Infrastructure Architect (Virtualization, Storage & Backup)

About the Company

This opportunity is with a long-established industrial business that has operated across South Africa for more than fifty years, running production plants and operations nationally. It is a substantial, stable organisation with a strong engineering culture and a deep, well-earned focus on safety and operational reliability.

This is a people-centred environment of several hundred employees, known for unusually long staff tenure, with many engineers and specialists building entire careers here. The pace is measured rather than pressured, the kind of place where you are given the time and the tools to design things properly rather than firefight.

The business backs its technical people in practice, not just on paper. It funds further qualifications and certifications aligned to your role, supports ongoing study, and is now investing seriously in modernising its infrastructure and digitising its operations. For an infrastructure architect who wants genuine design authority, good kit and a long-term build mandate, this is a rare combination of stability and real technical opportunity.

Job Overview

We are looking for an Infrastructure Architect to take full architectural ownership of the virtualisation, storage and backup domain, from High-Level and Low-Level Design through to build, implementation and ongoing operations. You will be the design authority and technical decision-maker for a VMware vSphere environment, the underlying server and storage hardware, and a Veeam Backup & Replication platform protecting both enterprise and operational technology (OT) workloads across the business and its plants nationally. The role sits within a small, experienced MIS team and reports to the MIS Operations Manager.

The reason this role exists is architecture-led, not operational. The business is investing in new infrastructure, including new data centre builds and a broader digitisation programme, and is bringing this capability in-house from the external consultants who currently hold it. You will be the person who architects, sizes and designs those environments end to end and then leads the build into production. We are specifically looking for someone whose career identity is architecture and greenfield design, not an engineer who has done some design work on top of a maintenance career.

You will operate with genuine autonomy as the subject matter expert for this domain, producing the design documentation, setting architectural standards, specifying the resources and tooling required, and being trusted to deliver. Alongside the design and build work you will own the day-to-day health, capacity, performance and recoverability of the estate, supported by the wider MIS team on the operational side. The role involves occasional travel to plants across South Africa as new infrastructure is commissioned, and occasional after-hours or weekend maintenance windows to run backups and changes outside production. In return, the environment is measured rather than pressured, and the business is flexible about how that time is balanced.

Duties and Responsibilities

Architecture and Design

• Produce High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD) documentation for the virtualisation, storage and backup estate.
• Architect, size and design new infrastructure and data centre environments from the ground up, covering compute, storage, virtualisation and backup.
• Set architectural standards, select technologies, and define the technical direction for this domain.
• Lead the in-housing of architecture and build capability currently held by external consultants.

Virtualisation and Compute

• Own the VMware vSphere environment end to end, including cluster topology design, host build and configuration, resource management, patching and lifecycle.
• Design and manage the server hardware estate that underpins the virtual platform, from specification and commissioning through to capacity planning.
• Monitor performance and availability across the virtual estate, tuning and remediating proactively rather than reactively.

Storage

• Design and administer the enterprise storage infrastructure, including SAN fabric design, LUN layout, tiering, provisioning and lifecycle planning.
• Ensure storage is designed and configured to meet the performance, resilience and growth requirements of both enterprise and operational technology workloads.

Backup, Replication and Recovery

• Own the Veeam Backup & Replication platform protecting enterprise and operational technology (OT) workloads across the business and its plants.
• Design the backup and replication topology, including proxy and repository sizing, recovery point and recovery time objectives, and verify recoverability through regular restore testing.
• Administer the user backup infrastructure and ensure consistent, reliable protection across the environment.
• Plan and execute backups and changes within maintenance windows outside production, including occasional after-hours or weekend work.

Data Centre Build and Programme Delivery

• Lead the design and commissioning of new data centre environments, including racking, cabling, power and cooling planning, structured cabling and commissioning into production.
• Contribute to the broader digitisation programme, helping to move the business onto modern infrastructure.
• Scope, plan and deliver special projects end to end, from design through to production handover.

Vendors, Documentation and Compliance

• Manage third-party contractors and vendors, holding them to clear architectural and delivery standards.
• Maintain accurate, current infrastructure documentation, covering architecture, configurations and operational procedures.
• Work in strict accordance with the company's safety procedures, as appropriate to an industrial operating environment, and consistently apply Basic Safety Practice (BSP) activities.

Minimum Requirements

• Deep, extensive and current architectural experience: hands-on experience designing and building enterprise infrastructure from the ground up (bare metal upward), including sizing and commissioning compute and storage, designing the virtualisation and backup topology, and implementing to production standard. This must be the core of the candidate's career, not incidental to a maintenance role. Absolutely non-negotiable.
• Around 10 years' hands-on experience engineering and administering enterprise infrastructure across virtualisation, compute, storage and backup.
• Strong VMware vSphere experience, supported by VMware Certified Professional (VCP6, VCP7, VCP8 or VCP9). Essential.
• Strong Veeam Backup & Replication experience, ideally supported by Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE). Essential.

Nice to Have

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems or a related field.
• Windows Server administration experience, supported by Microsoft certification (MCSA, MCSE, MCITP Enterprise Administrator, or a current Microsoft equivalent). Legacy certifications are accepted where previously obtained.
• Enterprise storage experience, ideally across IBM storage, tape and fibre, supported by IBM Certified Specialist credentials or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Experience within an industrial, manufacturing, plant or operational technology (OT) environment.
• A track record of data centre design, build or migration projects.
• Experience operating and protecting infrastructure across multiple, geographically distributed sites.
• Familiarity with safety-critical or otherwise regulated operating environments.
• Exposure to infrastructure modernisation or digitisation programmes.
• A valid driver's licence and own reliable transport.
• Willingness to travel within South Africa as new infrastructure is commissioned, and to work occasional maintenance windows outside production hours.

Advantageous

• A genuine architect, comfortable being the design authority and the final technical word on this domain.
• A builder at heart, energised by standing up new environments rather than only keeping the lights on.
• Self-directed and accountable, able to specify what is needed and deliver it with minimal oversight.
• Methodical and thorough, with the design documentation discipline a critical estate demands.
• Considered and pragmatic, suited to an environment that values doing things properly over rushing.
• Safety-conscious, given the nature of the operating environment.
• Motivated by ownership and by building something that lasts.

How to Apply?

This is a rare chance to take full architectural ownership of a business-critical infrastructure estate and design its next generation. You will architect and stand up new data centre environments, set the standard as design and build capability moves in-house, and do it with real autonomy, good tooling and the backing of a stable, well-established business.

If you are an infrastructure architect who has genuinely designed and built environments from the ground up and wants ownership, technical depth and long-term security, we would like to hear from you.

Email your CV to charne@skillzpage.com

(If you don’t hear from us within 2 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.)