IT Infrastructure Architect (Network Engineer III)

City of Austin; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

City of Austin is seeking an IT Infrastructure Architect to lead architectural design, governance, and strategy across business, data, and infrastructure domains.

You will translate requirements into blueprints, guide projects, and collaborate with engineers to align solutions with enterprise strategies. Experience with multiple tech stacks and cloud environments is valued.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field with 4+ years of experience, or a Master’s degree with substitution options.
• Experience delivering enterprise architecture deliverables and roadmaps.
• Familiarity with architecture governance and SDLC methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Develops and communicates architectural blueprints aligning with business goals.
• Guides cross‑functional teams on architecture governance and design decisions.
• Analyzes current environments and recommends improvements across domains.

Skills

Architectural design

SDLC knowledge

Enterprise architecture

TOGAF/SABSA

Networking and security

Cloud computing

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Master's degree in related field

Tools

UML

ArchiMate

TOGAF

Job description

About This Position Job Description: IT Infrastructure Architect

Purpose: This position proactively and holistically lead and support architecture activities that guide the development and management of solutions, as well as provide the leadership, facilitation, analysis, and conceptual and logical design tasks required for the development of the domain area. Translating department and technical requirements into architectural blueprints and documenting all solution architecture design and analysis are critical to ensure City IT products and solutions meet the needs of constituents and align to a strategy that will prepare the City for future success.

Duties, Functions and Responsibilities

• Essential duties and functions, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, may include the following. Other related duties may be assigned.
• Develops the vision, strategy, conceptual and logical designs, roadmaps, and other architectural deliverables for the domain area (e.g., business, data, solutions, infrastructure, etc.)
• Defines the principles that guide technology decisions for the enterprise in their domain.
• Designs the implementation of a technical architecture based on business requirements and IT strategies, as well as rectify gaps and pain points within the current state.
• Works on high‑level projects, ensuring processes align with the domain focused architectural strategy and business strategy.
• Guides project team members in the implementation of the architecture.
• Serves as the deepest technology expert in their respective domains and as such, are involved in or lead technology strategy, migration, integration and evolution of the technical infrastructure.
• Collaborates closely with other architects and engineers to ensure alignment of domain architectures and activities with the broader enterprise architecture and strategy.
• Leads and contributes to the domain technical and business discussions relative to future architecture direction.
• Analyzes the current technology environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement.
• Leads the evaluation and selection of technology and products, as well as the design of standard configurations for given domain.
• Leads and facilitates the domain’s architecture governance process based on Enterprise Architecture’s governance structure.

Responsibilities - Supervisor and/or Leadership Exercised

• May provide leadership, work assignments, evaluation, training, and guidance to others.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Must possess required knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience and be able to explain and demonstrate, with or without reasonable accommodations, that the essential functions of the job can be performed.
• Knowledge of leading architecture practices and critical architecture deliverables.
• Knowledge of system development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies (e.g., waterfall, spiral, agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental).
• Knowledge and/or experience participating in architecture governance forums.
• Knowledge and/or exposure to how information and technology has been applied to create value for an organization (regardless of industry).
• Preferably different types of technologies.
• Knowledge of domain specific processes, procedures, critical supporting activities, and risks.
• Knowledge of computer science, information technology standards and controls, and technology frameworks and trends.
• Knowledge of architecture methodologies (e.g., SABSA, Zachman, TOGAF) and modeling languages (such as UML and ArchiMate).
• Knowledge and experience designing conceptual and logical design and translating work between different levels of abstraction.
• Knowledge of various development languages (e.g., Java, Go, Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS).
• Knowledge of various database technologies (e.g., MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle).
• Ability to lead financial analysis, architecture evaluation, solutions delivery orchestration, project management, road mapping, risk management, interdependency management, agile methodologies, information security, cloud computing infrastructure, data architecture skills.
• Ability to apply multiple technical solutions to enable future‑state business capabilities that, in turn, drive targeted business outcomes.
• Ability to quickly comprehend the functions, capabilities and financial impact of existing, new and emerging technologies that enable and drive new business designs and models.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross‑functional teams, with the proven ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to work effectively with different types of scenarios and challenges and to adapt within a variety of changing situations, while working with individuals and groups.
• Ability to adjust approach based on internal and external dynamics, and an acute perception of the dimensions of business issues.
• Ability to synthesize facts, theories, trends, inferences and key issues and/or themes in complex and variable situations and to recognize abstract patterns and relationships among apparently unrelated entities and situations.
• Ability to leverage intellectual curiosity to inform solutions and innovate.
• Ability to take responsibility for personal growth and acquire strategies for gaining new knowledge, behaviors and skills.
• Ability to adhere to required compliance to all change management policies and procedures.
• Ability to adhere to required compliance to all information security policies and procedures.

Minimum Qualifications

• Graduation with a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in a field related to the job, plus four (4) years of experience in a related field. Experience may substitute for education for up to four (4) years.
• Graduation with a Master's degree from an accredited college or university in a related field may substitute for two (2) years of experience.

Licenses and Certifications Required

• Valid Texas Driver License depending on assignment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Current third level (expert) support and experience implementing, operating, managing, monitoring, documenting and troubleshooting complex networks: Switches (Layer 2 and Layer 3, preferably Cisco) Routers (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, VXLAN, BGP EVPN) Firewalls (NGFW, preferably Palo Alto) Wireless networks (multi‑campus, preferably Cisco) Network access controls: Radius/TACACS, MFA administration, and Cisco ISE. Load balancers (preferably A10) DNS (preferably Infoblox or BIND) Current intermediate or expert experience with automation of work processes and procedures using scripting languages.
• Knowledge of procedures related to regulatory controls, such as North American Electric Reliability (NERC) regulations, Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Sarbanes‑Oxley Act (SOX), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), or others.
• Experience creating and maintaining network documentation.
• Experience communicating network infrastructure content to various stakeholders.
• Preferred Certifications CCNA, CCNP, PCNSE, PCNSA.

