Director of Infrastructure and Cloud Services (IT Manager II) - 60024358

The mission of the South Carolina Department of Education is to serve students, support teachers, empower parents, and engage the community so that every student graduates prepared to reach their full potential.

ABOUT THE ROLE SCDE

seeks an experienced, technically driven Cloud Infrastructure Architect & Operations Manager to serve as both the agency's technical authority for cloud strategy, architecture, and governance and as a first-line manager providing direct operational oversight of the Technical Support Services and Infrastructure teams. This role combines enterprise architecture leadership with people management, team development, and operational accountability. The incumbent is responsible for designing, implementing, and evolving a secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud environment that supports SCDE's full portfolio of technology systems — from Salesforce CRM and MuleSoft integration to Microsoft Azure, AWS, and agency data and reporting platforms — while ensuring the day-to-day operations of support and infrastructure functions meet service-level expectations across the agency. Reporting to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), this position plays a pivotal role in bridging technical architecture with operational delivery, ensuring that architectural decisions translate into reliable, well-supported systems for SCDE staff and the students and educators they serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Leadership & Operational Oversight Provide direct supervisory oversight of the Technical Support Services team, including hiring, performance management, professional development, scheduling, and staff evaluations; set clear service-level expectations and monitor team performance against defined key performance indicators (KPIs) and SLAs. Provide direct supervisory oversight of the Infrastructure team (cloud platform engineers, systems administrators, and network engineers); ensure team members are aligned to the agency's cloud-first strategy and are equipped with the skills and resources needed to succeed. Conduct regular one-on-ones, team meetings, and performance reviews; foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and customer service orientation across both teams. Coordinate staffing and workload allocation across Technical Support Services and Infrastructure to maintain service continuity during peak demand periods, major project sprints, and planned or unplanned outages. Develop and manage team budgets, including staffing plans, tools, licensing, training expenditures, and capital equipment procurement for infrastructure environments. Serve as the escalation point (Tier-3) for complex incidents and service requests escalated from Technical Support Services; coordinate infrastructure response for major outages and lead post-incident reviews. Partner with other Program Directors across OIT to ensure seamless coordination between infrastructure, support, application development, security, and district services. Cloud Architecture & Strategy Develop and maintain a comprehensive multi-year cloud architecture roadmap spanning Infrastructure, Data, Application, and Security domains, aligned to SCDE's IT modernization strategy and agency mission. Design, configure, and govern SCDE's multi-cloud environment, establishing standards for Microsoft Azure, AWS, and SaaS platforms across the agency's technology portfolio. Define cloud standards, architecture patterns, and reference designs for use across all SCDE development teams and implementation vendors. Evaluate and recommend cloud platforms, tools, and managed services; produce cost-benefit analyses and architecture recommendations for IT leadership and senior agency stakeholders. Plan and oversee migration of remaining on-premises infrastructure to cloud-native solutions, including mission-critical applications, data pipelines, and integration layers. Collaborate with integration architects to ensure data flows between systems and cloud data platforms are properly designed and sequenced. Develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cloud resource provisioning, consumption, and decommissioning. Infrastructure Governance & Security Partner with the SCDE Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to embed security requirements into cloud and on-premises infrastructure architecture. Ensure all cloud and infrastructure systems comply with applicable federal and state mandates: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), (student data privacy), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-53, and SC state IT security policies. Implement cloud governance frameworks covering tagging, cost allocation, role-based access control (RBAC), data residency, and audit logging. Oversee infrastructure capacity planning, disaster recovery architecture, and business continuity planning for all SCDE technology environments. Direct the evaluation and lifecycle management of hardware, network equipment, data center assets, and end-user computing platforms managed by the Infrastructure team. Financial & Vendor Management Monitor cloud resource utilization across all SCDE tenants; identify and implement cost optimization opportunities through rightsizing, reserved instances, and lifecycle policies. Track SaaS/PaaS cloud spending against budget and alert OIT leadership proactively when usage trends risk exceeding allocations. Manage cloud and infrastructure vendor relationships, including Microsoft, Salesforce, MuleSoft, and hardware/network vendors; own contract oversight and renewal planning in coordination with procurement. Communication & Stakeholder Engagement Communicate cloud and infrastructure strategy clearly to both technical teams and non-technical agency leadership and program directors; produce architecture diagrams, topology documents, and architecture decision records (ADRs). Represent the Infrastructure and Technical Support Services teams in OIT leadership forums, IT governance meetings, and agency-level planning sessions. Mentor cloud engineers, infrastructure staff, and junior architects; collaborate with Agile delivery teams to review sprint-level infrastructure tasks for alignment with enterprise cloud standards and the long-term roadmap. This position is located in the Office of Information Technology. A bachelor's degree in communications, business administration, information technology, mathematics, statistics, management information science or a related field and experience in telecommunications, data processing and/or information technology. Relevant experience may substitute for the bachelor's degree on a year-for-year basis. Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Systems Analysis, or related field. Minimum seven to ten (7-10) years of progressive IT experience, with at least three (3) years in cloud architecture or enterprise infrastructure design and at least two (2) years of direct supervisory or team management experience. Demonstrated hands-on experience with at least two (2) major cloud platforms: Microsoft Azure (strongly preferred given SCDE's Microsoft ecosystem), Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Proven experience leading or significantly contributing to on-premises-to-cloud migration projects at an enterprise or government scale. Experience designing secure, highly available cloud architectures — including networking, compute, storage, IAM, and monitoring — in regulated or compliance-driven environments. Demonstrated ability to manage, develop, and evaluate the performance of technology teams, including technical support and infrastructure functions. Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Bicep, or Ansible) and scripting languages (Python, PowerShell, or Bash). Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical architecture concepts for non-technical stakeholders. Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500), HashiCorp Terraform Associate, TOGAF, or Salesforce Integration Architect certification or equivalent experience. Familiarity with Salesforce platform capabilities and MuleSoft integration architecture sufficient to guide governance and integration design decisions. Experience in K-12 education, state or local government, or other compliance-driven public sector environments with exposure to FERPA, IDEA, Title I, or EDFacts reporting requirements. Experience with ITSM/help desk platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Freshservice) and ITIL-aligned service delivery models. As a part of a competitive compensation package, we offer comprehensive benefits that include generous paid time off, preeminent health care benefits, professional development opportunities, pension, a 401(k), and a hybrid work schedule with opportunity for remote work. The South Carolina Department of Education offers an exceptional benefits package that includes: Health, Dental, Vision, Long Term Disability, and Life Insurance for Employee, Spouse, and Children. 15 days annual (vacation) leave per year. 15 days sick leave per year. 13 paid holidays. State Retirement Plan and Deferred Compensation Programs (401(k) and 457 options).

ONLY THOSE APPLICANTS CHOSEN FOR AN INTERVIEW WILL BE NOTIFIED BY LETTER THAT THE POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.

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