About the Role
You own and drive the target-state infrastructure architecture across hybrid environments (on-prem and cloud). You act as a design authority for critical decisions, define standards and roadmaps, and ensure platforms are secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective. You work closely with Infrastructure, Network, Security, and Operations to translate business priorities into architecture strategies, reference designs, and delivery-ready plans. Implementation is delivered by technical teams; you define target state, patterns, and governance and support delivery.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and evolve the hybrid target architecture and maintain a multi-year architecture roadmap
- Lead architecture reviews, set principles/standards/reference architectures, and manage ADRs (including exceptions and trade-offs)
- Design end-to-end infrastructure solutions across compute/virtualization, storage/backup, network, identity, security, and observability
- Define non-functional requirements (availability, performance, scalability, DR, RTO/RPO, auditability)
- Define DR and backup/restore validation approaches and support DR readiness testing (runbooks, exercises, evidence)
- Embed security controls (IAM, encryption, segmentation/connectivity, centralized logging/monitoring, SIEM integration) and support audit readiness for ISO 27001, NIS-2, GDPR
- Define IaC standards and reusable patterns; set clear delivery standards (reviews, quality checks, operational readiness) to keep configurations consistent over time
- Drive automation initiatives that improve lead time, reliability, and maintainability
- Improve reliability through standardization, lifecycle management, and proactive capacity planning; mentor engineers/architects and drive cross-team alignment
- Lead PoCs/assessments and support vendor evaluation, sourcing decisions, and licensing considerations
Required Skills & Experience
- Experience: Typically 8+ years in infrastructure, including 35+ years in architecture/design authority roles; proven track record delivering enterprise-scale modernization
- Networking: routing, firewalls, VPN, DNS, load balancing, SD-WAN, SASE
- Compute/Virtualization: VMware; Windows & Linux
- Storage & Backup: SAN/NAS, object storage, backup/restore strategies, restore validation
- Identity/IAM: AD, Microsoft Entra ID, SSO, MFA, RBAC
- Monitoring & Logging: observability tooling, SIEM integration, telemetry requirements
- Cloud/Hybrid: Strong hybrid architecture experience with at least one of Azure/AWS/GCP (landing zone concepts, governance/guardrails, identity integration, connectivity patterns, security baselines)
- Automation: IaC/automation experience such as Terraform (preferred); scripting with PowerShell or Python; Ansible familiarity is a plus
- Communication: Strong documentation skills (target architecture/roadmaps, reference patterns, HLD/LLD, ADRs, diagrams, runbooks) and stakeholder management to drive alignment on architecture decisions
Nice to Have
- Kubernetes/container platforms (AKS/EKS/OpenShift), service mesh, ingress patterns.
- Zero Trust architecture and secure connectivity patterns
- Micro-segmentation experience (concepts/patterns/solutions; typically with Network/Security teams)
- Experience supporting regulated environments (ISO 27001, NIS-2, GDPR) and audit activities
- Certifications: TOGAF, Azure/AWS Solutions Architect, CCNP, VMware VCAP, NSE4
What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)
- Target architecture + roadmap adopted; standards used consistently
- Faster, safer delivery via repeatable patterns and automation (less drift)
- Improved reliability and validated DR readiness
- Cost/capacity improvements via standardization and lifecycle hygiene
- Improved audit readiness through clear evidence and remediation follow-through
