Senior IT Architect – Red Hat Linux, VMware Virtualization & Infrastructure Automation

Role summary / purpose We are seeking an experienced Senior IT Architect to lead the architecture, engineering standards, and strategic direction for enterprise Red Hat Linux and VMware virtualization platforms. This role is responsible for defining enterprise standards, modernizing infrastructure, and driving an automation-first strategy that enables rapid, secure, and reliable infrastructure provisioning and lifecycle management. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in enterprise compute platforms with hands-on experience designing and implementing infrastructure automation using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), configuration management, and DevOps practices. This individual will serve as the technical authority for Linux, virtualization, and automation technologies while partnering across infrastructure, cloud, networking, storage, security, and application teams. Key responsibilities • Define and maintain enterprise architecture standards for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), VMware virtualization, and infrastructure automation. • Develop enterprise technology roadmaps for compute platforms, automation, virtualization, and hybrid cloud. • Design highly available, resilient, secure, and scalable enterprise compute environments. • Architect enterprise VMware solutions including ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, NSX, vSAN, and VMware Cloud Foundation. • Define Linux platform standards including OS lifecycle management, patching, security hardening, image management, and compliance. • Lead enterprise Infrastructure as Code (IaC) initiatives using Terraform and related automation tools. • Design and implement automated provisioning workflows for virtual machines, operating systems, storage, networking, and enterprise infrastructure services. • Develop reusable automation frameworks, standardized templates, and self-service provisioning capabilities. • Establish engineering standards for Ansible Automation Platform, Terraform Enterprise, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automation governance. • Partner with cloud, storage, networking, security, identity, and operations teams to automate end-to-end infrastructure delivery. • Evaluate emerging infrastructure and automation technologies and recommend strategic adoption. • Lead architecture reviews, platform modernization initiatives, migrations, and technology refresh programs. • Develop enterprise reference architectures, technical standards, engineering documentation, and operational best practices. • Mentor engineering teams and promote automation, Infrastructure as Code, and DevSecOps best practices throughout the organization. Requirements – education & experience • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience). • 10+ years of enterprise infrastructure engineering experience. • 5+ years in an infrastructure architecture or technical leadership role. • Experience supporting large-scale enterprise virtualization environments consisting of hundreds or thousands of servers. Required skills • Expert knowledge of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. • Expert knowledge of VMware virtualization technologies including ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, DRS, HA, vMotion, NSX, and vSAN. • Demonstrated experience designing and implementing enterprise infrastructure automation solutions. • Experience building Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or equivalent platforms. • Experience developing configuration management solu…