Head of Engineering

OculusIT is looking for an experienced and strategic Head of Engineering to lead the engineering organization and define the long-term operational and technology vision for our hybrid infrastructure environment. The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise across cloud, compute, storage, virtualization, automation, and infrastructure operations, with a proven ability to build scalable, reliable, secure, and automation-first platforms.

Overview:

Unified Infrastructure Strategy: Define and lead the long-term operational vision for a hybrid environment, ensuring that compute, cloud, storage, and virtualization resources are managed under a common, automation-first operational framework.

Operational Excellence & Reliability: Accountable for the 24/7 availability, resilience, and recovery of the university’s mission-critical systems. You will establish rigorous standards for incident management, change control, root cause analysis, and automated testing.

Automation Governance: Own the lifecycle and governance of the department’s automation ecosystem (Infrastructure as Code), ensuring that tooling remains current, secure, and standardized as the technology stack evolves.

Workforce Development & Culture: Build and cultivate a high-performing engineering culture that balances operational discipline with innovation. You will establish frameworks that reinforce peer-to-peer mentorship and continuous learning, ensuring knowledge transfer occurs at all levels—from onboarding entry-level talent to upskilling senior engineers in modern automation practices.

Service Portfolio Management: Manage the infrastructure service catalog as a product, continuously refining service offerings to ensure both stability for administrative business systems and agility for research computing, while maintaining rigorous security, automation principles and cost governance.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with leadership of foundational technologies to align technical automation priorities and streamline shared workflows. You will navigate the complexities of a decentralized university environment, favoring influence over authority to build consensus, while ensuring strict responsiveness to Information Security priorities and compliance mandates.

Required Skill and Abilities:

1.Comprehensive analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

2.Comprehensive interpersonal, written, communication, presentation, and organizational skills.

3.Expert ability to run meetings with senior leaders and stakeholders.

4.Proven ability to lead and manage large staff.

5.Proven ability to manage multiple/complex projects, meeting deadlines and budget.

Preferred Skills and Abilities:

1.Demonstrated experience with Terraform and Ansible.

Principal Responsibilities:

1. Plan and manage IT systems and services within a specific department.

2. Provide operational direction to ensure departmental goals align with university objectives.

3. Collaborate with senior university leadership for workforce planning.

4. Maintain up-to-date knowledge of industry trends and best practices.

5. Develop relationships with technology providers and peer institutions.

6. Ensure the professional growth and development of departmental staff.

7. Implement department-level policies and strategies in alignment with university-wide directives.

Required Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s Degree in related field and 10 years of related experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

Skills and Abilities:

Comprehensive analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Comprehensive interpersonal, written, communication, presentation, and organizational skills. Expert ability to run meetings with senior leaders/stakeholders. Proven ability to lead and manage large staff. Proven ability to manage multiple/complex projects, meeting deadlines and budget.