Cloud Engineering Manager

Cloud is a critical enabler of Unilever’s digital future. It not only changes how we store and access data but will also fundamentally improve how our business operates. Cloud enables innovation and delivery at cost‑effective scale and at pace by removing barriers and providing foundations for digital business transformation.

The Cloud Platform Services (CPS) team, part of the UniOps function, has a vision to accelerate cloud adoption to drive a future‑fit model for innovation and growth across Unilever. The Cloud Engineering Manager is experienced in cloud‑based tech, with a firm grasp of emerging technologies, platforms, and applications, and the ability to customise them to help our business become more secure and efficient. Extensive knowledge of cloud operations, experience managing staff, and advanced industry knowledge is key to keeping us at the cutting edge.

The Cloud Engineering Manager is responsible for providing staffing and management of engineering resources assigned to Product Groups. This role is responsible for providing technical leadership and oversight across all cloud engineering activities. Responsibilities include the day‑to‑day and long‑term career management of cloud engineers, including ensuring deliverables are met, cloud technical training, experience and understanding is kept up to date and relevant to meet Unilever’s wider Cloud strategy needs. The role also includes the need for a deep understanding and scoping of technical deliverable time frames and the management of expectations for key stakeholders. The role is also responsible for career management, coaching/mentoring, cloud technology leadership and service readiness of the team, ensuring that everyone has a career development plan mapping to CPS’s annual goals.

Main Accountabilities

• Cloud Technical Leadership – As a Cloud Engineering Manager you will be expected to have a wide range of experience and knowledge in Public Cloud, with the need to be a subject matter expert in a specific Cloud domain or technology.
• Cloud Expertise – You will be responsible for providing advice and guidance to teams across CPS and seen as a cloud technical leader across the group.
• Technical Resourcing Management – One of the main responsibilities and accountabilities of the role is the assigning and management of technical expertise aligned with product group roadmaps and backlog.
• Technical Sounding Board – You will be expected to offer experience and expertise to your team and the wider Cloud community to find technical ways forward in resolving issues.
• Key Contributor – in developing the overall Cloud Engineering objectives and deliverables and working to achieve these goals in creative and effective ways.
• Exercising Independent Judgment – a key responsibility of this role is to decide the level of effort and time a deliverable may take a cloud engineering resource to perform and setting those expectations with stakeholders.
• Identifying Technical Opportunities – you will be expected to identify efficiencies and opportunities outside the immediate area of a product and act accordingly to ensure these opportunities are explored or taken up.
• Stakeholder Management – you will need to guide and influence technical and customer stakeholder relationships; and be comfortable delivering constructive feedback and providing options and solutions to move forward.
• Adept at Strategic Planning – Key to this role is planning and the use of critical thinking, analytics of data and dates to assist with forecasting work efficiently to avoid delays.
• Technical Mentorship – you will be expected to guide and mentor a cloud engineering team, ensuring individual accountability is maintained to achieve goals, owning initiatives and driving deliverables to completion.
• Collaboration – you will be working with the Architecture and Engineering Lead to forecast resources and skills needed for upcoming engagements.
• Community Development – driving a spirit of technical collaboration and cross‑pollination of skills and experience.

Key Skills and Relevant Experience

• Decision Making - Strong and confident decision maker, adept at making decisions sometimes with limited information at your disposal.
• Multi‑Tasking – ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks and engagements effectively and efficiently.
• Talent Development – able to hire, retain and develop cloud engineering staff.
• Servant Leader – driving a culture that allows their staff to try and fail, but also assists with the unblocking of issues so their team can deliver at pace and without constant approval.
• Communication - Writes and speaks in a professional, convincing and persuasive way.
• Delegating - Confident and effective at delegating and uses delegation to enhance the team's productivity.
• Deep Understanding of Cloud Concepts and excellent knowledge of how these concepts can deliver business value.
• Knowledge Management - Contributor and curator of knowledge‑based content and reusable assets or best practice materials.
• Influencing & Advising - other teams, peers and leaders in seeing your way of thinking.
• Mentoring – able to act as a role model to your team, providing developmental plans and career paths within Cloud Engineering.
• Exceptional problem‑solving skills, with the ability to see and solve issues before they affect business productivity.

Experience

• 4+ years of experience, developing, and implementing cloud solutions on Azure and GCP platforms.
• 2+ years of experience in managing cloud engineering resources or developers across one or more projects.
• Proven ability to collaborate with multi‑disciplinary teams of Product Managers, Architects, Scrum Masters and Subject Matter Experts.
• 2+ years practical experience in applying Agile and/or DevOps methodologies.
• Keeping ahead with cloud trends and aligning appropriate cloud‑native solutions to a product strategy.
• Coding – Proficiency with most provider specific languages.
• Minimum qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3+ Associate level Cloud Service Provider certificates in GCP and/or Azure.

BEHAVIOURS

• Accountability and Ownership - Strive for high quality and success, empower yourself and others to make decisions.
• Be bold - Challenge the status quo, be bold & passionate about cloud.
• Customer First - Thinking about our customers constantly by providing them with the best tools, services and end user experiences.
• Collaboration - Working in an openly creative culture, where all ideas are acknowledged encouraging innovation and transparency.
• Empowered - Always be one step ahead, embrace change and challenges, initiate solutions and make decisions in good faith.