Technical Architect (VMWare)
Technical Architect (VMWare)
We have an exciting opportunity to join our small, highly collaborative platforms team. Within this role, you will assist with the operation, support and development of the platforms and services that we provide internally and to customers. You will have the opportunity will be to collate, review and design evidence-based solutions to help drive efficiencies within the company. As part of the Platforms team, the architect will drive innovation in the services provided both internally and to customers — working with key suppliers and to a continual improvement strategy.
This is a hybrid role and will be based at our data centre in County Durham for around 3 days each week, and a candidate within commutable distance of DH2 1AQ is therefore preferred.
Core Responsibilities
- Assist in support of the Data Centre estate
- Develop, support and maintain the Private Cloud based on VMware VCF 9.1
- Working with other departments to gather requirements and develop solutions that meet their needs
- Deliver robust, secure and reliable systems that are well defined and meet agreed availability targets
- Ensure that all systems are documented effectively, processes are fit for purpose and capacity is managed
- Staying up to date on the latest trends in technologies
- Provide an escalation path for Service Desk to assist in diagnosing and fixing systems
- Provide evidence-based solution designs
- Securing data and infrastructure from threats
- Assist in improving operational efficiency
- Assist in increasing competitive advantage
- Move towards a proactive / automated service
- Working to SLA or agreed project timelines
- Assist with BAU when required
Requirements
We welcome applications from engineers who have the following essential requirements:
- Proven experience designing, deploying and supporting VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) / vSphere private cloud environments
- Degree in Computer Science/IT, or equivalent professional experience
- Strong knowledge of Data Centre infrastructure — compute, storage and networking
- Experience with capacity management, system documentation and operational processes
- Working understanding of information/data security principles
- Experience operating as an escalation point for 2nd/3rd-line support teams
- Experience gathering requirements from other departments and translating these into technical solutions
- Experience delivering work to SLAs or agreed project timelines
Desirable requirements
- VMware certification relevant to VCF/vSphere (e.g. VCP-DCV)
- Advanced VMware certification (e.g. VCAP, VCDX)
- Certification in a public cloud platform (AWS/Azure/GCP)
- ITIL Foundation
- Experience with VMware NSX and/or vSAN
- Scripting/automation experience (e.g. PowerCLI, Terraform, Ansible) to support a move towards proactive/automated service
- Experience working in a managed service or customer-facing environment
- Experience working with Kubernetes or container environments Experience working with third-party suppliers and managing supplier relationships
- Experience mentoring or providing technical leadership to junior engineers
Key Behaviours
- Confident communicator able to explain technical decisions to engineers, project teams, customer stakeholders and end users.
- Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities and collaborate effectively across technical disciplines.
- Builds good relationships with customers and colleagues
- Maintain a high standard of work and technical capability, setting an example to junior members of the team
- Takes ownership of actions
- Learns about customer and stakeholder needs, interests and concerns
