NXA Talent LTD

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.