IT Infrastructure Architect at Old Mutual South Africa

This role defines and monitors adherence to architectural standards for the domain-specific development, deployment and management of application, information, communication and technology infrastructure. The incumbent is individually accountable for achieving results through own efforts, for periods of up to 1 year.

IT Architect Responsibilities:

• In this role you will primarily combine your skills of routing & switching in on-premise network such as WAN, LAN and Wireless LAN, with emerging cloud networking technologies
• Translate logical designs into physical designs, taking account of business requirements, target environments, processes, performance requirements, existing systems and services
• Assess and analyse business requirements so as to present architectural recommendations that are in line with the strategic vision of Old Mutual and wider industry best practice
• Link the business strategy and processes to the IT strategy and document this using multiple architectural models or views, e.g. conceptual, physical and logical designs.
• Defines and maintains architectural standards for the development, deployment and management of information, communication and technology infrastructure.
• Governs and assists in the life cycle management of solutions to promote adherence to design principles and synergy across OML group entities in South Africa and Rest of Africa markets.
• Acts on expert advice and is a key role player in solution design discussions and contract negotiations with outsource service providers
• Design and support the implementation of network technologies on multiple vendor platforms which include, but are not limited to Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Checkpoint and Palo Alto.
• Collaborating with network architects to design and implement functional networks, emphasizing security, usability, performance, reliability, scalability and supportability (LAN, WAN, WLAN)
• Monitor network performance and integrity
• Work with multi-disciplinary teams to restore service post an incident, identify route cause and propose long term resolution actions
• Managing various IT suppliers (internal and external) delivering communication services
• Guide / instruct team members on technical issues resolution
• Assist in continued growth of our business by supporting the next generation of converged data/voice systems in our enterprise
• Suggest improvements to network performance, visibility and scalability
• Mentoring junior Network Engineering staff.

Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education/experience
• Industry-related experience as an network / connectivity services architect, minimum of 7 years
• Strong understanding of AWS global services and best practice implementations according to the AWS Well Architected Framework
• Relevant AWS certification
• Competency working with AWS and core services such as EC2, S3, VPC, Direct Connect, VPN, Transit Gateway, Elastic Load Balancing, IAM, Security Groups, etc.
• Knowledge of cloud networking architecture, cloud operations, security, automation and orchestration.
• Expert knowledge on routing, switching, firewalls, and SSL and IPSEC VPN solutions.
• In-depth knowledge of IP protocols and their services at the application layer, e.g. HTTPS, LDAP, DNS, SSH, RDP, etc.
• Good knowledge of cybersecurity as it relates to computing infrastructure and networking environment.
• Experience in designing and supporting the implementation of Network Access Control (NAC) solutions, including but not limited to Cisco Identity Services Engine
• Experience in supporting implementations of forward and reverse proxy solutions, e.g. cloud proxy solutions including but not limited to Netskope, ZScaler and Palo Alto Prisma access
• Understanding of SDN (Software Defined Networking) technology and the architecture
• Experience in IP Address Management at a large scale
• Have a good understanding of DHCP and DNS services
• Understand end-to-end conceptual architecture of how Internet services are delivered to customers and key roles players or service providers within the service chain
• Excellent documentation, communication and interpersonal skills is key working in an Enterprise such as Old Mutual Limited where there are many inter-dependent cross-functional teams and group-entities
• Understanding of the IT managed service provider industry in South Africa
• Understanding of hosted solutions, virtual and physical, including services offered by co-lo data centres
• Proficient in Active Directory and Azure Active Directory service with administration level experience
• Proficiency in basic Linux and Windows system administration
• Experience in troubleshooting incidents using the OSI model as a reference
• Experience in driving / implementing Network Automation is advantageous
• Excellent leadership and mentoring skills.
• High level problem-solving skills.