Head of Global Hosting and Storage Services

About the role

International SOS seeks a Global Head of Hosting and Storage to oversee services across public, private, and on-premises infrastructure within the IT Shared Service organization. In this pivotal role, you will shape the technology landscape for our outsourced hosting and storage services. Your primary focus will be on driving innovation, ensuring seamless service delivery, and creating a forward-looking roadmap. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, vendors, and business leaders, you’ll strive for excellence in hosting and storage solutions.

The creation of this role consolidates hosting and storage services across all platforms, bringing them together under one umbrella. Our goal is to foster synergies between public and private cloud teams, accelerating our IT strategy of “Less of Everything.” By significantly reducing the IT footprint at various sites, we aim for a common, technology-agnostic approach. Given the current challenges in cybersecurity, identity and access management, and cost control, a unified approach is essential to drive efficiency and consistency. This role extends beyond day-to-day operational tasks, taking an enterprise-wide perspective on hosting and storage services. The manager will ensure a fit-for-purpose, robust, and cost-effective platform for our business applications, allowing International SOS to stay abreast of rapid technological advancements while balancing operational stability, cybersecurity, compliance, and end-user experience.

Key responsibilities

Strategic Vision and Roadmap:

• Drive and implement the IT Strategy – Less of Everything for all hosting and storage related services. 
• Develop and maintain a strategic vision for hosting and storage services, aligned with business goals and industry trends.
• Create a comprehensive roadmap that outlines technology enhancements, scalability, and futureproofing

Vendor Management and Relationships:

• Manage relationships with external vendors providing hosting and storage services.
• Foster collaborative partnerships to optimize service delivery and innovation.

Technology Agnostic Approach:

• Lead a team responsible for hosting and storage across various platforms and technologies.
• Ensure independence from specific technology stacks, allowing flexibility and adaptability.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement:

• Identify opportunities for process optimization, cost reduction, and performance enhancement.
• Champion innovative solutions, such as cloud-native architectures, hybrid models, and automation.

Operational Excellence:

• Collaborate with the IT Service Management to implement the ITIL processes for all hosting and storage services.
• Balancing Business Needs and Security/Compliance Considerations:  the teams must strike a balance between meeting business requirements and ensuring security and compliance. 
• Designing Consistent Processes and Systems by identifying and designing consistent tasks, forms, processes, and systems. Standardizing these elements to improve efficiency and reduce variability in their operations.
• Defining Roles and Responsibilities clearly across teams, partners, regional IT and other stakeholders. 

Service Level Management:

• Define and monitor service level agreements (SLAs) for hosting and storage.
• Proactively address incidents, escalations, and performance bottlenecks.

Risk Mitigation:

• Assess risks related to hosting and storage services and implement mitigation strategies.
• Eliminate risk by proactive risk and problem management, to increase the operational stability of the landscape.

Security and Compliance and Audits:

• Stay and be informed about security best practices and compliance requirements, data protection, Cyber Essentials (plus) and PCI-DSS and other domains. 
• Collaborate with the Cyber Security team and the sourcing partners to meet the Cyber Security and Compliance requirements and policies at all moments in time.
• Develop and drive the path forward on Security and Compliancy for the future, balancing risks, operational stability, and end user experience.
• Collaborate with the audit teams on internal, external and vendor audits required during the year.

Financial Management

• Develop, implement, and run a clear FinOps model for all private and public clouds.
• Collaborate with the business and application teams to drive the financials spend (Opex) to optimal utilization.
• Develop a clear annual Capex plan, based on vision, strategy, and roadmap, and execute in close cooperation with the Global Project Management Organisation.

People Management

• Lead the Hosting and Storage team and delegate clearly and effectively.
• Build a virtual extended team across and involving the IT teams in the Business Lines. 
• Manage the team in accordance with the International SOS processes and procedures for people management.

About you

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in technology management, with a focus on hosting and storage.
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams and managing vendor relationships.
• Proven record on strategy development and implementation. 
• Experience in a wider regional organization and understand a matrix work culture. Experience in a global role is a strong plus.
• Extensive experience in successful strategy definition and implementation.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, data centers, and storage solutions.
• Strong management skills and ability to drive consensus and output.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.
• Experience in Change, Incident, Problem and Capacity Management as part of the IT service management function. 
• Experience in FinOps organisation and management
• Experience in cyber security, risk management, and compliance frameworks and standards, such as ISO 27001, GDPR, Cyber Essentials, PCI/DSS 4.0
• Experience in zero touch automation, DevOps, CI/CD, and agile methodologies and tools.
• Experience in Identifying and assessing potential security risks and vulnerabilities. 
• Experience in Developing IT security policies and procedures to ensure compliance with industry regulations and best practices.
• Extensive experience in Incident, Change and Problem Management as part of the IT service management function. 
• Experience and or Certified AWS Cloud Solutions Architect and / or Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert is very favourable.
• Strong Vendor management skills based on relationship as well as SLA. 
• Relevant certifications such as PMP, ITIL, AWS, Azure, VMWare or CISSP are advantageous
• Can think out of the box and has a can-do attitude.

Benefits