IT Head/Infrastructure Manager

Description :

We are looking for a highly experienced, hands-on IT Manager to lead a team of 10 professionals comprising Solution Architects and IT Engineers in delivering and maintaining a robust, secure, and scalable technology infrastructure. This is not a purely strategic role; the ideal candidate will be equally comfortable driving team delivery as they are rolling up their sleeves to troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues, review architectural decisions, and actively contribute to technical execution.

You will be the bridge between leadership and technical teams, owning the full lifecycle of IT infrastructure including on-premises data centres, cloud environments, enterprise systems, and developer tooling. Your team will count on your deep technical expertise, steady leadership, and clear prioritisation to keep critical systems running and evolving.

Key Responsibilities :

Team Leadership & Management :

- Lead, mentor, and manage a team of 10 including Solution Architects and IT Engineers setting clear goals, managing workloads, and conducting regular performance reviews.

- Act as a hands-on technical lead : actively participate in design reviews, incident resolution, and implementation alongside the team.

- Define team processes, standards, and best practices for infrastructure delivery and operations.

- Foster a culture of ownership, continuous improvement, and collaboration.

- Coordinate cross-functional efforts with development, security, and business stakeholders.

Server Infrastructure & Upgrades :

- Plan, schedule, and oversee server upgrades, OS patching, and hardware refresh cycles across physical and virtual environments.

- Manage VMware / Hyper-V / bare-metal server environments ensuring high availability and performance.

- Lead data centre migrations including rack planning, cabling, network reconfiguration, and cutover execution.

- Define and enforce patching policies; track compliance and remediation for all server assets.

- Conduct capacity planning and performance tuning for server infrastructure.

Cloud Infrastructure Management :

- Own and manage cloud environments across AWS, Azure, or GCP including compute, storage, networking, and IAM.

- Lead cloud infrastructure provisioning using IaC tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation.

- Optimise cloud spending through rightsizing, reserved instances, and architectural reviews.

- Enforce cloud security policies, access controls, and compliance requirements.

- Drive cloud adoption initiatives in collaboration with architects and engineering teams.

Disaster Recovery (DR) Setup & Management :

- Design, implement, and test Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans for critical infrastructure and services.

- Define and enforce RTO/RPO targets; conduct regular DR drills and tabletop exercises.

- Set up and manage replication, failover, and backup solutions (e.g., Veeam, Azure Site Recovery, AWS DR).

- Maintain DR documentation and ensure all team members are trained on runbooks.

Active Directory Migration :

- Lead end-to-end Active Directory migrations including domain consolidations, forest trusts, and Azure AD / Entra ID integrations.

- Manage AD schema upgrades, GPO rationalisation, and DNS/DHCP transitions.

- Oversee identity governance, user provisioning, and privileged access management.

- Coordinate with security teams to harden AD environments and remediate vulnerabilities.

CI/CD Pipelines & DevOps :

- Build, manage, and optimise CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps.

- Collaborate with development teams to standardise pipeline templates, enforce code quality gates, and improve deployment velocity.

- Manage containerised workloads on Kubernetes (AKS, EKS, or self-managed) and container registries.

- Support infrastructure-as-code adoption and GitOps practices across the organisation.

Server Deployments :

- Oversee automated and manual server deployments across development, staging, and production environments.

- Maintain deployment runbooks, change management procedures, and release scheduling.

- Ensure zero-downtime deployment strategies (blue/green, canary, rolling updates) are implemented where required.

Web Server Management & Monitoring :

- Manage web server infrastructure including Apache, Nginx, IIS including configuration, SSL/TLS certificates, and load balancer integration.

- Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and observability stacks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Nagios, or ELK).

- Define SLAs for web services and ensure uptime, response time, and availability targets are consistently met.

- Troubleshoot performance degradation, service outages, and security incidents on web servers.

- Review and optimise web server configurations for performance, security, and scalability.

Qualifications & Experience :

Required :

- 10+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, systems engineering, or operations roles.

- 3+ years in a people management or team lead capacity, overseeing technical staff.

- Deep hands-on expertise in Windows Server, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu/CentOS), and virtualisation platforms.

- Proven experience delivering cloud infrastructure projects on AWS, Azure, or GCP.

- Strong background in Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, and identity management.

- Experience designing and executing Disaster Recovery solutions with documented RTO/RPO outcomes.

- Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps) and containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes).

- Proficiency with IaC tools : Terraform, Ansible, or equivalent.

- Solid experience managing web servers (Apache, Nginx, IIS) and monitoring platforms.

- Experience leading or contributing to data centre migration projects.

Preferred :

- Relevant certifications : AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator/DevOps Engineer, ITIL, or equivalent.

- Experience with enterprise ITSM tools (ServiceNow, Jira Service Management).

- Familiarity with security frameworks such as ISO 27001, CIS Benchmarks, or SOC 2.

- Experience in scripting and automation : PowerShell, Bash, Python.

- Prior experience in a fast-paced, multi-site, or globally distributed IT environment.

Key Competencies :

- Technical Leadership

- People & Stakeholder Management

- Hands-on infrastructure delivery

- Cloud architecture & optimisation

- Incident and problem management

- DevOps & automation mindset

- Team mentoring & performance management

- Clear communicator across technical and business audiences

- Strong project and change management

- Vendor and contract management

What We Offer :

- Competitive salary commensurate with experience.

- Opportunity to lead and shape a high-performing infrastructure team.

- Exposure to cutting-edge cloud, DevOps, and enterprise technology landscapes.

- A collaborative, results-driven work culture with clear career growth paths.

- Flexible working arrangements and continuous learning & development budget.