Solution Architect (Infrastructure) at Alfred & Victoria Associates

Responsibilities

• We are seeking an experienced Solution Architect – Infrastructure to lead the design and architecture of enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions.
• In this role, you will act as the technical authority across the entire solution lifecycle—from qualifying opportunities and crafting architecture to guiding implementation.
• You will work closely with sales teams, delivery teams, and enterprise customers to architect scalable, resilient, and high-performance infrastructure solutions that drive digital transformation and business growth.
• This role is 100% focused on infrastructure architecture, covering data centres, cloud platforms, compute, storage, virtualization, and hybrid environments.

Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Solution Architecture:

• Lead end-to-end architecture and design of enterprise infrastructure solutions aligned with customer business and technical requirements.
• Architect complex multi-technology solutions spanning compute, storage, networking, virtualization, and cloud platforms.
• Develop reference architectures and enterprise solution frameworks for key infrastructure platforms.
• Ensure solutions adhere to industry best practices, enterprise architecture standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Serve as the technical authority during major enterprise solution engagements.

Core Infrastructure Architecture

Design and deliver enterprise solutions across the following domains:

Data Centre Architecture:

• Enterprise data centre design and modernization
• Infrastructure consolidation and optimization
• High availability and fault-tolerant architectures
• Disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

Compute & Virtualization:

• Enterprise server infrastructure (x86, RISC)
• Virtualization platforms (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM)
• Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)
• Container infrastructure and orchestration.

Enterprise Storage:

• SAN / NAS architectures (block, file, object)
• Storage performance optimization and tiering
• Software-defined storage
• Enterprise data lifecycle management.

Backup & Disaster Recovery:

• Enterprise backup architecture (Veeam, Commvault, NetBackup)
• Replication and disaster recovery frameworks
• Business continuity infrastructure
• RTO/RPO planning and design.

Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure:

• Hybrid cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Cloud migration strategies (rehost, replatform, refactor)
• Multi-cloud infrastructure integration
• Infrastructure modernization and cloud-native adoption.

Presales & Revenue Enablement:

• Act as lead technical advisor during enterprise sales engagements.
• Translate customer business needs into innovative technical solutions.
• Support sales teams in opportunity qualification, technical positioning, and proposal development.
• Lead technical presentations, architecture workshops, and executive briefings.
• Conduct proof-of-concepts (POCs), solution demonstrations, and technical validations.

OEM & Technology Partner Collaboration:

• Work closely with global technology vendors (Dell, HPE, VMware, NetApp, Cisco, Microsoft) to design optimized solutions.
• Maintain deep expertise across enterprise infrastructure technology ecosystems.
• Participate in vendor certification programs and technical enablement initiatives.
• Contribute to joint solution development with OEM partners.

Customer Advisory & Strategic Consulting:

• Act as a trusted advisor to enterprise customers and executive stakeholders.
• Provide technology advisory services on infrastructure strategy and digital transformation.
• Conduct infrastructure maturity assessments, architecture reviews, and technology roadmap development.
• Support strategic accounts with long-term infrastructure planning and modernization initiatives.

Architecture Governance & Solution Assurance:

• Ensure all proposed solutions align with enterprise architecture principles and standards.
• Provide technical oversight during solution implementation.
• Support project teams during deployment to ensure architectural integrity.
• Review and validate technical designs produced by engineering teams.

Technical Knowledge Leadership:

• Maintain deep knowledge of emerging trends in data centre modernization, hybrid cloud, and infrastructure automation.
• Provide internal technical mentorship and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to internal architecture standards, frameworks, and reusable solution templates.

Success Metrics
Performance in this role will be measured by:

• Solution Quality:Scalability, resilience, and architectural excellence of designed solutions.
• Commercial Impact:Technical win-rate on strategic opportunities.
• Customer Satisfaction:Credibility and trust established with enterprise clients.
• Revenue Contribution:Effective support of sales teams in closing infrastructure deals.
• Standards Adoption:Development and implementation of architecture standards and frameworks.
• Project Success:Successful delivery of enterprise technology transformation projects.
• Knowledge Contribution:Internal mentorship and creation of intellectual property.

Qualifications & Experience
Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Experience:

• 10–15 years of enterprise IT experience.
•  5–7 years in infrastructure architecture roles.
• Proven track record designing and delivering large-scale enterprise infrastructure solutions.
• Experience working within system integrators, OEM vendors, or enterprise consulting organizations.
• Demonstrated success in presales and solution advisory capacities.

Preferred Certifications:
Infrastructure & Virtualization:

• VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or higher
• Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP)
• Citrix Certified Professional.

Storage & Data Centre:

• Dell EMC Proven Professional (Storage or Data Centre)
• NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer (NCIE)
• Hitachi Vantara Qualified Professional.

Cloud Certifications:

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
• Google Professional Cloud Architect.

Converged Infrastructure:

• Cisco Data Centre certifications (CCNA/CCNP Data Centre)
• HPE ASE – Server Solutions
• VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) – Advantageous.

Key Competencies:
Architecture Leadership:

• Enterprise architecture thinking
• Infrastructure solution architecture
• Technology strategy alignment
• Infrastructure roadmap development.

Business & Commercial Skills:

• Presales engagement and solution selling
• Technical solution positioning and differentiation
• Executive-level communication and presentation
• Commercial acumen and proposal development.

Technical Expertise:

• Data centre architecture and modernization
• Hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure
• Enterprise compute, storage, and virtualization
• Backup, recovery, and business continuity
• Infrastructure automation and orchestration.

Leadership Skills:

• Stakeholder engagement and management
• Technical mentorship and team development
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Strategic advisory capabilities.
• XStandards Adoption: Development and implementation of architecture standards and frameworks.
• Project Success:Successful delivery of enterprise technology transformation projects.
• Knowledge Contribution:Internal mentorship and creation of intellectual property.

Technical Expertise Required:
Infrastructure Platforms:

• Enterprise servers (rack, blade, tower)
• Enterprise storage platforms (SAN, NAS, DAS, object)
• Data centre networking (LAN, SAN, spine-leaf)
• Virtualization platforms (server, desktop, network virtualization)
• Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)

Cloud Platforms:

• Hybrid cloud infrastructure
• Public cloud IaaS and PaaS
• Enterprise cloud migration architectures
• Cloud-integrated infrastructure environments
• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and automation frameworks (Terraform, Ansible, ARM templates, CloudFormation).