Data Centre Architect

Data Centre Architect Retail 12 Month contract (Inside IR35) Berkshire - Hybrid Working within a major transformation programme focused on shaping the future of enterprise infrastructure, leading large scale data centre modernisation, hybrid cloud integration, and critical business transformation initiatives. Role Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise Data Centre architecture roadmap across compute, storage, network, security, and resilience.
• Design scalable, secure, and highly available on-premises and hybrid cloud environments.
• Architect Windows, Linux, VMware, and virtualisation platforms, ensuring operational excellence and lifecycle management.
• Lead large scale transformation programmes including data centre consolidation, migrations, modernisation, and cloud adoption.
• Design and govern backup, disaster recovery, and cyber resilience strategies, including immutable backup solutions.
• Drive observability, monitoring, and reliability engineering frameworks across enterprise infrastructure.
• Embed security first and Zero Trust principles into all infrastructure designs.
• Optimise infrastructure performance, capacity, licensing, and operational costs.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders, business leaders, security teams, and technology vendors to deliver strategic outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and governance across architecture and engineering teams. Experience Required
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale, highly available Data Centre architectures.
• Strong expertise across hybrid cloud environments including Azure, AWS, and/or GCP.
• Deep knowledge of VMware, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, Docker, and modern virtualisation technologies.
• Advanced understanding of networking, including LAN/WAN, SDN, firewalls, load balancing, and network segmentation.
• Experience with enterprise storage, backup, replication, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Strong knowledge of security frameworks, Zero Trust architecture, and compliance standards such as ISO27001 and PCI-DSS.
• Hands on experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation tools including Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, or Python.
• Proven ability to lead complex transformation programmes, migrations, and infrastructure modernisation initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with experience engaging senior leadership and business stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, documentation, governance, and strategic planning capabilities. Desirable Experience
• VMware NSX, vSAN, and Software-Defined Data Centre technologies.
• Edge computing and distributed infrastructure architectures.
• Green Data Centre and sustainability initiatives.
• AI/ML, GPU, and high performance computing environments.
• Advanced observability and AIOps platforms such as Dynatrace or AppDynamics.
• FinOps and infrastructure cost optimisation experience.
• DevSecOps integration and secure automation practices.
• Experience delivering large-scale data centre exits, relocations, or cloud migration programmes.