Job Description:The Role:As VP of Operations at Kobo, you will lead the teams that keep our products running, our systems secure, and our developers productive. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, you will be a strategic partner in shaping the multi-year technology platform strategy that underpins Kobo's business - from infrastructure and security to the developer experience that increasingly defines how fast and how well we build.
You will own Infrastructure, Security & Compliance, Developer Experience & Platform Engineering, and our Corporate IT enablement (delivered in partnership with our Rakuten parent). Your team of ~40 is based primarily in Ontario with a small presence in Germany.
Role Details- Location: Toronto
- Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
- Direct Reports: 3-7
- Team Size: ~40
What You'll OwnStrategic Direction
- Define and execute a multi-year technology platform strategy in partnership with the CTO - optimizing for development velocity, system performance, security, reliability, and cost effectiveness.
- Lead the transformation of the operations model from a ticket-driven organization to a platform team: where most of the broader organization self-serves against a well-designed platform, and your team's time is spent building and managing that platform rather than handling individual requests.
Infrastructure & Operations
- Own Kobo's co-located and cloud infrastructure, including hardware procurement, lifecycle management, and capacity planning.
- Meet and exceed production and corporate system SLOs for performance and reliability.
- Drive disaster recovery and resilience strategy at organizational and technology levels.
Security & Compliance
- Maintain and govern Kobo's security posture and compliance practice.
- Oversee incident response governance and process design.
- Maintain practices around Data Loss Prevention, data retention, privacy frameworks, and audit methodologies in an international ecommerce setting.
Developer Experience & Platform Engineering
- Elevate developer experience and productivity as a first-class concern - an increasingly strategic mandate given the pace of change in AI-assisted development.
- Build the platform, tooling, and paved paths that let engineering teams move faster with less friction, while keeping reliability and security as defaults rather than afterthoughts.
- Partner with multi-team development organizations to facilitate DevOps and SRE practices.
Corporate IT Enablement
- Serve as Kobo's primary conduit to Corporate IT, which is delivered through Rakuten. You will not own Corporate IT directly, but you are accountable for ensuring Kobo's staff are well-enabled through it.
Vendor & Rakuten Partnership
- Manage a diverse set of partners and vendors to get the best value for investments in tooling, software, and hardware.
- Work with Rakuten centers to find areas where Kobo benefits from scale, purchase power, shared understanding, and shared methodologies - achieving synergies and economies where they genuinely exist.
The Experience We're Looking For- A track record of building effective teams - attracting talent and mentoring them to success.
- Experience delivering a portfolio of concurrent strategic initiatives in an agile environment while maintaining a high level of service for business-as-usual operations.
- Management of a sizeable, diverse team, including remote and distributed members, while optimizing communication and trust across time zones and cultures.
- Deep expertise in managing both co-located and cloud infrastructure at scale, including hardware procurement and lifecycle management.
- Deep expertise in cloud-native and hybrid cloud infrastructure, including containerization, distributed processing, and high availability.
- Experience working with large, multi-team development organizations to facilitate DevOps and SRE practices.
- Experience governing a security and compliance practice for an international ecommerce setting - familiarity with Data Loss Prevention, data retention policies, privacy frameworks, and audit methodologies.
- Demonstrated ability to own and optimize a meaningful operating budget, finding continuous efficiency without compromising reliability or security.
Qualifications- 10+ years of experience in a technology career spanning systems design, production operations, security, and vendor management.
- 5+ years of management experience with evidence of increasing responsibility in terms of portfolio scope and people.
- Excellent communication skills, including outstanding written and spoken English.
The Perks:- Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
- Subsidized in-office lunches
- Four extended long weekends in the summer
- Full benefits starting from your first day
- Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
- Work From Anywhere Program for up to 3 months (90 days)
- Lifestyle spending account
- Talent and development training budget
- Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
- Weekly Kobo Spark sessions
- Maternity/paternity leave top up
- Dog friendly office
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