Director, Cloud & Integrations Engineer
Location: Flexible within the U.S.
Type: Full-time
Role Overview
Relay Graduate School of Education is seeking a senior, strategic Director, Cloud & Integrations Engineer to lead the evolution of our cloud platform, enterprise integrations, and API-first architecture.
As a director-level engineer, you will own the vision and execution of Relay’s cloud, integration, and API ecosystem across our cloud infrastructure, while helping the organization responsibly adopt AI-driven capabilities that improve scalability, reliability, and user experience for students, faculty, and staff. You will balance hands-on technical leadership with architectural decision-making, mentorship, and cross-functional partnerships.
This role is ideal for a senior technologist who thrives at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, APIs, integrations, data, and applied AI, and who is motivated by mission-driven impact.
Key Responsibilities
Cloud Architecture & Platform Leadership
- Own the end-to-end architecture, reliability, security, and scalability of Relay’s cloud environments (IaaS and PaaS).
- Set cloud standards, reference architectures, and best practices, ensuring alignment with security, compliance, and cost-optimization goals.
- Lead complex cloud migrations, upgrades, and modernization initiatives with minimal disruption to mission-critical systems.
- Partner with Technology leadership to define the multi-year cloud and integration roadmap.
API & Integration Strategy
- Establish and lead an API-first, integration-driven architecture, enabling scalable, reusable, and well-governed services across the enterprise.
- Design, build, and oversee APIs and event-driven integrations connecting SaaS platforms, core business systems, data platforms, and internal applications.
- Own API lifecycle management, including versioning, security, monitoring, documentation, and developer experience.
- Serve as the senior technical authority for integration capabilities (e.g., workflow orchestration, messaging/event-driven and API management), guiding design decisions and resolving complex integration challenges.
AI-Driven Enablement & Automation
- Partner with data, product, and business teams to integrate AI-driven capabilities into cloud and integration solutions (e.g., intelligent workflows, automation, and API-enabled AI services).
- Leverage AI and automation to improve operational efficiency, observability, incident response, and infrastructure management.
- Evaluate emerging AI and cloud-native services, translating them into practical, secure, and responsible use cases for Relay.
Engineering Execution & Governance
- Lead the design and implementation of secure, resilient cloud solutions, APIs, and data pipelines using modern engineering practices.
- Ensure strong DevOps practices, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, monitoring, and logging.
- Provide hands-on technical guidance and code/architecture reviews for complex initiatives.
- Partner closely with Product, Data, Security, and Project Management to plan, prioritize, and deliver cloud and integration initiatives.
- Translate business needs into scalable technical solutions, clearly communicating tradeoffs and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Create and maintain high-quality technical documentation, standards, and operating procedures.
People & Partner Leadership
- Lead, mentor, and develop engineers and/or technical consultants, fostering a culture of learning, ownership, and inclusion.
- Manage partner and service-provider relationships, contracts, and budgets related to cloud and integration capabilities.
- Actively contribute to Relay’s diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments through both technical and people leadership.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of progressive experience in cloud engineering, platform engineering, or integrations, with significant ownership of architecture and design decisions.
- Deep hands-on experience with modern cloud platforms, including production IaaS and PaaS workloads.
- Strong experience designing and operating APIs and integrations at scale, including REST-based services, event-driven architectures, and API management platforms.
- Proven experience with integration technologies such as workflow orchestration, messaging/event-driven services, and API management.
- Strong background in data and integration patterns using SQL, REST APIs, JSON, XML, and modern programming languages (e.g., C#, Python, or similar).
- Experience implementing DevOps practices using Git, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code tools.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional technical initiatives from concept through delivery.
- Experience incorporating AI or ML-powered services into cloud platforms or integration workflows.
Preferred Qualifications (See below as well as the application questions for more preferred qualifications)
- Familiarity with cloud security, identity and access management, and secrets management at enterprise scale.
- Experience with observability platforms, monitoring, and automated incident response.
- Prior experience in education, nonprofit, or mission-driven organizations.
- Experience managing direct reports and external consultants in a senior or director-level capacity.
What Success Looks Like in This Role
- Relay operates on a stable, secure, and scalable cloud foundation with a clear architectural vision.