TechOps & Delivery Lead
Technical Operations, Azure Governance, and Software Delivery
Reports To: Chief Technology Officer
Location: Seattle, WA — On-site / Hybrid
Compensation: $90,000–$110,000 base salary, depending on experience
About the Role
We are a highly agile, technology-driven organization building and operating modern enterprise software in a high-compliance environment. Our technology landscape includes Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, secure partner integrations, internal IT operations, and emerging AI-enabled workflows.
The traditional separation between internal IT, cloud operations, and software delivery no longer reflects how modern technical organizations need to operate. We are hiring a TechOps & Delivery Lead to serve as the operational bridge between CTO-level architecture, software development execution, cloud infrastructure governance, and internal IT enablement.
This is a growth-oriented leadership role for a technical generalist who is ready to move beyond ticket-by-ticket execution and begin owning systems, standards, delivery practices, operational reliability, and team enablement.
The CTO will continue to own the high-level architecture, product direction, and technical vision — the what. This role will own the delivery mechanisms, operating rhythms, infrastructure coordination, documentation standards, internal IT execution, and production safety nets that help make that vision real — the how.
This role is ideal for someone who has the technical fluency to understand cloud infrastructure, software delivery, identity governance, and Microsoft enterprise environments, but who is more energized by building the operational machine than by writing production code every day.
Role Purpose
The TechOps & Delivery Lead will become the CTO’s operational counterpart across three critical areas:
- Technical delivery and developer unblocking — Translating architectural direction and business needs into actionable technical specifications, delivery plans, and execution rhythms.
- Cloud operations and governance — Helping manage secure Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, GitHub, and application environments with strong operational discipline.
- Internal IT operational leadership — Operationally leading internal IT staff, improving standards, strengthening escalation paths, and helping the department scale with the business.
This is not a pure IT manager role, a pure project manager role, or a pure DevOps engineering role. It is a hybrid technical operations leadership role designed for the modern Microsoft, cloud, compliance, and AI-enabled enterprise environment.
Key Responsibilities
1. Technical Delivery & Developer Unblocking
- Translate CTO-level architectural direction, product needs, and business requirements into clear, actionable technical specifications.
- Create well-structured tickets, acceptance criteria, implementation notes, and operational requirements for development work.
- Act as an operational shield for the development team by reducing ambiguity, clarifying dependencies, and removing infrastructure or access blockers.
- Coordinate delivery activities between software developers, internal IT, external vendors, and business stakeholders.
- Support release planning, deployment coordination, and production readiness reviews.
- Help establish predictable delivery rhythms so developers can focus on core engineering execution.
- Ensure technical requests are properly scoped, documented, prioritized, and ready for implementation before reaching the development team.
- Support compliant deployment workflows for proprietary applications, partner integrations, API-based workflows, and AI-enabled solutions.
2. Cloud Operations & High-Compliance Governance
- Support the management and provisioning of staging, testing, and production environments within Microsoft Azure.
- Help administer and govern Microsoft enterprise environments, including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Azure resources, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and related operational tooling.
- Support secure workflows involving Microsoft Graph, identity permissions, service accounts, app registrations, automation, and integration patterns.
- Assist with infrastructure readiness, access control, configuration standards, and environment documentation.
- Help maintain strong operational controls across production and non-production environments.
- Participate in internal compliance reviews, access reviews, environment audits, and security governance processes.
- Operate under a Graduated Trust model: initially shadowing the CTO on sensitive environment setups and compliance workflows, then progressively owning repeatable internal reviews, documentation, and execution standards.
- Help ensure that production changes are governed by process, documentation, and risk awareness rather than urgency or improvisation.
3. IT Operational Leadership & Infrastructure Management
- Operationally lead internal IT staff, including endpoint administration and systems administration functions.
- Provide day-to-day prioritization, escalation support, and execution guidance for internal IT work.
- Help standardize IT operating procedures, escalation paths, documentation, and service expectations.
- Serve as a senior escalation point for Microsoft 365, endpoint, identity, collaboration, and internal infrastructure issues.
