Global Head of Infrastructure and Security Operations

Job Title: Global Infrastructure and Security Operations Leader Location: Bengaluru / Hyderabad / Pune / Coimbatore Work Mode: Hybrid Travel: Travel across delivery centers and for customer and vendor engagements, as needed Please note: Candidates should have Frontier lab companies background who has experience in CISO and automation About the Role iMerit is looking for a hands-on Global Infrastructure and Security Operations Leader to build and scale the company’s infrastructure, enterprise IT, and security operations capability. This is a critical leadership role responsible for building and running a secure, reliable, automation-led, and well-instrumented infrastructure and security operations environment. This role is especially important as iMerit expands offerings such as Scholars and deepens customer integrations involving tooling, data pipelines, and platform workflows. This role is expected to materially improve iMerit’s resilience and operational maturity across multiple dimensions listed below. Key Responsibilities Infrastructure, Cloud, and IT Operations ● Modernize and operate a secure, scalable, cost-optimized internal infrastructure across cloud, endpoints, identity, network, and office environments ● Lead day-to-day infrastructure and security operations for a fast-growing, globally distributed organization with a focus on strong operational hygiene ● Own internal cloud and IT infrastructure across AWS, GCP, Azure, and business-critical SaaS systems ● Build secure identity architecture covering SSO, MFA, RBAC, device trust, privileged access, and access lifecycle management ● Drive endpoint management, patching, hardening, compliance enforcement, and fleet visibility for distributed teams ● Improve network and office infrastructure reliability and security across delivery centers and remote operations ● Implement logging, network monitoring, alerting, backup, recovery, and incident escalation mechanisms across critical systems ● Define and enforce infrastructure baselines for laptops, servers, cloud accounts, SaaS tools, and administrative workflows Security Operations and Risk Management ● Modernize iMerit’s security posture across identity, endpoints, cloud, networks, SaaS, vendor access, and internal operations ● Experience with security operations and major incident response actions ● Lead vulnerability/patch management and remediation prioritization across infrastructure, endpoints, SaaS, and internet-facing assets through stakeholder engagement ● Implement continuous security monitoring across iMerit for Tier 0: IdP, MFA, IAM, Tier 1: Production, Tier 2: Business Applications, and Tier 3: Endpoints ● Improve readiness for incident response actions through incident response playbooks, tabletop exercises, escalation paths, recovery planning, root-cause reviews, and recovery testing ● Partner with application and platform teams to improve secrets management, CI/CD hygiene, dependency control, and secure operational practices ● Support customer and internal requirements around ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, DORA, TISAX, and related privacy and security frameworks Automation, Monitoring, and Operational Efficiency ● Build automation for routine IT and access management workflows, including onboarding, offboarding, access provisioning, access reviews, device setup, compliance checks, ticket-driven actions, and routine remediation ● Expand the use of scripting, workflow automation, configuration management, and Infrastructure as Code across infrastructure and security operations ● Evaluate and deploy tooling for EDR, MDM, SIEM, IAM, PAM, backup, asset management, and operational automation ● Build dashboards for cost visibility, service health, operational load, incident trends, access hygiene, vulnerability posture, asset compliance, SLA performance, and infrastructure utilization ● Track and improve core operating metrics such as uptime, patch compliance, MTTD, MTTR, vulnerability closure time, backup success, and access review completion Vendor, Contractor, and Customer Management ● Manage vendors, contractors, and service providers across infrastructure and security disciplines ● Evaluate third-party risk where vendor tools, services, or contractors touch business-critical systems or sensitive workflows ● Work with customers during onboarding and ongoing engagements where iMerit systems, tooling, workflows, or data pipelines integrate with customer environments ● Support secure and practical integration models for customer tooling, APIs, managed workflows, and data handling requirements ● Partner with product and delivery teams to ensure infrastructure and security considerations are built into customer-facing solutions and service offerings Required Skills and Experience ● 13+ years of experience across infrastructure, cloud, enterprise IT Service Management, DevOps, SRE, or security operations ● Strong experience owning or leading a broad infrastructure and security environment in a scaling, distributed, or operationally complex organization ● Strong hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure, identity and access management, endpoint management, networking, and enterprise SaaS administration ● Meaningful hands-on exposure across AWS, Azure, and GCP ● Strong automation capability using Python, Bash, PowerShell, or similar, with proven experience in eliminating repetitive operational work ● Strong experience with Terraform, Ansible, or equivalent Infrastructure as Code and configuration automation tooling ● Strong understanding of IAM, Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) principles, endpoint security, vulnerability management, secrets handling, logging, monitoring, and incident response ● Experience building dashboards and metrics-driven operating cadences for cost, reliability, service health, and security posture ● Experience supporting customer-facing environments where secure tooling, access, workflow, or data pipeline integration is required ● Experience leading risk, remediation, and prioritization discussions with senior stakeholders ● Strong capability in vendor, contractor, and partner management across infrastructure and security disciplines ● Strong judgment in balancing security, speed, usability, reliability, and cost ● Ability to go deep technically when needed while setting direction, driving execution, and holding teams to a high bar ● Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to engage effectively with senior leadership, engineering teams, vendors, and customer security stakeholders Good to Have ● Experience in organizations handling sensitive customer data or operating in regulated or high-trust environments ● Familiarity with TISAX, GDPR, DORA, NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, or similar frameworks ● Exposure to supply-chain security, SaaS security posture management, secure vendor and integration reviews, and third-party risk management ● Experience supporting distributed operations across India and global teams ● Familiarity with customer-facing security requirements in AI, data, platform, or managed services businesses ● Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP, AWS Security Specialty, or similar