Principal Cloud Operations Engineer (GCP Managed Services) (m/f/d)

Principal Cloud Operations Engineer (GCP Managed Services)

Halian | Managed Services, Recruitment Agency & Contract Staffing is seeking a Principal Cloud Operations Engineer to serve as the technical authority for its Managed Services practice in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves leading cloud operations architecture, automation strategy, service transitions, operational governance, and engineering excellence across enterprise customer environments. The successful candidate will combine deep hands-on expertise with cloud-native technologies and operational leadership to help shape and scale a high-performing cloud operations practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for Managed Services cloud operations.
• Define cloud operations standards, reference architectures, and operational governance.
• Lead customer onboarding, service transitions, and operational readiness assessments.
• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code, automation, and platform engineering initiatives.
• Establish and maintain runbooks, operational procedures, and escalation frameworks.
• Act as the highest technical escalation point for major incidents and problem management.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to building a cloud operations capability.
• Contribute to solution design, service architecture, and managed services growth initiatives.

Required Experience and Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure and operations.
• 3-5+ years in a Cloud Architect, Principal Engineer, Practice Lead, or Technical Leadership role.
• Experience building and scaling cloud operations teams and processes.
• Deep expertise in at least one hyperscaler, with GCP preferred.
• Experience operating mission-critical enterprise cloud environments.
• Strong background in cloud automation and Infrastructure-as-Code.

Technical Requirements

• Expert-level proficiency in Kubernetes.
• Expert-level proficiency in Terraform.
• Expert-level proficiency in Ansible.
• Experience with CI/CD platforms.
• Proficiency in Python and Bash scripting.
• Knowledge of cloud networking, identity, and security.
• Understanding of SRE principles, observability, and incident management.

Certifications

• Required: Professional-level GCP cloud certification. Candidates without GCP certification who are able to complete certification upon joining may be considered.
• Preferred: Professional-level cloud certification in AWS, Azure, or OCI; Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA); additional cloud certifications.

Preferred Background

• Managed Services
• Cloud Operations
• Site Reliability Engineering
• Enterprise Platform Engineering
• Multi-cloud environments