- Coordinate internal IT priorities with broader technology delivery priorities.
- Help ensure internal IT operations can scale alongside the company’s software, compliance, and partner integration needs.
- Identify recurring operational issues and convert them into repeatable processes, standards, automation opportunities, or training needs.
- Partner with the CTO to mature the internal technology function from reactive support toward proactive operations.
First 90–180 Days
In the first several months, this person will be expected to learn the environment, establish credibility, and begin improving operational execution without trying to take over everything at once.
First 90 Days
- Learn the organization’s Microsoft 365, Azure, Entra ID, GitHub, endpoint, and internal IT operating model.
- Understand the current software delivery pipeline, development team workflow, and major active initiatives.
- Shadow the CTO on key environment, access, compliance, and deployment decisions.
- Begin creating clearer technical tickets, implementation notes, and delivery documentation.
- Identify common blockers affecting developers, internal IT staff, and production support.
- Establish a working rhythm with the development team, endpoint function, systems administration function, and CTO.
- Document current-state gaps in access management, escalation processes, environment ownership, and release coordination.
First 180 Days
- Own the operational coordination of selected delivery initiatives.
- Improve the quality and consistency of technical specifications before development work begins.
- Establish repeatable release coordination and production-readiness practices.
- Begin leading internal IT prioritization and escalation rhythms.
- Create or improve standard operating procedures for common Microsoft 365, Azure, endpoint, identity, and access workflows.
- Take progressive ownership of routine access reviews, environment reviews, and internal compliance support tasks.
- Help reduce CTO involvement in repeatable operational decisions by creating documented standards and decision frameworks.
What You Bring to the Table
Required Experience
- 4–7 years of experience in IT operations, technical operations, systems administration, technical program management, cloud operations, or a related technical delivery role.
- Experience working in or around Microsoft enterprise environments, including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, endpoint management, or Azure.
- Experience coordinating technical work across multiple stakeholders, such as developers, IT staff, vendors, business users, or leadership.
- Ability to translate business or architectural requirements into clear technical tickets, specifications, tasks, or implementation plans.
- Strong operational judgment, especially around production systems, access control, identity, security, and change management.
- Experience leading technical initiatives, driving complex projects, mentoring junior staff, or coordinating team execution.
- Ability to manage people with empathy while maintaining high standards for follow-through, documentation, and operational discipline.
- Strong written communication skills, especially for technical documentation, ticketing, process creation, and executive-ready summaries.
- Comfort operating in environments where priorities change quickly and systems must remain secure, reliable, and well-documented.
Strong Plus
- Hands-on Azure administration experience.
- Experience with Microsoft Graph, PowerShell, app registrations, enterprise applications, service principals, or automation workflows.
- Experience with GitHub Enterprise Cloud, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, or release coordination.
- Experience supporting software development teams without necessarily being a full-time software engineer.
- Experience in healthcare, HIPAA-regulated, security-sensitive, or otherwise high-compliance environments.
- Familiarity with agile delivery, ITIL practices, Scrum, technical project management, or release management.
- Experience supporting or supervising endpoint administration, systems administration, help desk, or internal IT teams.
Growth Areas for This Role
The ideal candidate does not need to come in as an expert in every area. This role is designed to grow over time into broader technical operations leadership.
Areas where the candidate will be mentored and expected to mature include:
- Internal compliance review ownership.
- Production governance and release-readiness practices.
- Advanced Azure and identity governance.
- GitHub Enterprise Cloud administration.
- Microsoft Graph and automation governance.
- AI workflow operations involving tools such as Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry.
- Cross-functional technical leadership at a Director or VP-level trajectory.
Technical Profile
This role does not require a deep production software engineer. The right person does not need to spend their day writing application code.
However, the person must be technically fluent enough to:
- Understand cloud infrastructure concepts.
- Read and interpret technical requirements.
- Communicate effectively with senior developers.
- Recognize when requirements are incomplete.
- Understand the operational risk of production environments.
- Ask the right questions before work moves forward.
