Infrastructure Architect

Summary

• Manchester Airport based
• Permanent Role
• Flexible/Hybrid working for a better work/life balance
• We are proud to be a diverse employer, and we welcome candidates from all backgrounds

Why MAG?

At MAG we provide the airport facilities and travel services that people need to connect with the world. As the largest UK owned airport operator, we serve over 60 million passengers a year from Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands Airports. With over 270 destinations across the globe, our businesses not only bring people together but also support the prosperity of the regions in which we operate. Sustainability is one of our core values, and it shapes everything we do. We're committed to protecting the environment and supporting our local communities.  Our programmes include airport and airline decarbonisation, comprehensive education, skills and employment support and community engagement initiatives including volunteering opportunities. At MAG, we recognise creating a first-class journey for our customers starts by creating a first-class career journey for our colleagues and we are committed to building inclusive environments in which our people can thrive. You’ll also have access to some great benefits including:

• Bonus scheme
• 11% company contribution pension
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Free parking
• Subsidised public transport
• Huge range of company discounts
• Free Virtual GP service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Care Concierge service 
• Two volunteering days per year

The role

Do you thrive in complex, regulated environments and have a passion for designing and building secure, high-performance solutions? We're seeking a talented Infrastructure Architect to join our Cloud Platform Team. You'll play a vital role in architecting, implementing and managing our group hybrid cloud platforms, with a focus on our Airport VMware VCF clusters, and building secure critical national infrastructure. With a number of significant growth programmes underway, MAG are undertaking a radical transformation of our Technology landscape, to ensure that our systems and infrastructure can best support the Organisation into the future; this includes a wholesale Infrastructure Transformation Programme across the Group. Working with the Platform and Product leads, you will be responsible for using knowledge of enterprise, solutions and technical architecture along with expert specialist skills and knowledge to define, deliver and support the design and development of solutions that meet the business requirements and are in alignment with the target enterprise architecture vision. 

Role Responsibilities 

• Work collaboratively with other areas of IT Architecture, Infrastructure Operations and Project Management to ensure that all solutions are complete, operable, conform to business processes and meet the business needs with the agreed quality of service.
• Own high level technical designs through expert knowledge, translate high level business requirements into Technology Architectures that align to Strategic Architecture, leverage & simplify existing Enterprise Architecture Assets, deliver reusable services & cost savings. 
• Communicate and promote the Technology Architecture, Strategy and governance at all times to a wide range of stakeholders and technical communities. 
• Ensure all solutions are fit for purpose, meets the needs of business, the agreed requirements and is both pragmatic and supportive of the strategic architecture direction. 
• Participate in the peer review and QA of the project architectural artefacts. 
• Participating in the definition of enterprise architecture and infrastructure technical standards, guidelines, and their establishment within the organization.
• Participate in the Technical Design Authority as and when appropriate.
• Provide clear, continuous, and consistent architecture leadership to projects and programmes; helping them deliver designs that conform to the defined infrastructure architecture elements and strategic vision.
• Monitor and maintain a forward-looking perspective on emerging technology developments and their relevance to the MAG IT strategic vision.
• Participate in the supplier selection process, evaluating usefulness and cost of products and making recommendations.
• Support the operations teams on assurance of large or complex changes and major incidents relating to the platform.
   

What will make you successful in the role?

Essential Technical Skills:

Depth:

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience as technical subject matter expert, leading and owning the design of mid-sized project(s) £1m+
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional qualifications or equivalent demonstrable experience.
• Experience authoring high level designs, low level designs and configuration plans for the following technologies:
• Hyperconverged server infrastructure.
• VMWare VCF, vSAN.
• NSX-T and it’s gateway connectivity to data centre fabric and wide area networks (WAN).
• Demonstrable success in owning and delivering technical designs and implementations for a similarly sized organisation: multiple data centres, 30,000 indirect employees, national footprint with global satellite sites, hundreds of servers.

Breadth:

• Architectural modelling, design and road mapping.
• Adherence to business, architectural and business governance processes. 
• Proactively engages business and product areas to extract functional and non-functional requirements. Provides steer to align those requirements against architectural principles and technical standards.

Desirable skills:

• DevOps / Automation / Orchestration.
• Enterprise Service Bus.
• Public cloud; AWS EC-2, S3, ELB, EKS or equivalent tier 1 cloud provider products.
• Microsoft Modern Workplace; Microsoft 365, Enterprise Mobility & Security
• Enterprise Campus Networking (MPLS, VXLAN). 
• TOGAF or equivalent qualified