SRE Transformation Lead

As an SRE Coach and Transformation Lead, you will make an impact by guiding organizations through the evolution from traditional production operations to a mature, scalable Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) operating model. You will act as a trusted advisor and coach-partnering with engineering, operations, and leadership teams to embed reliability thinking, modern operating practices, and sustainable ways of working.

You will be a valued member of Cognizant's Reliability Engineering ecosystem, collaborating closely with Account Reliability Engineering (ARE), delivery leaders, and LoB stakeholders to drive measurable improvements in reliability, resilience, and engineering effectiveness.

This role is ideal for senior SRE leaders who enjoy coaching teams, shaping strategy, and scaling reliability practices, rather than owning day-to-day production support.

Cognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in the United States without requiring company sponsorship now or at any time in the future.

In this role, you will:

Coach engineering and operations leaders on SRE principles, behaviors, and mindset, enabling long-term adoption beyond tooling

Assess organizational, technical, and cultural maturity across towers and Lines of Business to identify readiness for SRE transformation

Define SRE engagement and operating models tailored to tower maturity, team capability, and business priorities

Design and deliver tower-specific SRE transformation roadmaps, including governance, metrics, tooling, and coaching plans

Guide teams in transitioning from traditional production operations to SRE ownership models, clarifying boundaries and responsibilities

Support leaders in mapping existing roles to SRE functions, identifying skill gaps, reskilling opportunities, and organizational design changes

Influence senior stakeholders through structured recommendations, maturity assessments, and outcome-based metrics

Act as a thought partner to ARE and delivery leadership in evolving enterprise-scale reliability practices

Work model

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business requirements, this is a hybrid position with presence in a Cognizant office in Charlotte, NC as needed. Regardless of your working arrangement, we support healthy work-life balance through our wellbeing programs.

The working arrangements for this role may evolve based on client and business needs. We will always be clear about role expectations.

15+ years of experience in software engineering, infrastructure, or production operations, including 5+ years in senior SRE, reliability, or platform leadership roles

Demonstrated experience coaching teams and leaders through SRE or operating-model transformations

Proven success designing and scaling SRE practices across large, complex, enterprise environments

Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), observability ecosystems, and automation approaches (IaC, CI/CD enablement)

Experience translating technical reliability concepts into executive-level insights and decisions

Excellent facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-influencing skills

These will help you stand out

Experience acting as an internal or external SRE advisor, coach, or transformation lead

Background in consulting, enterprise transformation, or operating-model change initiatives

Deep familiarity with SRE concepts such as SLOs/SLIs, error budgets, toil management, and reliability metrics-applied at scale

Passion for enablement, coaching, and creating self-sustaining engineering organizations

The annual salary for this position is depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.