About the role

Are you a creative leader with a passion for driving operational excellence? We are seeking an Operations Lead to join a high-performing DevOps squad within a core platform replacement programme. This team has successfully implemented and rolled out modern operations tooling across critical business services. Now, we're looking for the right person to further embed a consistent operations practice across our client's support services, guided by the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).



Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a level 2 technical support squad, driving operational practices across business-critical services.
• Identify opportunities to improve observability practices for proactive monitoring and incident prevention.
• Collaborate with Product Management to prioritise the team’s backlog and deliver on committed Programme Increment (PI) plans.
• Resolve competing priorities through collaborative dialogue with stakeholders.
• Oversee activities to ensure timely resolution of production issues.
• Enhance incident management processes, focusing on timely response, resolution, and continuous improvement.
• Work with cross-functional teams to integrate best practices in operational efficiency.
• Collaborate with technical leads and architecture to ensure applications meet security, licensing, upgrades, backups, and disaster recovery requirements.
• Implement tools and technologies that support observability, monitoring, and incident management.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate operational risks effectively.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports to track operational performance, service level agreements, and incident trends.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to the operations team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Align with and implement SAFe ways of working.

What We’re Looking For:

• Proven experience in an Operations Lead or similar role.
• Strong understanding and hands-on experience with SAFe methodology.
• Expertise in observability tools and practices (e.g., logging, monitoring, tracing).
• Demonstrated experience in improving incident management processes.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to think strategically and implement practical solutions.
• Strong communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience with DevOps practices and tools.

Experience You'll Gain:

• Provide servant leadership within your squad and across the organisation.
• Utilise your experience in ITIL (or ITIL-like) environments, including Problem, Major Incident Management, and Change & Release management.
• Collaborate closely with the IT operations assurance team to embed enterprise support processes across the programme.
• Take a proactive approach to support the production system, refining tooling to minimise user-impacting incidents.
• Manage newly deployed applications through Early Life Support issues.
• Act as a change agent to influence and guide teams on a maturity journey.
• Leverage your communication and relationship management skills to engage stakeholders and build support.
• Reinforce the importance of a strong DevOps culture, fostering a shared responsibility for production systems.
• Leaders at all levels are expected to take collective responsibility and work collaboratively to achieve outcomes.

If you're currently based in Wellington and keen to express your interest, please submit your CV and a short summary or cover letter. Any questions, please email Kellie@potentia.co.nz