Data Center Infrastructure Engineer at Airtel

The purpose of the job is to maintain the operational integrity and continuity of enterprise data center and hybrid infrastructure platforms by providing operational oversight and support, validating onsite execution by DC staff, supporting computing/storage/virtualization systems and container platforms, coordinating vendor repairs, and ensuring compliance with security, backup, and audit controls. The role works with infrastructure teams to ensure service stability and effective escalation handling.

Airtel Africa is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and remain fully committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Responsibilities

Data Center Operations

• Monitor & validate DC activities & daily check reports
• Perform periodic spot checks & site visits for escalations/audits
• Validate cable matrix, rack layout & asset updates
• Ensure adherence to DC security & change controls
• Provide guidance to junior team where required     

Compute, Storage & Virtualization Support

• Support troubleshooting & escalations
• Validate system builds/configurations completed by asset team
• Assist in performance monitoring & capacity awareness
• Execute runbooks, escalate deep technical cases

Kubernetes / Platform Support Exposure

• Support basic cluster checks & resource validation
•  Execute approved tasks under guidance
•  Escalate cluster and platform issues to domain leads

Backup & Data Protection Compliance

• Review successful backup reports & exceptions
• Validate tape/offsite media handling & availability
• Support restores of compliance checks
• Escalate failed jobs or process gaps

Vendor & OEM Repair Coordination

• Coordinate vendor onsite repairs & RMA logistics
• Track spares, repair cycles & OEM SLAs
• Validate work completion & documentation

Documentation & Audit Readiness

• Ensure CMDB accuracy (racks, assets, cables, media)
• Validate diagrams, access logs & DCMS records• Support compliance, audit evidence & reporting

Continuous Improvement

• Identify recurring issues & improvement areas
• Support RCA actions & documentation
• Recommend process/control enhancements

Qualifications

Educational Qualifications  

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, IT, or related field

Relevant Experience & Functional / Technical Skills 

• 5+ years IT infrastructure operations experience
• Experience working with data-center environments
• Exposure to compute, storage, virtualization, backup tooling
• Hands-on Linux/Windows server administration experience
• Kubernetes/Container platform exposure (required)
• Vendor/OEM coordination experience
• Storage & server platform understanding
• Backup platforms & media handling awareness
• Kubernetes basics (node checks, logs, clusters)
• Monitoring & observability tools
• ITIL Incident/Change/Problem exposure
• Scripting/shell familiarity is a plus