Düsseldorf, DE, 40221

Head of Cloud Platforms Center of Excellence (f/m/d)

Our Cloud Platforms Center of Excellence is looking for YOU!

We are Uniper

At Uniper, we are pro-actively transforming the world of energy whilst at the same time ensuring security of energy supply. As an internationally operating company, we work in very diverse teams with the greatest possible working time flexibility for our employees. Our corporate culture is characterized by equal opportunities, mutual appreciation, and respect. With us, you will be able to develop new business models, work on technological solutions for a modern, sustainable, and future-oriented energy supply as well as pro-actively help to shape changes. Interested? Then we will look forward to meeting you!

Your responsibilities

• Define and drive the enterprise cloud strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and a clear, future-proof adoption roadmap.
• Establish and enforce cloud platforms governance frameworks, ensuring security, regulatory compliance, and full transparency across all environments.
• Own and evolve the cloud platform architecture, delivering scalable, secure, and high performing infrastructure and services.
• Build and lead the Cloud Center of Excellence, enabling teams through guidance, standards, and best practices for effective cloud adoption.
• Drive innovation by adopting modern cloud technologies and continuously optimizing platforms, processes, and operating models
• Define and enforce standards, reusable patterns, and best practices to ensure consistency, efficiency, and scalability across the enterprise
• Execute parts of larger transformation programs (e.g., cloud adoption, ERP enhancements, cybersecurity improvements, automation initiatives, Agile/DevOps practices).
• Translate domain-level roadmaps into actionable team delivery plans, ensuring milestones, quality, and KPIs are met.
• Ensure disciplined execution through backlog management, delivery rhythm, and clear status communication.
• Own the day-to-day delivery and operation of defined applications, platforms, products, or services.
• Ensure service reliability, incident resolution, problem management, and continuous improvement based on data-driven insights.
• Coordinate with architecture, security, and other delivery teams to ensure alignment and dependency management.
• Manage and optimize team-level budgets, including resource planning, tooling costs, vendor and contractor assignments, and small-to-medium investment requests.
• Provide input to business cases and cost and benefit assessments for domain-level initiatives.
• Ensure team compliance with governance frameworks, cybersecurity requirements, risk processes, and audit-relevant controls.
• Maintain documentation, operational procedures, and evidence relevant for internal or external audits.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering and operational practices within the team, including Agile ways of working, DevOps practices and CI/CD, cloud-based delivery, automation and standardization, and ITSM/ITIL processes.
• Promote coding, testing, security, and operational excellence.
• Build high-performing teams through coaching, development plans, objective setting, and regular feedback.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Ensure constructive stakeholder engagement with business users, product owners, architects, security, and operations teams.
• Align team priorities with the domain roadmap and enterprise technology standards.
• Contribute insights to planning cycles, investment proposals, and capability development discussions.
• Support organizational change within your area, helping teams adapt to new processes, structures, and ways of working by translating direction from senior leaders into clear expectations and practical steps.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders (product owners, business managers, project leads, Works Council interfaces), ensuring consistent communication, expectation management, and early escalation of risks or dependencies.
• Coordinate the delivery of services, products, or workstreams, ensuring tasks are prioritized, allocated, and monitored effectively to meet time, budget, quality, and compliance requirements.
• Lead team leaders and specialists, providing day-to-day guidance, coaching, performance input, and support in building skills and career development.
• Support capability development within your team, identifying skill gaps, facilitating upskilling and knowledge sharing, and contributing to hiring and onboarding processes.
• Drive clear communication and engagement at the team level, running structured updates, supporting team cascades, and ensuring information flows smoothly between teams and senior leadership.

Your profile

Core Leadership Expectations

• Strong understanding of how technology enables Uniper’s value creation, commercial performance and operational resilience. 
• Strong collaboration capability to co-create priorities with business peers and DT L2, L3 and L4 colleagues, ensuring shared direction and integrated execution. 
• Full accountability for mission-critical processes and IT systems supporting all DT delivery units. 
• Ability to contribute to a unified leadership team with a shared strategic vision, holding end-to-end accountability for digital products, platforms, and core IT services in an environment of accelerating technological change.
  
  

Role-specific qualifications 

• You hold an academic degree (bachelor’s or master’s preferred) in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field.
• You have 5-8+ years of professional experience in IT delivery, engineering, operations, or product environments and 2-4+ years of experience managing technical staff or team leads.
• You bring the ability to collaborate proactively across adjacent teams and functions, resolving dependencies and blockers, and ensuring alignment with agreed architecture, security, and process standards.
• You have demonstrated experience in encouraging agile behaviors and continuous improvement, helping teams apply iterative delivery practices, adopt new tools or processes, and identify efficiency and quality improvements.
• You bring a strong sense of ownership for team outcomes and the delivery of stable, high quality IT services.
• You bring a role-model mindset in embracing new technologies, continuously developing relevant capabilities, and enabling teams to innovate, learn, and adapt
• You have proven ability to ensure team activities contribute to business and technology objectives, tracking progress, supporting benefits realization, and maintaining alignment with L3 strategic direction.
• You communicate effectively in English (mandatory); additional languages such as German support collaboration with colleagues and stakeholders across Uniper.