Senior Manager of Cloud Platform Engineering

The Role in Context

Fingerprint processes 25B+ API requests annually — and every single one flows through the infrastructure this team owns. We're looking for a Senior Manager of Cloud Platform Engineering to lead our infrastructure function directly, reporting to the VP of Engineering.

This is not a caretaker role. You're inheriting a strong, senior team — and stepping into a function that needs to level up: from reliable infrastructure delivery to proactive platform strategy. You will own the technical direction for how Fingerprint scales its cloud platform over the next 2–3 years, set the standard for reliability and cost efficiency across the engineering org, and build the SRE capability that enables every product team to ship with confidence.

We're looking for someone who operates with an ownership mindset, brings strategic perspective to the VP rather than waiting to be directed, and builds teams that scale beyond their direct involvement. You will report directly to the VP of Engineering and operate with a high degree of autonomy and executive visibility.

Your Mission

• Own the platform strategy — Define and drive the 12–18 month technical roadmap for Cloud Platform: multi-region readiness, Kubernetes scalability, SRE maturity, FinOps. Come to the VP with plans, not problems.
• Lead a senior, high-ownership team — Directly manage 6 engineers (P3–P5). Set high standards, develop careers, and build the kind of team that other engineering teams rely on and trust.
• Set the infrastructure standard — Define and enforce cloud architecture, security, CI/CD, and observability best practices across the entire engineering org. Act as the infrastructure voice in cross-functional technical discussions.
• Drive FinOps as a strategic discipline — Partner with Finance leadership to manage a seven-figure cloud budget. Build a cost-conscious engineering culture, not just cost reports.
• Build SRE from the ground up — Establish the SRE function: on-call health, incident response frameworks, reliability SLOs. This is a greenfield opportunity to professionalize how the entire org thinks about operational excellence.

What You’ll Do

Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define the multi-year cloud platform roadmap aligned to Fingerprint's scaling trajectory — anticipate where the infrastructure will break before it does
• Act as the primary technical advisor for cloud architecture decisions across product teams; ensure new features are built on scalable infrastructure by default
• Drive the evolution of AWS EKS clusters for resilience, performance, and cost efficiency at 25B+ annual request volume
• Identify systemic technical debt and infrastructure bottlenecks proactively; bring prioritized plans to address them before they become incidents

Operational Excellence & SRE

• Own the health of the DevOps stack: ArgoCD (GitOps), GitHub Actions (CI/CD), Cloudflare (edge), Terraform (IaC)
• Build and run the SRE function — on-call rotations, incident response processes, blameless retrospectives, SLO/SLA frameworks
• Drive observability standards (Datadog) as the single source of truth across the engineering org
• Ensure security posture keeps pace with scale: SOC 2 compliance, zero-trust principles, Snyk vulnerability management

Cross-functional Leadership

• Proactively communicate infrastructure priorities, risks, and tradeoffs to VP Engineering and Finance leadership — translate complex technical decisions into business context
• Manage dependencies and align priorities across engineering teams on infrastructure-related initiatives
• Partner with the Security & IT function (separate team, same reporting line) on application security and compliance posture

People Leadership

• Directly manage 6 engineers; build a culture of high ownership, technical excellence, and Infrastructure as Code
• Develop engineers' careers: clear growth paths, coaching, and stretch opportunities including leading cross-org initiatives
• Proactively plan team growth and headcount to address scaling needs before they become capacity constraints

What We're Looking For

Required

• 7+ years managing engineering teams in cloud-native environments, with 12+ years in technology overall
• Multi-team or large-team leadership: Experience managing 8+ engineers directly, or demonstrated scope equivalent to a Sr. Manager — you've operated beyond a single squad
• AWS depth: Expert-level knowledge of EKS (Kubernetes), IAM, VPC, RDS, and the AWS ecosystem at scale
• Modern DevOps stack: GitOps (ArgoCD), CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) — you've lived in this stack, not just managed people who have
• FinOps experience: Proven track record managing seven-figure cloud budgets with measurable cost reduction outcomes
• SRE mindset: You think in SLOs, blameless retros, and incident response frameworks — and you build cultures that do too
• Strategic communication: You come to leadership with plans, data, and recommendations — not status updates asking what to do next

Preferred

• Security posture experience: SOC 2 compliance, zero-trust architecture, application security (Snyk or equivalent)
• Cloudflare: WAF, Workers, CDN configuration at the edge
• Experience leading infrastructure at a high-growth SaaS company — you've scaled infrastructure through an order-of-magnitude traffic growth

Why This Role?

• Direct VP line: You report to the VP of Engineering and are a key voice in engineering leadership decisions — not a middle layer
• High-impact, high-visibility scope: Every product team's reliability depends on what you build. This is foundational work with org-wide visibility
• Greenfield SRE mandate: The SRE function is yours to define and build — a rare opportunity to establish the standard from scratch
• Senior, high-ownership team: You're inheriting engineers who take pride in their work and want strong technical leadership, not micromanagement
• Modern, 100% cloud-native stack: No legacy on-prem baggage. AWS, EKS, ArgoCD, Terraform, Datadog, Cloudflare
• Real FinOps authority: You own the cloud budget in partnership with Finance — not just visibility into it

Compensation Range

For US-based employees, the cash compensation range for this role is $177,000 – $240,000. We set standard ranges for all US roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. To comply with local legislation and provide greater transparency, we share salary ranges on all job postings. However, these ranges are specific to the hiring location and may differ within or outside the US.