Cloud Operations Manager Engineering · Cheltenham

Cloud Operations Manager - Cheltenham (3 days office based)

About Finova

Finova is the UK’s largest financial services technology provider, supporting one in every five mortgages nationwide. Our agile, cloud-native solutions enable over 60 banks, building societies, specialist lenders, equity release providers and a network of 2,400+ brokers to stay ahead in a competitive market. Built on open architecture and backed by deep industry expertise, our platform is designed to scale. Each year, we process over £50 billion in loans, manage nearly £50 billion in savings, and support the digital servicing of more than 650,000 UK borrower accounts. Be part of a team that’s driving innovation, enabling growth and shaping the future of UK lending.

About the Role:

As the Cloud Operations Manager, you will be responsible for the day-to-day operational health, stability, and continuous improvement of the cloud-hosted environments for multiple clients within our product suites. You will bridge the gap between high-level cloud strategy and technical execution, ensuring that our production environments are resilient, secure, and performant. Acting as the primary authority for operational delivery within your remit, you will lead a team of Cloud Operations Engineers. You will maintain high service availability while driving modern practices such as automation, toil reduction, and proactive resilience testing. A core focus of this role is leadership: providing daily mentorship, administrative oversight, and clear career pathways for your team. You will hold responsibility for operational gatekeeping and readiness, directly influencing disaster recovery drills, security remediation, and the seamless transition of new features into stable production services.

About you:

• Technical Foundation: Deep experience in managing high-availability production environments (AWS or Azure). You are a technically grounded professional with a passion for operational stability.
• Leadership Aptitude: Proven ability to mentor junior peers, lead technical projects, or act as a 'sounding board' for complex engineering challenges. (This role suits an experienced manager or a Senior Cloud Engineer ready for management).
• Resilience Mindset: A strong drive to replace manual bottlenecks with scalable, code-based solutions and an understanding of SRE principles.
• Event Coordination: Exceptional organizational skills with the confidence to facilitate cross-team events like disaster recovery simulations, pen tests, and post-incident retrospectives.
• Process & Compliance: Familiarity with ITIL and working in ISO-aligned environments. Detail-oriented approach to assessing vulnerabilities and maintaining industry standards.
• Communication Skills: Ability to translate technical metrics into clear availability and performance updates for engineering teams, senior leadership, external clients, and third-party partners.
• Collaborative Approach: Eager to partner with the Head of Cloud Ops, Platform teams, and Finance to build a high-performing, cost-effective engineering culture.

What will you be doing?

• Operational Excellence & Service Management: Manage day-to-day capacity, priorities, and workloads to consistently meet availability and performance SLAs. Embed ITIL-aligned service management practices (incident, problem, and change processes) to drive continuous improvement.
• Team Leadership & Development: Own the capability and growth of your team through formal line management, coaching, and career development. Maintain a high-quality technical wiki and skills matrix to eliminate silos.
• Automation & Toil Reduction: Eliminate operational waste by identifying repetitive manual tasks and directing Senior Engineers to prioritize automation and self-healing infrastructure.
• Operational Gatekeeping: Conduct readiness checks on new releases to ensure they meet strict standards for monitoring, documentation, and long-term supportability.
• Resilience & Security: Facilitate regular Game Days, disaster recovery drills, and coordinate third-party penetration testing and remediation. Lead blameless post-mortems after significant incidents.
• Escalation & On-Call Management: Act as a senior escalation point for platform/application issues. Manage (and participate in/provide cover for) the out-of-hours on-call rotation for P1/P2 incidents and deployments.
• Compliance & Audit: Feed into the departmental risk register and coordinate evidence, controls, and documentation required for regulatory and customer audits (e.g., ISO 27001/ISO 9001).
• FinOps & Stakeholder Collaboration: Act as the primary point of contact for internal/external queries. Collaborate with FinOps/Finance to improve cost transparency, tagging discipline, and resource optimization.

What We Offer:

• Hybrid working: We operate on a hybrid model that is primarily office based, requiring three days in the office each week, with the flexibility to work remotely for the remainder.
• Private medical insurance: Comprehensive health cover, with the option to add your family to your plan, because your well-being matters to us.
• Life assurance & income protection: We provide life assurance and income protection to give you peace of mind for the future.
• Family friendly policies: Our enhanced family-friendly policy goes beyond maternity and paternity leave, offering paid time off for when plans change or alternative paths to parenthood are needed.
• Work from anywhere: Some thrive in the office, others at home — and many do best with choice. With approval, Finova employees can work abroad for up to 4 weeks each year.
• Flexible holiday package: Enjoy 25 days paid holiday allowance, plus all public holidays. And, you can rebook any public holidays for a day that aligns with your personal beliefs or celebration calendar. We also offer holiday trading allowing you to purchase or sell your holiday allowance.
• Company pension scheme: With salary exchange, you save on tax and can build a secure future.
• Employee assistance programme: We understand that mental health is just as important as physical health. Access to a 24/7 confidential counselling helpline ensures you have support when you need it.
• Electric car scheme: Get a brand-new electric vehicle with salary sacrifice as a benefit, paid for through your gross monthly pay, saving on Income Tax and National Insurance.
• Health cash plan: Our Health Cash Plan empowers you to prioritise your wellbeing by providing effortless reimbursement for everyday healthcare costs, from dental and optical visits to physiotherapy.
• Gym discounts: Achieve your fitness goals for less with GymFlex, which offers significant savings on annual memberships at over 3,000 gyms and leisure centres nationwide.
• Perks that matter: We fuel your day with a fully stocked pantry of fresh fruit and snacks and keep the team spirit high with weekly socials and events.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. If you’re passionate about this role but don’t meet all the criteria, please reach out, we’d love to discuss how your skills and experiences align with our needs.