Infrastructure Architect at Redwood City, CA (only locals)
Salary : $160k/year + Benefits.
3 days onsite
Job Summary:
Owns the end-to-end technical architecture for managed services engagement - spanning cloud (Azure/AWS), compute and virtualization (Windows/ESXi, Linux), storage and backup (Cohesity), identity (Okta, Active Directory & Entra ID), network (Cisco), endpoint management (Intune), SaaS collaboration (Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Box, Zoom, Teams), contact center (AWS Connect), and the ITSM/ServiceNow process layer - ensuring every tower's design decisions fit together as one coherent, secure, and supportable platform.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the target-state infrastructure architecture across cloud, virtualization, Linux, storage/backup, identity, network, endpoint management, and SaaS collaboration platforms for the account
- Set architecture standards and design patterns that individual tower engineers (Cloud, Windows/Linux, Storage & Backup, Network, IAM) build to, ensuring cross-tower consistency and no conflicting designs
- Review and approve high-risk/high-impact changes at the Change Advisory Board from an architectural risk perspective, partnering with the Change & Configuration Management lead
- Act as the design-authority escalation point for Major Incidents and Problem Management where root cause sits at an architecture/design level rather than a single component
- Lead capacity and scalability planning across the estate, reconciling SOW-committed baselines (such as VM counts and the ~50TB backup estate) against actual deployed footprint and growth trends
- Define the reference architecture for identity (Okta plus Active Directory/Entra ID), ensuring SSO, lifecycle, and conditional access design is coherent across both platforms
- Own the technical design for one-time/project engagements that intersect multiple towers, such as the AWS Connect IVR deployment, ensuring the delivered solution fits the long-term architecture rather than becoming a one-off outlier
- Partner with the ServiceNow ITSM Administrator and Service Management Leads to ensure CMDB, Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, and Service Request processes are architecturally sound and reflect the real environment
- Produce and maintain architecture documentation - reference diagrams, standards, and decision records - for the account
- Represent the technical architecture in account governance (Weekly/Monthly Service Reviews) and customer-facing technical discussions
Required Skills & Experience
- 10+ years in IT infrastructure engineering, with at least 3-5 years in an architect or technical design-authority role spanning multiple domains
- Broad working knowledge across Azure and AWS, Windows Server/VMware ESXi, Linux, and enterprise backup/storage platforms (Cohesity or equivalent)
- Strong identity and access architecture background: Okta (or equivalent IDP), Active Directory, and Entra ID/Azure AD, including hybrid identity and SSO design
- Solid understanding of enterprise network architecture: Cisco switching, firewalls, wireless, and VLAN/segmentation design
- Experience architecting or overseeing endpoint management (Intune/MDM) and SaaS collaboration platforms (Microsoft 365, Box, Zoom) at enterprise scale
- Demonstrated experience operating within a formal ITIL-based ITSM framework - Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Service Request, and Configuration Management - ideally on ServiceNow
- Experience designing or reviewing contact center/telephony solutions (AWS Connect or equivalent) as a secondary/contributing skill
- Strong stakeholder management and the ability to communicate architecture trade-offs to both technical teams and account/customer governance
- Experience operating under a managed-services SOW with defined coverage windows, deadband/volumetric clauses, and multi-tower delivery teams
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in a life-sciences/pharma environment with GxP-relevant architecture and change-control rigor
- Architect-level certification such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, VCAP, or CCDP/CCDE
- ITIL 4 Managing Professional or equivalent
- Prior experience as a technical escalation point across a distributed, multi-tower managed services delivery team
Representative Tools & Technologies
Azure, AWS, VMware vSphere/ESXi, Windows Server, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu), Cohesity, Okta, Active Directory, Entra ID, Cisco (switching/firewall/wireless), Microsoft Intune, Microsoft 365 (Exchange/SharePoint/Teams), Box, Zoom, AWS Connect, ServiceNow