Job description

Overview

KEO is a creative enterprise, where innovation is a way of life. We are uniquely resourced with end-to-end services to take clients from inspiration – through conceptualization – to realization of planning, design or project delivery in the built and natural environments. For over 60 years we’ve led with vision, contributing to many of the world’s most ambitious projects, iconic places, remarkable experiences and prosperous communities.

As a highly integrated and agile AEP/PMCM firm, KEO is recognized by ENR as one of the Top 225 International Design Firms and one of the Top 20 International PM/CM Firms. We are also ranked by World Architecture as the 51st largest global architecture firm and the #1 Firm in the Middle East Region in their 2024 WA100 Survey.

We invite you to join us. Why?

When you join KEO, you’ll discover more than just a job – you’ll find a supportive environment that fosters your professional development through internal global mobility and career development and does so within a culture that supports company-wide health and well-being through on-demand counselling services and regular workplace clinics. You will be invited to celebrate community events such as sports days, fun-runs, in-house sports teams and beach clean ups. In addition to your competitive package and benefits you will have access to a suite of policies that include hybrid working arrangements, individual athletic sponsorship, study assistance sponsorship, employee referral rewards.

Our newest opportunity is for a talented Cloud and Infrastructure Platforms Director to to join our award-winning team based in Dubai, UAE.

This critical leadership role is responsible for defining, delivering, and managing the organization’s enterprise cloud, infrastructure, and platform strategy across regional and international operations. The successful candidate will lead the modernization of IT infrastructure, cloud adoption, cybersecurity resilience, digital workplace technologies, and enterprise platform services to support a rapidly growing construction consultancy business.

The role requires a highly experienced technology leader with a strong background in hybrid cloud environments, enterprise infrastructure operations, IT governance, cybersecurity, and large-scale transformation initiatives within complex, multi-site organizations.

We envisage success in this role to include;

Strategic & Platform Leadership

• Define and execute KEO's cloud-first, platform-first infrastructure strategy, leading the evolution from traditional operations toward a modern platform engineering model that enables self-service, automated, and product-oriented infrastructure capabilities.
• Manage and continuously improve service reliability at enterprise scale, owning KEO's infrastructure performance and availability posture in alignment with digital transformation goals and business priorities.

Cloud & Platform Engineering

• Own and evolve KEO's Microsoft Azure environment, leading the design, deployment, and lifecycle management of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms through cloud-native architectures, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and platform engineering principles to ensure scalability, security, cost-optimization, and developer agility.
• Oversee identity and access management via Microsoft Entra ID, enforcing MFA, RBAC, and least-privilege principles, and manage KEO's zero-trust network architecture ensuring access is granted only through verified identity, context, and policy.
• Maintain certified digital platforms - including Microsoft SharePoint and Autodesk Construction Cloud - to their respective security and governance standards.
• Drive cloud cost optimization initiatives - including right-sizing, reserved capacity management, and workload scheduling - to maximize return on cloud investment.

Cybersecurity & Digital Trust

• Champion KEO's cybersecurity posture across all infrastructure and platform operations, overseeing Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM) for real-time threat detection, automated response playbooks, and rapid incident management, alongside cloud security posture management (CSPM) for continuous assessment and remediation of misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.
• Ensure zero-trust, least-privilege, and access control governance principles are consistently applied and independently verified via EY audits, and lead KEO's phishing simulation programme to drive continuous improvements in security awareness.

• Maintain and continuously improve Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) programmes - including automation of recovery workflows, regular testing, and audit-readiness - with appropriate escalation to IT leadership and executive oversight.

Modern Service Management

• Lead a shift from traditional ITIL-process orientation toward experience-driven, outcome-based service management, owning service reliability engineering practices including SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets across all platforms.
• Lead continuous service improvement cycles, platform lifecycle governance, and technology refresh programmes, ensuring all operations adhere to KEO's IT governance standards, security policies, regulatory requirements, and green IT sustainability commitments.

Automation, DevOps & SRE Mindset

• Champion an automation-first culture, leading the implementation of infrastructure automation, CI/CD pipeline integration, self-service cloud provisioning, and zero-touch operations to eliminate manual processes at scale.

• Apply Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles - including error budgets, reliability targets, and blameless post-incident reviews - to drive continuous improvement in platform deployment velocity, reliability, and recovery time.

Data-Driven & AI-Enabled Operations

• Lead the adoption of observability platforms and AIOps tooling to enable predictive performance monitoring, anomaly detection, and automated incident response, driving responsible AI adoption to enhance infrastructure efficiency, intelligent capacity planning, and proactive operations
• Use operational telemetry and data-driven insights to inform platform investment decisions and continuous improvement initiatives, staying at the forefront of AI-driven infrastructure operations and edge computing to evaluate and recommend adoption pathways aligned to KEO's strategy.

Team Leadership & People Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing, geographically distributed infrastructure team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Set clear goals, provide regular feedback, and champion professional growth and certification of each team member.
• Build a psychologically safe team environment where automation innovation, constructive challenge, and knowledge sharing are actively encouraged.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration with Digital Workplace, Enterprise Digital Solutions, and Technology Strategy teams to ensure “one IT” delivery

To be successful in this dynamic opportunity, we envision that your career journey to date will include 10–15+ years of progressive experience in enterprise IT infrastructure, including a minimum of 3–5 years in a leadership capacity managing teams, cloud platforms, or enterprise infrastructure operations. You will hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related discipline, or possess an equivalent combination of education and over 10 years of relevant professional experience.

• Proven, hands-on experience managing Microsoft Azure cloud environments at enterprise scale, including hybrid cloud architecture, identity, and security services.
• Demonstrated experience leading a shift from traditional infrastructure management to modern platform engineering and DevOps-aligned operations.
• Strong expertise in Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD for infrastructure, self-service cloud provisioning, and zero-touch operations.
• Experience applying Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, including error budgets, SLOs, and blameless post-incident review practices.
• Proven cloud financial management (FinOps) experience: cost optimization, chargeback models, consumption governance, and cloud cost dashboards.
• Deep expertise in cybersecurity operations: Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM), zero-trust architecture, cloud security posture management (CSPM), Entra ID / Azure AD, and endpoint security.
• Experience managing third-party governance and audit review processes.
• Familiarity with AI-driven infrastructure operations, edge computing architectures, and platform product models.
• Experience in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) or professional services sector is advantageous.
• Understanding of sustainable/green IT infrastructure principles and their application to cloud operations.

KEO’s performance is founded upon integrity, results, innovation, safety and our people. We embrace diversity and recognise its’ contribution to client success wherever we work.

We are excited to hear how you can partner with our award-winning team and treat all expressions of interest confidentially.