- Translate ambiguity into structured execution.
- Respect compliance, access control, security, and documentation as core parts of delivery.
The best candidate will be a builder of systems, standards, operating rhythms, and execution clarity.
Education & Certifications
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field is preferred.
Equivalent hands-on experience will be strongly considered. We value demonstrated capability, operational maturity, and technical judgment over pedigree alone.
Preferred Certifications
Microsoft certifications are highly valued, especially:
- AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate
- AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
- MS-900: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals
- SC-300: Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Associate
- MD-102: Endpoint Administrator Associate
Additional Helpful Certifications
- ITIL 4 Foundation
- Certified ScrumMaster
- PMP
- Security+, Network+, or similar foundational infrastructure/security certifications
Certifications are helpful, but they are not a substitute for practical judgment, ownership, and the ability to operate responsibly in a production and compliance-sensitive environment.
Leadership Expectations
This role will operationally lead internal IT staff. That means the TechOps & Delivery Lead will help guide day-to-day execution, prioritize work, support escalations, improve standards, and ensure the internal IT function is aligned with the broader technology roadmap.
The role may not begin as a fully formalized department-head position, but it is designed to grow in that direction. As the person demonstrates judgment, ownership, and operational reliability, they will be expected to take on increasing responsibility for technical operations, internal IT maturity, production governance, and compliance execution.
Success in this role requires a balance of technical credibility, calm execution, documentation discipline, and people leadership.
What Success Looks Like
A successful TechOps & Delivery Lead will help the organization move from reactive execution to scalable technical operations.
Success will look like:
- Developers receiving clearer requirements and fewer avoidable blockers.
- Internal IT staff having better prioritization, escalation paths, and operating standards.
- Microsoft 365, Azure, Entra ID, GitHub, and endpoint operations becoming more consistent and documented.
- Production changes being coordinated with stronger process and less last-minute uncertainty.
- The CTO spending less time on repeatable operational decisions and more time on architecture, product direction, and strategic leadership.
- Compliance-related activities becoming more structured, repeatable, and auditable.
- Technical delivery becoming more predictable without sacrificing agility.
Why Join Us?
A Modern Technical Operations Role
This is a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of internal IT, cloud operations, software delivery, compliance, identity governance, and AI-enabled enterprise workflows.
The person in this role will gain exposure to the exact blend of skills that modern technology organizations increasingly need: technical fluency, operational leadership, secure delivery, and scalable process design.
Direct CTO Mentorship
This role includes direct operational mentorship from the CTO. You will learn how technical strategy becomes execution, how cloud and identity decisions are governed, how software delivery is operationalized, and how a lean technology organization scales responsibly.
High Autonomy and Visible Impact
You will not be a small cog in a large enterprise machine. Your work will directly affect software delivery, internal IT maturity, production reliability, compliance readiness, and the company’s ability to scale.
Clear Growth Path
This role is intentionally designed as a growth path toward broader technical operations leadership. A successful candidate can grow into future Director or VP-level responsibility as the company’s technical operations function matures.
Ideal Candidate Summary
The ideal candidate is a high-potential technical operations leader who has grown beyond reactive IT support and is ready to help build the operational backbone of a modern technology organization.
They are not necessarily the deepest engineer in the room, but they can communicate with engineers. They are not just a project manager, but they can drive execution. They are not just an IT administrator, but they understand the importance of stable, secure internal systems. They are not yet a VP of Technical Operations, but they have the ambition, judgment, and discipline to grow toward that level.
They are calm under pressure, careful with production systems, strong in documentation, credible with technical staff, and motivated by building the machine that allows others to execute at a higher level.
Pay: $90,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- Do you have a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field?
- Do you have 4–7 years of experience in IT operations, technical operations, systems administration, technical program management, cloud operations, or a related technical delivery role?
- Do you have experience working in or around Microsoft enterprise environments, such as Microsoft 365, Entra ID, endpoint management, or Azure?
- Do you have any Microsoft certifications?
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Federal Way, WA 98003
