Senior Director Cloud Technology

We are a European cloud provider operating a large-scale, sovereign public cloud platform for enterprise and regulated customers. The cloud business is in a strong growth phase, with double-digit million revenues today and a clear target scale of €150–200 million. Our focus is on engineering-led cloud platforms, built and operated in-house.

The Role

The Senior Director Cloud Technology holds end-to-end accountability for the engineering, evolution, and technical excellence of a large-scale public cloud platform.

This is not an administrative or coordination-focused leadership role. We are looking for a deeply technical cloud builder and proven organizational leader who has personally contributed to developing cloud infrastructure and who can lead a complex engineering organization with real business responsibility.

The role is based in Berlin, Germany, and combines technology strategy, execution ownership, and large-scale people leadership.

The role is responsible for the full public cloud technology stack, including:

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
• Core services such as identity, provisioning, metering, and monitoring
• Compute services, including bare metal, dedicated CPUs, virtual CPUs, and GPUs
• Network services (IPv4/IPv6, VLANs, virtual network functions)
• Storage services (block, file, and object storage)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Container platforms (managed Kubernetes, image repositories, image scanning)
• Managed databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, Redis)
• Big data services (Kafka, managed data platforms)

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the technology strategy, target architecture, and engineering standards for the cloud platform
• Lead the design, development, and continuous improvement of cloud services at scale
• Ensure high reliability, security, and regulatory compliance, including standards such as IT-Grundschutz and C5
• Take executive ownership of incident, problem, and change management from an engineering perspective
• Lead and develop an engineering organization of approximately 150 engineers and leaders
• Attract, retain, and develop senior technical talent while building a strong leadership bench
• Own IT financial management, including budgeting, investment decisions, and cost control
• Carry direct responsibility for technology execution supporting a business volume of approximately €150–200 million

Key Interactions

• Partner closely with Product Management leadership on cloud product strategy and roadmap
• Collaborate with Technology Operations leadership on hardware platforms, capacity planning, and lifecycle management
• Work with Customer Support leadership responsible for first-line support and service quality
• Engage with Sales leadership to represent customer needs and market requirements
• Coordinate with Security leadership on certifications, audits, and security requirements

What We Are Specifically Looking For

The following requirements are essential and non-negotiable for this role:

Proven Software Engineering Background

You have spent a significant part of your career personally writing, reviewing, and owning production-grade code (e.g., Go, Java, C/C++, Python, or comparable systems languages). You continue to think like a software engineer and can engage deeply in architectural, design, and code-level discussions with senior engineers.

Experience Building a Cloud Platform from the Inside

You have worked in an organization that designed, built, and evolved its own cloud infrastructure and cloud services, rather than primarily operating or reselling hyperscaler platforms. You understand the technical, organizational, and economic trade-offs involved in building IaaS and PaaS services at scale.

Deep Understanding of Bare-Metal and Low-Level Infrastructure

You possess strong hands‑on understanding of bare‑metal environments, including hardware platforms, networking, storage, operating systems, and virtualization. You are capable of leading teams responsible for the “machine room” and can make informed decisions at the lowest layers of the stack when required.

Large-Scale Leadership with Real Accountability

You have led engineering organizations of 150+ people with direct responsibility for outcomes, budgets, and delivery. You have managed technology organizations supporting a business volume in the range of €150–200 million, and you are accustomed to owning decisions and results — not merely coordinating or administrating.

Candidate Profile

• 10+ years of hands‑on software development experience
• 8+ years of experience leading and scaling large engineering organizations
• Proven track record of delivering complex, mission‑critical platforms and services
• Deep understanding of cloud‑native architectures, distributed systems, and infrastructure platforms
• Strong grounding in software engineering best practices, quality standards, and architectural governance
• Senior‑level presence, self‑starter mindset, and high professional standards
• Academic degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and German
• Based in, or willing to relocate to, Berlin, Germany