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

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Cloud Operations Engineer to serve as the technical authority for our Managed Services practice. This individual will lead 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, helping shape and scale a high-performing cloud operations practice.Key ResponsibilitiesServe 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 help build a world-class cloud operations capability.Contribute to solution design, service architecture and managed services growth initiatives.Required Experience12+ years 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 (GCP preferred).Experience operating mission-critical enterprise cloud environments.Strong background in cloud automation and Infrastructure-as-Code.Technical RequirementsKubernetes (expert level)Terraform (expert level)Ansible (expert level)CI/CD platformsPython and Bash scriptingCloud networking, identity and securitySRE principles, observability and incident managementCertificationsRequiredProfessional-level GCP cloud certificationCandidates without GCP certification but able to complete certification upon joining may be consideredPreferredProfessional-level cloud certification in (AWS, Azure or OCI)Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)Additional cloud certificationsPreferred BackgroundManaged ServicesCloud OperationsSite Reliability EngineeringEnterprise Platform EngineeringMulti-cloud environmentsPrincipal Cloud Operations Engineer (GCP - Managed Services) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia