About the position
Role Purpose
The Senior Infrastructure Specialist will oversee, manage, and modernise the organisation's enterprise IT infrastructure landscape, ensuring availability, resilience, security, and alignment with business objectives.
The role provides technical leadership, architectural direction, and project oversight across data centres, networks, servers, storage, firewalls, backup systems, and enterprise connectivity.
Key Responsibilities
Infrastructure Management & Leadership
- Oversee the full IT infrastructure estate, including:
- Data centres and DR environment
- Physical and virtual servers
- Storage platforms and SAN technologies
- Core, access, and Wi-Fi networks
- Firewalls and perimeter security
- Backup and recovery systems (including tape)
- Ensure infrastructure services are stable, secure, and highly available
- Drive compliance with IT standards, best practices, and governance
Data Centre & Infrastructure Modernisation
- Assess current infrastructure and identify gaps and risks
- Define and maintain a data centre modernisation roadmap
- Lead initiatives such as:
- SAN and storage upgrades
- Network and switch refreshes
- Firewall replacements
- Improvements to backup and DR capabilities
- Advise on best-fit on-premises technologies (non-cloud)
Architecture & Strategy
- Develop and maintain the IT Infrastructure Architecture
- Ensure infrastructure design supports:
- Business growth
- Security requirements
- Performance and scalability
- Contribute to enterprise IT strategy, including:
- Network segmentation and Wi-Fi design
- Host and storage platforms
- Data centre resilience
Cybersecurity & Risk
- Ensure adequate cyber and information security controls across infrastructure
- Support security initiatives related to:
- Firewalls and perimeter defence
- Secure data centre design
- Identify and mitigate infrastructure-related risks
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
- Manage infrastructure components of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
- Ensure DR capabilities are effective, tested, and documented
- Support regular DR and recovery testing exercises
Project & Service Delivery
- Plan, coordinate, and manage infrastructure projects
- Ensure projects are delivered:
- On time
- Within budget
- With minimal operational impact
- Drive fulfilment of service delivery targets and SLAs
Technical Advisory & People Enablement
- Act as a technical consultant to the CIO and senior stakeholders
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to infrastructure teams
- Support knowledge transfer and capability upliftment
Asset & Compliance Management
- Oversee IT asset lifecycle management (hardware and software)
- Ensure adherence to:
- Regulatory requirements
- Internal policies
- Company safety targets and standards
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree / NQF Level 7 in Information Technology or equivalent
Required Experience
Essential
- Senior-level experience in enterprise IT infrastructure operations
- Proven experience managing:
- On-premises data centres
- Servers, storage, and SAN environments
- Network infrastructure (switches, routing, Wi-Fi)
- Firewalls and security appliances
- Backup and recovery solutions (including tape)
- Experience across multiple data centres and DR sites
- Infrastructure design and implementation experience
- Experience leading or managing infrastructure projects
Desired Skills & Attributes
- Infrastructure architecture and roadmap development
- Strong technical leadership and advisory capability
- Working knowledge of project management principles
- Ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels
- Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills
- Comfortable engaging at executive level
Desired Skills:
- Data Centre
- Networking
- Servers
- Firewall
- Sercurity
- Backup
- Disaster recovery
