Role Summary
The Senior IT Architecture Specialist will be responsible for leading and coordinating Infrastructure and business projects from a technology architecture perspective, conceptualising architectural approaches, developing and validating both on premise and cloud architecture and high-level solution design against business requirements, best practices, and guiding and mentoring operational teams on the organisations Enterprise Architecture Framework and methodologies.
The Senior IT Architecture Specialist develops specifications for new IT cloud computing products and service offerings and is also responsible for leading the creation of a technology framework and providing technical leadership in support of the organizations initiatives in cloud computing and automation, with a focus on the design of systems and services that run on various cloud platforms
The Senior IT Architecture Specialist will be expected to work on multiple high level business critical tasks and initiatives concurrently while being accountable for driving success through:
Leadership: Knowing when to focus on the details or taking a step back to look at the big picture and evaluating an issue. The architect champions sound technical architecture methodology, reviews technical design, and drives to minimize technical exposure and risks on projects and systems. The individual is a trusted technical advisor that collaborates with both business and technical stakeholders, sets direction, builds consensus, mediates conflicts, and helps to create an environment which solicits contributions from all participants. Excellent client-facing skills and executive presence are required.
Promoting a Passion for Technology: The Senior IT Architecture Specialist is expected to evangelize best practices for application engineering, component re-use, hybrid architecture design and technical standards, while maintaining an awareness of new / emerging technologies and their potential application to existing service offerings. An understanding of architectural hybrid solutions to address functional and non-functional requirements is critical, as is hands-on experience implementing technical solutions. As a technical thought leader, the Senior IT Architecture Specialist also understands that the architectural vision for the enterprise transcends the scope and lifespan of any individual project or effort.
Collaboration and Innovation: The Senior IT Architecture Specialist drives the solution architecture model and understands that innovation is a crucial component to the organization’s philosophy. Ingenuity is crucial to the problem solving and critical thinking skills required to craft successful and innovative IT Infrastructure solutions. The individual merges business requirements and technical solutions to deliver sustainable and high-performance solutions architecture. To achieve the organizations goals and requirements, the Senior IT Architecture Specialist is engaged throughout the solution delivery and operational life cycle, working closely with key organizational groups and stakeholders.
Communication: The Senior IT Architecture Specialist is expected to proactively identify and address technical strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the organizations Infrastructure. The individual will build a shared understanding of the solutions with the capacity for communicating that vision through technical materials, verbal presentations, and facilitating inter-team discussion. The Senior IT Architecture Specialist is responsible for effective provisioning, installation/configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software related to both on premise and cloud infrastructure, technical applications, and services. This individual participates in technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the infrastructure. This individual ensures that system hardware, operating systems, software systems, cloud infrastructure and related procedures adhere to organization policies, methodologies, as well as international and healthcare best practices. The individual is responsible for ensuring that Information Technology infrastructure and technical solutions conform to Information Security standards in line with current organization standards, government legislation and industry requirements with regards to privacy and Information Security.
This individual will deliver IT technical and infrastructure projects and solutions within the
organizations standard Project Management Methodology. These activities include the definition of needs, benefits, and technical strategy; research & development within the project life cycle; technical analysis and design; and support of operations staff in executing, testing and rolling-out the architected solutions. Participation on projects is focused on smoothing the transition of projects from development staff to production staff by performing operations activities within the project life cycle.
This individual is accountable for the architectural design, implementation, maintenance, and
operational activities for the following technologies and supporting systems and solutions: Microsoft based technologies, Security based solutions and technologies, monitoring based solutions, Communications and messaging technologies, Microsoft Azure Cloud Infrastructure, Virtualization technologies, Mobile solutions and hardware and storage-based technology.
Key responsibilities:
– Microsoft Exchange and messaging solutions
– MS Teams / Skype for Business
– Windows Server Operating Systems
– Internet PROXY services
– Anti-Virus
– Virtualization
– Microsoft patching
– Information Security and compliance
– Reporting and trend analysis
– Microsoft architecture and solution design
– Project management
– Cloud administration and implementation
– Defining new cloud strategy solutions
– Cloud security
– IaaS, BaaS, SaaS, MaaS, PaaS
– Azure Administration
– Azure Development
– Azure Security Engineering
– Messaging Administration
– Cloud Storage
– Virtualization
– Enterprise Administration
Requirements
– Grade 12 or equivalent NQF level 4 qualification
– B degree OR relevant technology advanced diploma at NQF level 7.
– Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
– Microsoft Exchange Certification
– Azure Certified Administrator
– Azure Certified Architect
– O365 Administrator
– ITIL v.3 or 4
– COBIT
– Minimum 8 – 10 years in senior technical specialist role
– Minimum 5 years Microsoft technology and solutions design experience
Knowledge
– Microsoft Active Directory.
– Microsoft Exchange.
– Server architecture and design.
– Virtualization Concepts (Hyper-V / VMware)
– Citrix Virtual Apps
– Linux Operating Systems
– Microsoft Applications and Architecture (SCCM, WSUS).
– Windows Server Operating Systems.
– IBM Systems and server architecture.
– Solutions design.
– Microsoft cloud computing
– Technical experience in infrastructure design including private and public cloud, networking, virtualization, identity, security, and storage.
Desired Skills:
- Microsoft Exchange Certification
- Azure Certified Administrator
- Azure Certified Architect
- O365 Administrator
- ITIL v.3 or 4
- COBIT
- Microsoft Active Directory.
- Microsoft Exchange.
- Server architecture and design. – Virtualization Concepts (Hyper-V / VMware) – Citrix Virtual Apps – Linux Operating Systems – Microsoft Applications and Architecture (SCCM
- WSUS). – Windows Server Operating Systems. – IBM Systems and server architecture. – Solutions design. – Microsoft cloud computing – Technical experience in infrastructure design including private and public cloud
- networking
- virtualization
- identity
- security
- and storage.
Desired Work Experience:
- 5 to 10 years
Desired Qualification Level:
- Degree