Director - Linux & OpenShift Virt Engineering

Description and Requirements
The Team You Will Join
When you join MetLife's Global Technology team, you'll be part of a forward-thinking group dedicated to shaping the future of digital solutions for customers worldwide. You'll develop, maintain and support technology applications and delivery, leveraging AI, automation, and contemporary ways of working to enhance experiences and drive business outcomes. Your work will simplify complex processes, improve tech resiliency, and ensure high-performing, seamless solutions that power life's most important moments. In this dynamic environment, you'll collaborate with talented peers across teams and functions, expanding your skills in impactful ways. Ready to push boundaries and set new industry standards? Join us and help drive the future of technology forward.
The Opportunity
The Director - Linux Engineering & Operations is responsible for leading the global Linux platform and operations capability, ensuring the reliability, scalability, security, and resilience of critical hosting services across MetLife's enterprise. This role oversees Linux infrastructure, OpenShift Virtualization, and operational excellence through strong Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles across multiple regions.
Guided by our purpose - always with you, building a more confident future - and MetLife's New Frontier strategy focused on stronger growth, attractive returns, and all-weather performance, this is a highly visible leadership role addressing some of the firm's most important technology platforms. The successful candidate will modernize how Linux and virtualization platforms are engineered and operated, elevate service reliability, and introduce new perspectives that balance technical depth with business outcomes. This role is ideal for a proven leader who can ramp quickly, bring fresh insight, and lead with confidence, clarity, and accountability.
What Success Looks Like (First 12-18 Months)

• Establish a modern SRE-based operating model across all Linux and OpenShift Virtualization platforms, with defined SLOs, error budgets, and automation-first workflows
• Advance OpenShift Virtualization migration milestones on schedule, reducing VMware footprint while maintaining operational stability throughout the transition
• Deliver measurable improvements in platform reliability, incident response time, and change success rates across the global Linux estate
• Build a high-performing, globally distributed team with clear development paths and a culture of engineering ownership

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the global Linux Engineering & Operations organization, providing technical and operational leadership across enterprise Linux platforms and OpenShift Virtualization environments. Set clear direction, priorities, and accountability for platform performance and reliability.
• Create a modern Linux and OpenShift Virtualization operating model grounded in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, including automation-first practices, infrastructure-as-code, standardization, observability, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the stability, availability, security, patching, and lifecycle management of Linux and OpenShift Virtualization platforms, ensuring alignment with enterprise risk, compliance, and resiliency expectations.
• Manage large-scale global infrastructure operations, capacity planning, major incident response, and post-incident analysis, driving systemic fixes and measurable improvements in service health.
• Drive infrastructure-as-code adoption and GitOps-driven workflows across the Linux and OpenShift platforms, leveraging tools such as Ansible Automation Platform, Terraform, and related orchestration frameworks.
• Establish and mature observability practices across the platform estate using modern tooling (e.g., Elastic, Prometheus/Grafana, OpenTelemetry), ensuring actionable alerting, end-to-end visibility, and data-driven capacity decisions.
• Manage hardware vendor relationships, lifecycle strategies, and procurement planning across the on-premises compute and storage footprint, contributing to vendor diversification and cost optimization initiatives.
• Develop high-performing engineering leaders and teams, fostering strong technical depth, sound engineering judgment, and a culture that balances operational discipline with innovation and customer focus.
• Coordinate closely with application, middleware, database, cloud, security, and SRE teams to ensure platform capabilities align with business needs, architectural standards, and technology roadmaps.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience) and demonstrated leadership in large-scale enterprise infrastructure environments.
• Deep expertise in Linux platforms (e.g., RHEL) including engineering, operations, lifecycle management, and platform standardization at scale.
• Hands-on experience with OpenShift and virtualization technologies, with the ability to guide teams through design, deployment, and operationalization.
• Strong working knowledge of SRE concepts, including reliability engineering, automation, observability, incident management, and continuous improvement.
• Proven ability to operate in complex, regulated enterprise environments with strong focus on availability, security, and risk management.
• Ability to rapidly assess situations, make informed decisions, and lead with confidence during both steady-state operations and high-pressure events.

Preferred Qualifications

• 12-15+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, operations, or platform leadership roles within large enterprise environments.
• Red Hat certifications such as RHCE, RHCA, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform specialist, or Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Virtualization (EX316).
• Experience with VMware virtualization environments, including migration planning or platform transitions to alternative virtualization technologies.
• Prior experience leading global teams across multiple regions and time zones.
• Experience with hybrid cloud strategies, particularly integrating on-premises Linux and container platforms with public cloud services (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services).
• Familiarity with modern observability platforms and practices (Elastic, Prometheus/Grafana, OpenTelemetry) and infrastructure-as-code tooling (Ansible, Terraform, GitOps workflows).
• Demonstrated success modernizing legacy platforms while maintaining operational stability.
• Experience partnering with senior executives and translating technical topics into business-relevant insights.
• Experience managing hardware vendor relationships, lifecycle planning, and procurement strategies across enterprise compute and storage platforms.
• Strong leadership presence with a pragmatic, outcomes-driven mindset and a bias for action.
• Track record of building durable platforms and teams that scale, adapt, and continuously improve.

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.
The expected salary range for this position is $140,000 - $180,000 . This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.
Benefits We Offer
Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more!
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our core values - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, and Think Ahead - we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law ("protected characteristics").
If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.
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