At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a global team in managing critical infrastructure initiatives and complex tech rollouts.
- Company: Join Alpaca, a forward-thinking tech company with a focus on innovation and collaboration.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, stock options, health benefits, and a generous home-office setup.
- Other info: Be part of a diverse workplace that values your unique contributions.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by leading a talented team and driving major infrastructure changes.
- Qualifications: Experience in engineering management and strong people skills are essential.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
Your Role: As the DevOps Team Lead for our Core Foundation pod, you will lead the engine room of Alpaca’s most critical infrastructure initiatives. You will manage a talented, globally distributed team of engineers (spanning APAC, EMEA, and AMER) responsible for Heavy Compute, Core Networking, Stateful Data, Observability, and Cloud/Physical Infrastructure. This is a leadership and operations-first role. While you need a solid technical background to guide the team and understand our stack, we are not looking for an individual contributor to be in the weeds of the tech. Instead, we need a masterful planner, communicator, and people manager. You will establish robust support frameworks, orchestrate complex rollouts, manage incident response, and ensure the seamless delivery of our highest-priority yearly infrastructure and architectural evolution initiatives.
Things You Get To Do:
- People & Tech Leadership: Lead, mentor, and foster a healthy, high-performing globally distributed engineering team.
- Prioritization & Planning: Own the execution and delivery of highly critical, complex yearly roadmap items centered around large-scale foundational infrastructure upgrades, high availability, and platform resilience.
- Change Management Ownership: Own and drive the change management processes across engineering and product domains. You will orchestrate the smooth delivery of major systemic changes, ensuring alignment, mitigating friction, and breaking down silos between diverse technical groups to deliver cohesive infrastructure solutions.
- Support Frameworks & Methodologies: Design, implement, and refine robust support workflows, agile planning methodologies, and deployment/rollout strategies to ensure operational excellence.
- On-Call & Incident Management: Manage and optimize the global on-call rotation to ensure team well-being while maintaining high availability. Lead incident response (via Rootly), establishing clear communication, rapid resolution processes, and blameless post-mortems.
Who you are (must-haves):
- Proven experience as an Engineering Manager, DevOps Lead, or Site Reliability Engineering Lead, with a track record of successfully managing globally distributed teams.
- Exceptional people management skills, with a deep focus on coaching, mentoring, and fostering team culture across multiple time zones.
- Deep expertise in engineering support frameworks, roadmap planning, and team prioritization methodologies.
- Proven experience owning Change Management lifecycles.
- You have a unifying leadership style with a proven ability to break down organizational silos, build trust between disparate teams, and shepherd complex systemic updates from conception to deployment.
- Extensive experience managing Incident Management lifecycles and running sustainable, global on-call rotations.
- Incredibly strong communication and organizational skills, with a proven ability to drive and coordinate complex, multi-stage tech rollouts and deployments.
- A solid technical background in modern DevOps/SRE ecosystems. You don't need to be hands-on daily, but you must fluently understand the concepts and operational realities surrounding Kubernetes (GKE), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Relational Databases (PostgreSQL), and Observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos).
- A strategic mindset capable of navigating shifting priorities, acting as the steady organizational force for the company's core infrastructure foundation.
How We Take Care of You:
- Competitive Salary & Stock Options
- Health Benefits
- New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
- Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card
Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.
DevOps Team Lead, Core Foundation employer: Alpaca
At Alpaca, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that champions a culture of collaboration and innovation. As the DevOps Team Lead, you will not only lead a talented, globally distributed team but also enjoy competitive salaries, stock options, and comprehensive health benefits. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through our supportive frameworks and resources, ensuring you thrive in your leadership role while contributing to critical infrastructure initiatives.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land DevOps Team Lead, Core Foundation
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to your connections in the industry, attend meetups, and engage in online communities. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for interviews by practising common questions and scenarios related to DevOps leadership. Think about how you would handle team dynamics, incident management, and change processes. We want you to shine when it’s your turn to talk!
✨Tip Number 3
Showcase your leadership style! During interviews, share examples of how you've built trust and broken down silos in previous roles. Highlight your ability to manage globally distributed teams and drive complex projects to success.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who are proactive about their job search!
We think you need these skills to ace DevOps Team Lead, Core Foundation
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Your Leadership Skills:In your application, make sure to highlight your experience in leading and mentoring teams. We want to see how you've fostered a positive team culture and managed diverse groups across different time zones.
Be Clear About Your Technical Background:While we’re not looking for someone to dive deep into the tech daily, it’s important to demonstrate your understanding of key concepts like Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code. Make it clear how your technical expertise supports your leadership role.
Focus on Change Management Experience:Since this role involves owning change management processes, share specific examples of how you’ve successfully driven systemic changes in previous positions. We love seeing how you’ve navigated challenges and aligned teams.
Apply Through Our Website:Don’t forget to submit your application through our website! It’s the best way for us to keep track of your application and ensure it gets the attention it deserves.
How to prepare for a job interview at Alpaca
✨Know Your Stuff
Make sure you have a solid understanding of the technical concepts mentioned in the job description, like Kubernetes, Terraform, and PostgreSQL. While you won't be coding daily, being able to discuss these topics confidently will show that you can lead a tech team effectively.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
Prepare examples of how you've successfully managed globally distributed teams in the past. Highlight your experience in mentoring and fostering team culture, as well as any specific instances where you broke down silos between teams to achieve a common goal.
✨Plan for Change Management
Be ready to discuss your approach to change management. Share your experiences in driving systemic changes and how you ensure alignment across different engineering and product domains. This will demonstrate your ability to handle complex rollouts smoothly.
✨Communicate Clearly
Practice articulating your thoughts clearly and concisely. Strong communication is key in this role, especially when managing incident responses and coordinating with diverse teams. Consider preparing a few scenarios where you successfully communicated during a crisis.
