform reliability, performance, and operational efficiency.
• Define and execute platform governance models, operating frameworks, and roadmaps to drive consistency and efficiency across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
• Enable seamless integration of CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), platform automation, and self-healing capabilities across the enterprise ecosystem.
• Partner in building next-generation Data & Analytics platforms, driving platform standardization, modernization, and adoption across global teams.
• Lead and mentor a high-performing Platform Ops and Enablement team, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across Data Engineering, CloudOps, Security, and business units to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture, security, and compliance standards.
• Act as a key leader in driving Data & Analytics platform transformation initiatives, enabling a shift toward a platform-first, data-driven organization.
• Champion platform excellence and operational maturity, supporting large-scale global data initiatives and ensuring robust sustainment capabilities across the enterprise data ecosystem.
• Lead end-to-end platform operations across cloud and on-prem environments, ensuring high availability, reliability, performance, and   scalability.
• Own platform lifecycle management, including provisioning, upgrades, capacity planning, and decommissioning across Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-prem platforms.
• Drive platform enablement by defining and implementing standardized frameworks, reusable components, and best practices for data and analytics platforms.
• Establish and enforce platform governance, security, and compliance standards in alignment with enterprise architecture and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee implementation of observability, monitoring, and alerting frameworks to proactively identify and resolve platform issues.
• Lead automation initiatives, including Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), CI/CD integration, and self-healing capabilities to improve platform efficiency and resilience.
• Partner with Data Engineering, Analytics, AI/ML, and CloudOps teams to enable scalable, reliable, and high-performing data platforms.
• Drive platform performance optimization, including cost management, resource utilization, and workload efficiency across environments.
• Define and execute platform operating models, processes, and SLAs to ensure consistent and high-quality service delivery.
• Lead incident, problem, and change management processes for platform services, ensuring rapid resolution and minimal business disruption.
• Build and lead a high-performing Platform Ops and Enablement team, including hiring, mentoring, and capability development.
• Collaborate with security, compliance, and governance teams to ensure data protection, risk mitigation, and adherence to policies.
• Support enterprise data and analytics transformation initiatives by enabling modern, scalable, and standardized platform capabilities.
• Drive adoption of DevOps/DataOps best practices across platform teams to improve agility, speed, and reliability.
• Establish strong stakeholder relationships across business, IT, and engineering teams to align platform capabilities with business needs.
• Provide regular reporting on platform health, performance, risks, and continuous improvement initiatives to senior leadership.
• Enable a culture of operational excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement across platform operations.

Compensation & Benefits:

• The expected compensation range for this position is between $132,200 - $262,400.
• Location, confirmed job-related skills, experience, and education will be considered in setting actual starting salary. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range during the hiring process.
• Bonus based on performance and eligibility target payout is 25% of annual salary paid out annually and an additional target payout of 10% of annual salary is paid out over 3 years following the end of the performance period.
• Long term incentive equity may be awarded based on eligibility and performance.
• Paid time off subject to eligibility, including paid parental leave, vacation, sick, and bereavement.
• In addition to salary, PepsiCo offers a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees and their families, subject to elections and eligibility: Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Health, and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Insurance (Accident, Group Legal, Life), Defined Contribution Retirement Plan.

• 15–20+ years of overall IT experience, with a strong foundation in infrastructure, data platforms, or cloud engineering.
• 10–12+ years in platform operations / infrastructure / data platform management roles.
• 7–10+ years of leadership experience, managing global teams and large-scale enterprise platforms.
• 5–8+ years of hands-on experience in cloud platforms (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP as secondary).
• Proven experience managing hybrid environments (on-prem + cloud) and driving platform transformation initiatives.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure (compute, storage, networking, identity, and security services).
• Strong working knowledge of AWS and/or GCP for multi-cloud strategy and interoperability.
• Experience with cloud-native data platforms (ADF, Synapse, Databricks, streaming frameworks).
• Expertise in cloud architecture patterns, scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery.
• Strong experience with on-prem data centers, including servers, storage, networking, and virtualization (VMware/Hyper-V).
• Experience managing hybrid connectivity (VPN, ExpressRoute, Direct Connect, etc.).
• Knowledge of legacy data platforms and integration systems and their modernization to cloud.
• Experience in hybrid cloud architectures and workload migration strategies.
• Expertise in platform lifecycle management (provisioning, scaling, upgrades, decommissioning).
• Strong experience with SRE practices, incident/problem/change management, and 24x7 operations.
• Proven ability to implement observability, monitoring, and alerting frameworks.
• Experience driving high availability, fault tolerance, and performance optimization.
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, and GCP, along with hybrid/on-prem infrastructure management.
• Hands-on knowledge of data and analytics platforms, including Azure Data Factory (ADF), Azure Synapse, Azure Databricks, and streaming architectures.
• Proven experience in platform lifecycle management, including provisioning, scaling, performance tuning, and capacity planning.
• Strong understanding of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, ARM templates, or similar frameworks.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and DevOps/DataOps practices using tools like Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins.
• Expertise in observability, monitoring, and alerting tools (e.g., Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk).
• Solid understanding of platform security, compliance, and governance frameworks across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Experience with automation, orchestration, and self-healing platform capabilities to improve operational efficiency and resilience.
• Strong knowledge of incident, problem, and change management processes, including SRE best practices.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale platform transformation and modernization initiatives.
• Experience in cost optimization and resource management across multi-cloud environments.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage and influence senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in building, mentoring, and managing high-performing global teams.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills in complex, fast-paced environments.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks and alignment with business and IT strategy.