EMEA App Platform Technologies Director

As part of MetLife's Technology organization, the team supports regional application and infrastructure teams across EMEA, ensuring core platform services are robust, scalable, and aligned with regional and global standards. The team partners with application owners, infrastructure engineers, and global leadership to drive digital transformation and deliver reliable, secure platforms that empower MetLife's business across the region.

• Advanced degree (e.g., Master’s in Computer Science/Engineering) and/or professional certifications such as CKA/CKAD, AWS/Azure/GCP Architect, ITIL, PMP.
• Experience with Kubernetes-based platforms (OpenShift, AKS, EKS, GKE) for orchestration, service mesh, CI/CD integration, and cluster operations.
• Experience with public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and Infrastructure-as-Code tools (Terraform, Ansible, Helm, CloudFormation).
• Proven ability to run enterprise-scale distributed systems with a DevOps/automation mindset and rigorous platform lifecycle management.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and ability to operate effectively in a matrixed global organization.

Nice to have:

• 10+ years in platform engineering/operations leading modernization and cloud transformation programs in multinational enterprises.
• Expertise in databases (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL/data platforms (MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, Elastic), including backup, replication, monitoring, and tuning.
• Strong negotiation, vendor management, and contract support skills; familiarity with FinOps and cloud cost governance best practices.
• Innovation in platform engineering, automation, and cloud-native technologies; committed to mentoring and developing high-performing regional teams.

• Lead regional teams and the portfolio covering container platforms (on-prem and cloud), enterprise databases, middleware, and cloud platform engineering; set direction aligned to global architecture and platform standards.
• Create the EMEA platform roadmap, standards, and automation/observability patterns that advance containerization, cloud-native designs, performance, and security.
• Oversee the design, deployment, and lifecycle of on-prem Kubernetes/OpenShift and cloud container platforms (AKS/EKS/GKE), ensuring high availability and compliance.
• Manage enterprise database services (SQL/NoSQL, distributed data), middleware technologies (integration, messaging, API gateways, app servers), incident/problem/change processes, and SRE practices.
• Develop operational KPIs and enforce SLAs; drive standardization, automation (IaC), observability, and FinOps to optimize cost, performance, and resource utilization.
• Coordinate with application teams, enterprise architects, security, and cloud governance to support migrations, technology rollouts, vulnerability management, patching, and disaster recovery planning.