Technical Architect - Gloucestershire

Currently seeking a high level security cleared Technical Architect, to fulfil a contractual requirement, initially for 12 months but with view to extend further, based at my clients offices in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Due to the nature of the role and the time scale and requirements issued by the client, candidates have been advised to hold current DV Clearance for this role.

Please find key information as per the below, provided by the client for your review:

The requirement is for Technical Architects / Technologists who can ideally demonstrate a solid 10+ years of experience in architecture, design and ‘hands on’ competence within a computer science orientated domain, although slightly less experience may be acceptable.

Ideally this experience will have been gained from practical, whole lifecycle developments i.e. from the initial concepts, design and architecture of options and the final chosen solution through to implementation and delivery. The candidate needs to be comfortable working with senior management and working at a senior level within their own field, being able to manage and direct the work of junior architects, engineers and project personnel.

The candidate needs to show that this has been achieved either by direct assignment management or matrix management. It is essential that the candidate is a ‘self-starter’ and able to organise their own workload and also that of others as required. The candidate will require practical knowledge and ability to work in either a traditional waterfall or agile based project structure.

Strong evidence is also required of experience in an enterprise infrastructure architecture capability, i.e. large scale conceptual / logical / physical architectures covering at least several business areas with a number of different technical / technology elements e.g. server hardware, networks, storage, etc. A strongly desired capability is the ability to work from first principles when required using knowledge and experience gathered to date in the application and development of new technologies.

Experience is required at both the theory and practical level  i.e. to be able actively build and demonstrate a solution from a Minimum Viable Product through to the completed solution.

Ideally, the candidate also needs to show detail experience across the following areas (specific focused areas will be specified at the point of candidate selection):

• Server hardware: Knowledge of primarily X86 platforms plus also other mainstream computing architectures. Also knowledge of High Performance Computing (HPC) would be a key advantage.
• Storage Platforms: A good appreciation and knowledge of storage technologies including Block, SAN, Object, File plus the different storage interconnects. Also required is knowledge of tape silos and tape mechanisms, as well as backup and restore mechanisms. Key knowledge such as tiered storage, thin provisioning, data replication, data migration, routing, de-duplication.
• Data Centres: Be able to show knowledge of data centre racking including HACS, and also power, cabling, cooling considerations.
• Networks: A good appreciation of hardware and software SDN, LAN / WAN technologies and types of LAN such as Layer2, Layer3 etc. Knowledge of switches (i.e. Cisco) and also load balancing mechanisms.
• Operating Systems: Knowledge of the following operating systems – Windows, UNIX - Linux (Red Hat) & Centos, Solaris, and the associated lifecycle management, standardisation, build management,  patching and hardening.
• Strong knowledge of Puppet, Foreman, and related technologies including Hiera and Ansible.
• IaaS/PaaS – strong product knowledge of VMWare (VRealise/VRA) and/or OpenStack based solutions coupled with Openshift/Kubernetes/Docker based container solutions
• Knowledge of Active Directory and DNS. Experience of application servers (JBOSS) is required and also middleware components (Java, J2EE).
• Service Management: A knowledge of Service Management processes and supporting toolsets (ServiceNow and Microfocus) and the integration of the service management toolsets and tool suites.
• Cloud technologies: Certification and knowledge of solutions from AWS and/or Microsoft Azure/Azurestack – from an architecture and design through to deployment perspective
• Development and Middleware tools
• Dev/ops – practical knowledge of tool chaining through a CI/CD pipeline including the ability to code in main stream languages such as Python, C, etc.

TECHNOLOGY:  Must be comfortable with:

• major upgrades to current systems with a change in solutions architecture or new solution components against an infrastructure or software known baseline;
• handling a new solution with an associated new architecture, with associated knowledge of the key areas; and
• being able to deal with complex business problems that require a new first of a kind solution.
• The candidate will have practical hands-on capabilities to investigate, provide, validate, benchmark and develop technologies, and approach at all levels, providing both technical depth and breadth.

Synergize Consulting is an equal opportunities organisation.