Assistant Director - Cloud

About the Role

Northeastern University is seeking an Assistant Director to manage the organization's hybrid infrastructure, encompassing Cloud, On-Premises Compute, Storage, and Backup systems. This role ensures real-time network health monitoring, proactive incident management, and maintaining operational standards. The position requires a proactive professional with strong technical skills and the ability to lead a team in maintaining, optimizing, and securing physical and virtual estates. This hands-on role bridges strategy and execution, driving the design, implementation, and optimization of both cloud infrastructure and on-premises datacenter solutions aligned with the university’s cloud and infrastructure strategy.

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Cloud (AWS and Azure) architecture, governance, security, networking, and automation. You will collaborate with security and application teams to ensure scalability, data sovereignty, cost optimization, and security best practices. Occasional availability outside of traditional working hours is required to address urgent business needs, including security incidents, software deployments, system breaks, and other critical operational requirements. Flexibility and adaptability are essential to minimize disruption and support evolving business needs.

Schedule

This role is hybrid, requiring in-office presence three days a week to facilitate collaboration, teamwork, and engagement with staff and students. In-office work is essential to the university’s on-campus culture and contributes to dynamic problem-solving and team synergy.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of engineers and administrators, fostering a collaborative and high-performance work environment.
• Real-time Health Monitoring: Implement and manage tools to continuously monitor health and performance.
• Incident Triage, Identification, and Remediation: Quickly identify, triage, and remediate incidents to minimize impact.
• Outage and Impact Assessment: Assess the impact of outages and work toward rapid resolution.
• Incident Communication and Status: Provide timely communication and status updates during incidents.
• Incident Management and Escalation: Oversee incident management processes and escalate issues as necessary.
• Budget Management: Develop and manage the network infrastructure budget, ensuring cost-effective solutions and efficient resource allocation.
• Compliance: Ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations, and best practices.
• Cloud Architecture & Design:
  • Design and implement scalable, secure, and resilient Azure cloud architectures aligned with the university’s cloud strategy.
  • Develop reference architectures, best practices, and governance frameworks for cloud adoption.
  • Define and implement hybrid cloud architectures, integrating on-premises data centers with Azure services.
• Security & Compliance:
  • Lead cloud security hardening initiatives, implementing Azure Security Center, Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, and Zero Trust security models.
  • Establish governance and compliance frameworks to ensure adherence to NIST 800-171, GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulatory requirements.
  • Design and implement Azure Identity and Access Management (IAM), including Azure Active Directory (AAD), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and Conditional Access Policies.
• Cloud Infrastructure & Networking:
  • Architect and oversee Azure network components, including Virtual Networks (VNets), VPN Gateways, ExpressRoute, Load Balancers, Azure Firewall, and Network Security Groups (NSGs).
  • Ensure high availability and performance across cloud workloads through proper network design and resource allocation.
  • Drive modernization efforts by leveraging Azure Virtual WAN, Private Link, and hybrid connectivity solutions.
• Cost Optimization & Governance:
  • Develop and enforce cost governance strategies using Azure Cost Management + Billing, Reserved Instances, Spot VMs, and Azure Hybrid Benefit.
  • Implement tagging strategies, FinOps methodologies, and cloud cost optimization best practices.
  • Work closely with finance teams to provide cost forecasts, budget controls, and resource efficiency recommendations.
• Automation & Infrastructure as Code (IaC):
  • Define Infrastructure as Code (IaC) best practices using Terraform, Bicep, and ARM templates to automate cloud deployments.
  • Oversee CI/CD integration for infrastructure automation using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Terraform Cloud.
  • Implement configuration management and policy enforcement using Azure Policy, Azure Blueprints, and Desired State Configuration (DSC).

Requirements

• Minimum 7+ years of experience in enterprise infrastructure architecture (hybrid, on-premises, and cloud) with at least 3 years in a managerial role.
• Deep understanding of Cloud networking, security, compute, storage, and hybrid connectivity.
• Proficiency in Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, and PowerShell for infrastructure automation.
• Strong knowledge of Azure AD, RBAC, PIM, Conditional Access, Zero Trust Security, and regulatory compliance across both physical infrastructure and cloud environments.
• Expert-level experience with cloud networking (including VNets, VPNs, dedicated cloud interconnects, Load Balancers, and Firewall) integrated with a deep understanding of core on-premises routing, switching, and edge security components.
• Proven track record in cost governance (FinOps) and budget forecasting, balanced with on-premises hardware lifecycle planning and capacity management.
• Experience implementing and managing comprehensive log management, performance metrics, and application health monitoring systems alongside enterprise-grade infrastructure ecosystems (e.g., Zabbix, SolarWinds, Nagios). This includes designing and maintaining application monitoring dashboards for leadership visibility.
• Authorization to work in the United States; the university is unable to sponsor this role now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in multi-cloud environments (Azure & AWS).
• Familiarity with managing and integrating relational databases, NoSQL data stores, data lakes, and large-scale data analytics platforms.
• Experience with Zero Trust security models and cloud governance frameworks.

Benefits

Northeastern University offers a comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees, including:

• Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• Paid time off.
• Tuition assistance.
• Wellness and life insurance programs.
• Retirement plans.
• Commuting and transportation benefits.

For more information, visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/.

Pay

The expected hiring range for this position is $130,945.00 - $189,868.75. The starting salary will depend on education, experience, location, knowledge, expertise, and skills, and will be benchmarked against similarly situated employees in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.