Senior / Principal Infrastructure & Platform Architect

Introduction

Looking for a Senior / Principal Infrastructure & Platform Architect to lead a high-impact strategic architecture engagement within a production-critical manufacturing environment.

This role is suited to a highly experienced enterprise infrastructure architect who operates at a principal advisory level, capable of evaluating complex IT environments, identifying operational risk, and defining resilient platform architectures that support continuous production operations.

The successful candidate will work closely with executive leadership, CIO-level stakeholders, and technical teams to assess the current enterprise infrastructure landscape, validate high availability and disaster recovery capabilities, and develop a strategic transformation roadmap that strengthens platform resilience and operational continuity.

Duties & Responsibilities

This is a senior architectural authority role, requiring deep cross-domain expertise across enterprise infrastructure, databases, integration layers, and mission-critical systems.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Infrastructure Assessment

• Conduct a comprehensive architecture assessment of the enterprise infrastructure landscape, including compute, storage, networking, and platform services.
• Evaluate existing platform architecture, system dependencies, and operational risks across mission-critical systems.
• Identify architectural gaps, performance bottlenecks, and resilience risks within the environment.

High Availability & Disaster Recovery Validation

• Assess and validate existing High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR), and Business Continuity frameworks.
• Ensure infrastructure platforms support minimal downtime and operational continuity within production environments.
• Recommend improvements to strengthen redundancy, failover mechanisms, and recovery strategies.

Platform Resilience & Risk Modelling

• Perform resilience modelling and dependency mapping to identify critical failure points across infrastructure and platform layers.
• Develop architectural strategies to improve system reliability, scalability, and fault tolerance.
• Provide clear documentation of risk exposure and mitigation strategies.

Strategic Architecture Advisory

• Serve as a senior architecture advisor to executive leadership, providing guidance on infrastructure modernization and platform strategy.
• Facilitate architecture discussions with CIO-level stakeholders and technical leadership teams.
• Align infrastructure architecture with business objectives, operational continuity, and technology strategy.

Transformation & Architecture Roadmap Development

• Develop a strategic architecture roadmap for infrastructure and platform transformation.
• Recommend improvements across infrastructure design, system integration, data platforms, and operational resilience.
• Define architectural principles and standards that support long-term scalability and modernization.

Desired Experience & Qualification

Required Qualifications & Experience

Experience

• Minimum 15+ years of enterprise IT experience.
• At least 8+ years in infrastructure or enterprise architecture leadership roles.
• Proven experience operating at Senior, Lead, or Principal Architect level.
• Experience working within mission-critical environments where system availability is essential.

Technical Expertise

Strong cross-domain architecture expertise across:

• Enterprise infrastructure architecture
• Platform architecture and system design
• High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) frameworks
• Enterprise system integration
• Database platforms and enterprise data environments
• Risk modelling and infrastructure dependency mapping

Industry Experience (Preferred)

Experience in highly operational or production-critical sectors, such as:

• Manufacturing
• Logistics and supply chain
• Utilities
• Telecommunications
• Large-scale enterprise operations

Architecture Frameworks

Experience working with enterprise architecture frameworks, such as:

• TOGAF or equivalent architecture frameworks
• Enterprise architecture governance models
• Technology transformation and modernization strategies

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Strong ability to engage with CIO-level and executive stakeholders.
• Excellent strategic communication and architecture advisory skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical architectures into strategic business recommendations.

Key Competencies

• Enterprise Architecture Leadership
• Infrastructure & Platform Architecture
• Risk & Resilience Engineering
• High Availability & Disaster Recovery Strategy
• Strategic Technology Advisory
• Architecture Roadmap Development
• Cross-Domain Systems Architecture

Package & Remuneration

above average

Interested?

Send your CV to: chanelbadenhorst@outlook.com cell: 0720213084