As the Head of Core Infrastructure, you will be the strategic lead for our core “engine room” - Datacenter, CloudOps, and Network. Your mission is to transform these currently independent silos into a unified, high-performance platform that serves our external and internal customers. You will be a key partner in our Matrix Security Model, ensuring that security is engineered into our infrastructure rather than bolted on.

TASKS WITH IMPACT

• Infrastructure Convergence: Lead the strategic roadmap for our Hybrid Cloud environment, ensuring seamless interoperability between on-premises datacenters and public cloud providers.
• Team Leadership: Direct management of the Team Leads for Datacenter, CloudOps, and Network operations, fostering a culture of automation and “Infrastructure-as-Code.”
• SecOps Matrix Integration: Act as the primary executive sponsor for the Security Engineers embedded in your teams. You will ensure these experts have the access and authority needed to maintain our security posture without compromising velocity.
• Vendor & Capacity Management: Oversee major infrastructure contracts and hardware lifecycles, ensuring cost-efficiency and scalability.
• DevOps: Partner with the DevOps team to provide stable, self-service infrastructure that empower developers to deploy code safely and rapidly.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT

• Systemic Problem Solving: You look beyond immediate “fires” to identify and fix the underlying architectural weaknesses and workflows that cause them.
• First-Principles Approach: You deconstruct complex challenges into fundamental truths to build innovative solutions, bridging the gap between legacy hardware and modern cloud strategy.
• Analysis-Paralysis Mitigation: You have the confidence to make high-stakes decisions with 80% of the information, understanding that in a high-growth environment, speed is often as critical as perfection.
• Pragmatic Vision: You can balance the “North Star” of a fully automated, cloud-native future with the messy reality of maintaining “hundreds of satellite locations” that need to work today.

YOUR SKILLS

• Experience: Extensive experience in IT Infrastructure, with in-depth experience in leadership roles managing multi-disciplinary technical teams. Ideally you bring a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a MINT field (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences, or Technology)
• Operational Maturity: Experience implementing ITIL or SRE principles in a high-growth environment.
• Strategic Security: Proven track record of working with security teams in a matrixed or “Security-by-Design” environment.

EXPERT-LEVEL NETWORK & SECURITY ENGINEERING

• Fortinet Ecosystem Mastery: Proven, deep expertise in the Fortinet security stack, including FortiOS, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer. You should have extensive experience managing high-availability (HA) clusters and complex Virtual Domain (VDOM) configurations.
• Distributed Enterprise Connectivity: A track record of architecting and maintaining large-scale, distributed network environments. Specifically, the ability to manage hundreds of satellite locations connected via robust IPSec tunnels.
• Advanced Routing & SD-WAN: Deep knowledge of wide-area networking, including BGP/OSPF routing protocols and the implementation of SD-WAN to optimize traffic across a massive footprint of remote sites.

HYBRID CLOUD & PLATFORM STRATEGY

• Hybrid Infrastructure Convergence: Extensive experience bridging legacy on-premises Datacenter operations with modern Public Cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

AUTOMATION & MODERN METHODOLOGY

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): A strong “automation-first” mindset with hands-on experience using Terraform or Ansible to provision networks and automate firewall policy deployments. This is a must-have.
• Matrixed Security Operations: Demonstrated experience working within a Matrix Security Model. You understand how to empower embedded Security Liaisons while maintaining delivery velocity for the Infrastructure and Platform teams.
• DevOps Partnership: Familiarity with modern software delivery lifecycles (CI/CD) and the ability to provide stable, secure infrastructure to a large (150+) developer community.

Not a 100% match? Apply anyway. We are looking for a Head of Core Infrastructure, not a checklist. If you are passionate about the future of hybrid systems and you can lead teams to success, but you’re missing a specific qualification or haven’t touched a specific technology in a few years—don’t let that stop you. We are building a team of diverse perspectives, and your unique experience might be exactly what we need.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE YOURSELF?

Then become part of our international company and apply, stating your salary expectations and possible starting date.

As an international employer, we stand for equal opportunities and diversity. We therefore welcome applications from mothers, fathers, people with disabilities and people from the LGBTQIA+ community. Please let us know if, for example, we should use a gender-neutral pronoun, if you need barrier-free access to our offices or if we should allow more time for the application process.
We look forward to hearing from you!

About the DOUGLAS Group

The DOUGLAS Group, with its commercial brands DOUGLAS, NOCIBÉ, Parfumdreams and Niche Beauty, is the number one omnichannel premium beauty destination in Europe. The DOUGLAS Group is inspiring customers to live their own kind of beauty by offering a unique assortment online and in around 1,970 stores. With unparalleled size and access to customers, the DOUGLAS Group is the partner of choice for brands and offers a premium range of selective and exclusive brands as well as own corporate brands. The assortment includes fragrances, color cosmetics, skin care, hair care, accessories as well as beauty services. Strengthening its successful omnichannel positioning while consistently developing superior customer experience is at the heart of the DOUGLAS Group strategy “Let it Bloom”. The winning business model is underpinned by the Group’s omnichannel proposition, leading brands, and data capabilities. In the financial year 2024/25, the DOUGLAS Group generated sales of 4.58 billion euros and employed more than 19,900 people across Europe. The DOUGLAS Group (Douglas AG) is listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.