Director - Platform Infrastructure

The opportunity

The Platform Infrastructure Leader defines and executes the strategy, governance and operating model for EY’s global platform infrastructure services. The role is accountable for secure, resilient, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure that enables business growth, operational excellence, regulatory compliance and technology transformation.

 

The role covers on-premises and hybrid infrastructure across global data centres, in-country data rooms, compute, storage, backup, network, security-enabled infrastructure services and vendor-delivered managed services, working closely with technology, cybersecurity, finance, procurement, business stakeholders and strategic vendors.

 

Key Responsibilities:

The Platform Infrastructure Leader is accountable for strategy, delivery, performance, risk, vendor outcomes and financial management of global platform infrastructure services.

• Own the 3–5-year infrastructure strategy and roadmap across global data centres, in-country data rooms and vendor-managed services.
• Shape the future-state operating model for infrastructure engineering, operations, governance, service delivery and support.
• Lead modernization across automation, platform engineering, cloud enablement, resilience and operational optimization.
• Ensure infrastructure capabilities support business growth, cybersecurity resilience, compliance and measurable business value.
• Provide executive-level insight on investments, risks, service performance, vendor outcomes, transformation progress and financial performance.

 

Infrastructure Operations & Service Delivery

• Oversee enterprise infrastructure platforms, including compute, storage, backup, network, data centre and related services.
• Ensure availability, resilience, capacity, disaster recovery, incident/problem management, monitoring and operational excellence.
• Track KPIs, SLAs, reliability, performance, service quality and continuous improvement outcomes.
• Drive automation, performance improvement, cost optimization and service simplification.

 

Platform Engineering & Technology Enablement

• Lead platform engineering practices that enable secure, scalable, automated and self-service infrastructure capabilities.
• Promote Infrastructure-as-Code, DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD, configuration management and automation-led operating models.
• Partner with architecture, security, application and product teams to deliver integrated technology solutions.
• Ensure infrastructure design supports scalability, innovation, resilience and future business requirements.

 

Vendor & Third-Party Management

• Manage strategic relationships with infrastructure vendors, technology partners, managed service providers and outsourcing organizations.
• Partner with Supply Chain Services on vendor selection, contracting, commercial governance and performance management.
• Hold vendors accountable for SLAs, quality, risk, compliance, service improvement and value delivery.
• Lead vendor reviews, escalation management, budget oversight and roadmap alignment.

 

Financial & Resource Management

• Manage budgets, forecasts, investment plans and financial reporting with support from the Business Management Office.
• Drive cost optimization while maintaining service quality, resilience and business value.
• Support investment prioritization, business cases, sourcing strategies and vendor commercial decisions.
• Ensure effective use of internal teams, contractors, vendors and managed service resources.

 

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure infrastructure services meet security, risk, regulatory, compliance and enterprise governance requirements.
• Partner with cybersecurity teams to strengthen platform security, resilience, identity controls, vulnerability management and Zero Trust alignment.
• Lead disaster recovery, business continuity, operational risk, control remediation and compliance readiness activities.

 

Stakeholder Management

• Build trusted relationships with senior business, technology, finance, risk, procurement and vendor stakeholders.
• Translate business needs into infrastructure strategies, investment priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Provide executive reporting on performance, risk, financials, vendor outcomes and transformation delivery.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration to resolve issues, align priorities and deliver enterprise outcomes.

 

Leadership, Strategic Direction & Influencing Skills

This role requires a senior leader who can set a clear long-term vision, translate strategy into roadmaps and investment plans, and balance innovation, resilience, risk, cost and operational excellence.

• Influence senior leaders, C-suite stakeholders, boards and external partners through clear, commercially grounded recommendations.
• Communicate complex technical topics in a simple, actionable and business-relevant way.
• Lead through influence in a global matrix environment with distributed priorities, accountabilities and decision rights.
• Lead geographically dispersed teams across employees, contractors, vendors and partner organizations.
• Create a high-performance culture focused on accountability, service excellence, inclusion, continuous improvement and innovation.
• Champion transformation, automation, operating model change and adoption of new ways of working.

 

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

Technical and Operational Expertise

• Expert knowledge of enterprise infrastructure architecture across compute, storage, backup, network, virtualization, operating systems, data centre and hybrid hosting environments.
• Experience designing, operating and modernizing highly available, resilient and scalable global infrastructure platforms.
• Strong understanding of platform engineering, Infrastructure-as-Code, configuration management, CI/CD, DevOps, DevSecOps and self-service infrastructure models.
• Ability to define and drive automation strategies that improve reliability, speed, control and operational efficiency.

 

Security, Compliance and Service Management

• Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks, IAM, Zero Trust, privileged access management, encryption, vulnerability management and security controls.
• Experience aligning infrastructure controls to frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST, GDPR, SOC and enterprise governance requirements.
• Strong understanding of ITIL, incident, problem, change, service level, capacity, availability, monitoring, observability and operational excellence practices.
• Understanding of disaster recovery, business continuity, resiliency planning and operational risk management.

 

Data Centre, Hosting and Vendor Management

• Knowledge of data centre operations, hybrid hosting models, cloud migration, disaster recovery technologies, storage and backup solutions.
• Experience leading infrastructure modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Ability to govern and challenge strategic vendors across hosting, network services, managed infrastructure services and security operations.
• Experience assessing vendor roadmaps, service performance, architecture proposals, operational capability and commercial value.

 

Required Experience

• Significant experience leading enterprise-scale infrastructure, platform operations, data centre, hosting, network, storage, backup and on-premises services in complex global environments.
• Proven experience delivering infrastructure transformation, modernization, automation, cloud enablement and operating model change.
• Extensive experience governing vendors, managed service providers, outsourcing arrangements and strategic technology partnerships.
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure architecture, service management, cybersecurity resilience, risk, compliance and operational support models.
• Experience managing budgets, investment prioritization, business cases, sourcing decisions and vendor commercial negotiations.
• Demonstrated success leading geographically distributed internal, vendor, contractor and partner teams in matrixed global organizations.

 

Key Competencies

• Strategy, execution and business-value orientation.
• Executive leadership, influence and stakeholder engagement.
• Infrastructure, platform engineering, cloud, data centre and network services expertise.
• Vendor management, commercial acumen and financial discipline.
• Service management, operational excellence, resilience, security and compliance.
• Change leadership, problem solving, decision quality and innovation.

 

Success Measures

• Infrastructure availability, reliability, resilience and service-level achievement.
• Vendor performance, SLA compliance, service quality and continuous improvement.
• Cost optimization, budget management and investment value realization.
• Security, compliance, risk reduction and control effectiveness.
• Successful delivery of modernization and transformation initiatives.
• Stakeholder satisfaction, business value, employee engagement and team effectiveness.

 

Education

• A degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field or equivalent work experience; MBA or MS degree preferred

 

Experience:

• A minimum of 20+ years of experience working in IT industry and leading a global team of senior resources across geographies with excellent business acumen
• Mind-set of product / service delivery and drive continual innovation and improvements
• Executive presence and strong communications, facilitation and presentation skills
• Strong delivery skills (e.g., ability to scope/size a project, staff a team with the appropriate skill set, provide subject matter direction and guidance to a team, manage the delivery of an engagement workstream)
• Knowledge of Hardware Vendors and Operating systems

 

Supervision Responsibilities:

• Leads a geographically dispersed Platform Infrastructure team and indirectly governs vendor-managed services. This role reports to the Head of Infrastructure & Operations.

 

Other Requirements:

• Travel as required, expected to be less than 5–10% of activity.