Infrastructure Specialist

Barclays Bank Plc; Sworton Heath; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution is seeking an Infrastructure Specialist to drive the design and implementation of a Kafka streaming platform. Responsibilities include developing reliable infrastructure solutions, monitoring system performance, and ensuring security measures. Candidates should have expertise in Kafka architecture and experience with cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. This role offers an opportunity to work in a dynamic environment while contributing to strategic initiatives across multiple regions.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in Kafka architecture, including cluster design and performance tuning.
• Strong experience with container orchestration and cloud platforms.
• Experience in financial services or large-scale enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain high-quality infrastructure solutions.
• Monitor IT infrastructure and address potential issues.
• Implement automated processes to enhance efficiency.

Skills

Kafka architecture expertise

Container orchestration

Cloud platforms expertise

Middleware integration

Agile methodologies

Tools

AWS

Azure

IBM MQ

Job description

Overview

Join us as an Infrastructure Specialist in a newly formed global team driving the design and implementation of a managed Kafka streaming platform across the entire bank. This is a strategic initiative expanding beyond existing smaller platforms, with reach across multiple regions including the UK and India. You'll work alongside technical SMEs to architect and build the new platform, evaluate technology options, guide junior teams, and oversee rollout and ongoing maintenance. Ideal for someone with deep Kafka expertise and a passion for scalable infrastructure in a complex enterprise environment.

To build and maintain infrastructure platforms and products that support applications and data systems, using hardware, software, networks, and cloud computing platforms as required with the aim of ensuring that the infrastructure is reliable, scalable, and secure. Ensure the reliability, availability, and scalability of the systems, platforms, and technology through the application of software engineering techniques, automation, and best practices in incident response.

Responsibilities

• Build Engineering: Development, delivery, and maintenance of high-quality infrastructure solutions to fulfil business requirements ensuring measurable reliability, performance, availability, and ease of use. Including the identification of the appropriate technologies and solutions to meet business, optimisation, and resourcing requirements.
• Incident Management: Monitoring of IT infrastructure and system performance to measure, identify, address, and resolve any potential issues, vulnerabilities, or outages. Use of data to drive down mean time to resolution.
• Automation: Development and implementation of automated tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual intervention, utilising software scripting/coding disciplines.
• Security: Implementation of a secure configuration and measures to protect infrastructure against cyber-attacks, vulnerabilities, and other security threats, including protection of hardware, software, and data from unauthorised access.
• Teamwork: Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, architects, and other engineers to define IT Infrastructure requirements, devise solutions, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives via a data driven approach.
• Learning: Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations, and actively contribute to the organization's technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalates breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department's future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L - Listen and be authentic, E - Energise and inspire, A - Align across the enterprise, D - Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.

Required Skills & Experience

• Deep expertise in Kafka architecture, including cluster design, performance tuning, and security.
• Strong experience with container orchestration and cloud platforms (AWS / Azure) and hybrid deployments.
• Familiarity with enterprise middleware integration patterns involving messaging and file transfer (e.g., IBM MQ,)
• Experience in financial services or other regulated, large-scale enterprise environments.
• Other highly valued skills include:
  • Experience with endpoint security solutions, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) technologies like Deep Instinct.
  • Knowledge of security best practices, and security frameworks (NIST, CIS, MITRE ATT&CK).
  • Strong understanding of Agile application development methodologies.
  • Exposure to event-driven architectures, and real-time analytics.

Location

This role will be based out of our Knutsford campus.

Company Values

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship - our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset - to Empower, Challenge and Drive - the operating manual for how we behave.