Snr IT Infrastructure Engineer

Overview

The Principal Infrastructure Engineer (L4) serves as the senior-most technical authority for server and data center infrastructure, responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining mission-critical compute, storage, virtualization systems, and enterprise Windows and Linux server environments. This role drives architectural strategy, provides escalation for complex incidents, and ensures platform stability, resilience, and performance across hybrid on-premises and cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Design : Design and architect enterprise server, storage, virtualization, and Windows / Linux server platforms for high availability and performance; develop infrastructure blueprints, build standards, and reference architectures for server and data center environments; define strategies for hardware refresh, capacity scaling, and hybrid integration (on-prem to cloud); ensure compute, storage, and server designs align with security, networking, and disaster recovery standards; participate in infrastructure roadmap planning and technology selection.
• Implementation & Operations : Oversee the installation, configuration, and maintenance of physical and virtual servers, including Windows and Linux systems; manage hypervisors and virtualization clusters (VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Proxmox, or similar); maintain and monitor SAN, NAS, and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions; serve as final escalation point for complex incidents, root cause analysis, and recovery operations; lead data center migrations, hardware refreshes, and platform upgrades with minimal downtime; ensure OS hardening, patch management, and compliance with security baselines across Windows and Linux servers.
• Data Center & Hardware Management : Manage lifecycle of physical infrastructure : servers, racks, PDUs, cabling, and environmental monitoring; perform capacity and performance assessments of compute, memory, and storage resources; collaborate with vendors for warranty, maintenance, and hardware replacement cycles; develop documentation for data center topology, rack layouts, and asset tracking; oversee installation and decommissioning of physical equipment.
• Governance & Standards : Define and enforce configuration management and operational standards for infrastructure systems; maintain detailed documentation of infrastructure designs, builds, and procedures; ensure systems meet organizational compliance requirements (e.g., ISO 27001, POPIA, PCI-DSS); establish SLAs, KPIs, and reporting metrics for infrastructure availability and performance.
• Leadership & Mentorship : Mentor and guide L2-L3 engineers, providing training and career development support; lead post-incident reviews, ensuring knowledge transfer and operational improvement; collaborate with cross-functional teams across cloud, network, and security disciplines; provide executive-level input on infrastructure budgets, projects, and technology direction.

Required Technical Expertise

Compute, Virtualization & Servers

Storage & Backup

Operating Systems

Data Center Operations

Automation & Monitoring

Qualifications & Experience

Soft Skills

Seniority level

Employment type

Job function

Industries

Note : This description intentionally excludes boilerplate and non-essential content to focus on duties, requirements, and qualifications.

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