About the Role
As a TechOps Team Lead, you will be responsible for the end‑to‑end running of the Kraken TechOps function. This is a leadership role that requires someone comfortable operating with a high degree of autonomy, while remaining closely aligned with global TechOps leadership.
You will spend a significant portion of your time helping with day‑to‑day support alongside your leadership responsibilities. You will be responsible for balancing the team’s everyday workload, managing capacity, and prioritising proactive, planned project work alongside reactive support and unplanned work. The TechOps team operates in an environment with a large amount of ambiguity, and we are looking for someone who can make sense of this, identify the most impactful work, and keep the team focused, motivated and moving at pace.
This is a strategically significant role that will require close collaboration with our UK and APAC leaders. You will bring strong leadership skills, service management, and operational experience, with the ability to lead, scale, and mature this function in line with Kraken's growth trajectory.
You will have experience in: significant people leadership experience; scaling teams and services over time; service management, capacity planning, and operational maturity; managing support pipelines, projects, and assignments; building regional processes while balancing global standards; working with internal and external stakeholders and vendors; driving reliability, consistency, and continuous improvement.
You will bring strong technical depth across areas such as identity, MDM, networking, office infrastructure, and SaaS, with the confidence to challenge partners and vendors when needed. You will be comfortable owning incident management, security and compliance considerations, and contract and service quality oversight.
This is a huge opportunity for the right candidate to step in and lead an amazing team that is critical to keeping Kraken moving at pace.
What You’ll Do
- Define what good looks like for a small, lean, high‑performing TechOps team.
- Own the day‑to‑day delivery of TechOps services.
- Support global operations with opportunities to travel to our global sites.
- Liaise with TechOps leadership and architects to prioritise and deliver project work.
- Balance reactive support and projects with proactive, planned improvements and projects.
- Mentor and line manage TechOps team members, supporting their development and career growth.
- Provide hands‑on 1st, 2nd and 3rd line technical support across the business.
- Collaborate closely with our Security team to balance security, productivity, and user experience.
- Manage incidents, communications, and follow‑ups.
- Coordinate and deliver complex technical projects involving multiple stakeholders and teams across time zones.
Examples of TechOps Projects
- Rollout of, and migration to, a new identity provider, macOS and Windows MDM migrations.
- Rollout of device trust and posture compliance solutions.
- Replacing insecure factors such as SMS with phishing‑resistant authentication.
- Office fit‑outs including networking, AV, and access control.
- SaaS migrations for acquisitions (e.g. Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace).
Qualifications
- Proven track record of leading successful IT or TechOps teams, ideally through periods of growth.
- At least 3 years of people management experience.
- Significant experience managing performance, and professional development.
- Strong service management and operational experience.
- Comfort operating in highly ambiguous environments and managing competing priorities.
- A very strong technical background underpinning your leadership approach.
- Hands‑on experience providing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd line support.
- Ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
- Strong incident management and problem‑solving skills.
- A people‑first mindset and a conscientious approach to decision‑making.
- Experience working across time zones and with globally distributed teams.
- Strong opinions on best practice and a desire to challenge traditional IT norms.
- Experience mentoring team members with varying levels of experience.
- Experience supporting macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android environments.
- Experience with Identity & Access Management platforms such as Okta or Microsoft Entra.
- Willingness to travel and maintain presence in regional office locations if required.
Nice to Have
- A foundational understanding of programming or software engineering.
- Familiarity with security tooling such as CrowdStrike, Kolide, osquery, and Zscaler.
- Experience with email gateway administration and routing.
What is TechOps?
TechOps at Kraken is a modern, lean evolution of traditional enterprise IT. We span everything from hands‑on frontline support through to high‑impact technical projects and long‑term strategic improvements.