Notes to Candidate

Austin Energy is seeking a Network Engineer III (City Title: IT Infrastructure Architect) to join the IT Network LAN & Telecom team. The responsibilities of the position include expert operational, hands‑on support of all aspects of the network infrastructure the team manages including the configuration, installation, maintenance, patching, troubleshooting, and decommissioning of next‑generation firewalls, load balancers, routers, switches, wireless infrastructure, cloud networking, DNS, VPN’s, etc. Duties include contributing to designing, implementing, managing, and maintaining a highly complex, secure, and reliable network infrastructure, documenting and troubleshooting network components, and using experience to recommend new technologies and solutions. This position requires on‑call rotation to support 24‑hour utility operations and travel between local sites to survey in support of the integrated network solutions. This position requires a criminal and NERC background investigation. The primary duties of the position: Ensure compliance with all security policies, procedures, and standards to regulatory standards. Administer and build network security systems. Administer routing and switching, logging and security event analysis, and firewalls. Lead compliance duties such as security patch assessments, quarterly cyber access reviews, and verification of electronic access privileges. Administer modeling software and review business rules for access. Troubleshoot advanced systems/topologies/storage and support critical customers in a utility environment. Provide collaborative input to infrastructure planning and design. Provide leadership and guidance (mentoring) to junior team members using motivational and collaborative skills. Travel to multiple work locations and participate in an on‑call rotation within the 24‑hour utility operations.

Work Location

SCC, 2500 Montopolis Drive, Austin, Texas 78741

Days and Hours

Monday through Friday. 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (40‑hour work week). Additional work hours may be required to support 24‑hour Utility operations, including evenings, weekends, holidays, inclement weather, and emergency closures. This position requires on‑call assignments, which might result in a call back to work. Infrastructure team members are required to be onsite at a minimum of twice a week.

Physical Requirements

Physical Requirements: Tasks may involve bending, lifting, walking, carrying, or using a force equal to or lifting fifty (50) pounds. The candidate must be physically and mentally able to communicate, respond, and work with participants’ needs and safety issues. The candidate must also be able to work outdoors in any weather and inclement conditions.

Work Schedule

This has been designated as a Critical Employee position. Critical Employees are considered necessary and vital and support activities that impact City or department operations. This work can be done while at a designated work site or while working at an alternate work location. Critical employees who are able to work at an alternative work location are required to do so. Schedules may be modified and employees may be reassigned to another arear during extraordinary situations or emergency conditions to provide essential services.

Salary

$89,880.00 - $115,100.00 annually, depending on qualifications and experience.

Assessments

Your skill level in some of the competency areas for this job may be assessed through skills testing. If you are selected as a top candidate: Verification of your education (which may include high school graduation or GED, undergraduate and/or graduate degrees) will be required. You must provide proof of education from an accredited organization/institution. If you are identified as a top candidate and are in the military or a veteran, you will need to provide a copy of your DD‑214 prior to confirming a start date. This position requires a criminal background investigation.

Fair Labor Standards Act

This position is classified as EXEMPT (Salaried). Exempt employees are not eligible for overtime compensation.

Travel

This position requires a valid Texas Class C driver's license or the ability to acquire one by your hire date. External New Hires must meet the City of Austin’s Driver Record Evaluation (DRE) requisite. To be considered for a driving position, applicants cannot have more than three moving violations or a total of six Driver Record Evaluation points within a period of thirty‑six (36) months.

EEO Statement for City of Austin

The City of Austin will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, religion, veteran status, disability, or sexual orientation. In addition, the City will not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of an individual's AIDS, AIDS Related Complex, or HIV status; nor will the City discriminate against individuals who are perceived to be at risk of HIV infection, or who associate with individuals who are believed to be at risk.

City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require reasonable accommodation during the application process or have a question regarding an essential job function, please call [phone] or Texas Relay by dialing 7-1-1.

JOIN THE CITY OF AUSTIN TEAM

At the City of Austin, we are more than just an employer—we are a vibrant community dedicated to shaping one of the nation's most dynamic and innovative cities. As we strive to fulfill our commitment as public servants, it is important that we ground our efforts in a set of guiding principles – Empathy, Ethics, Excellence, Engagement, and Equity – that anchor our delivery of services that significantly impact the lives of Austinites. Joining the City of Austin means embarking on a purposeful career, contributing to the community, and being part of a forward‑thinking organization that values every employee. What Makes the City of Austin Special? Make a Difference: Join a team driving meaningful change in one of the fastest‑growing cities in the nation. Value and Innovation: Work in an environment where employees are valued, and innovation thrives. Competitive Benefits: Enjoy a comprehensive compensation package that includes generous leave, work‑life balance programs, and extensive benefits. Retirement Security: Plan for the future with the City of Austin Employees' Retirement System. Sustainable Transportation Options: Commute easily with access to public transit and bike‑friendly infrastructure. Focus on Wellness: Stay healthy through wellness programs, on‑site fitness centers, and mental health support. Career Growth: Advance your skills and expertise with professional development and leadership opportunities. Modern Workspaces: Work in innovative and sustainable environments that foster collaboration and inspiration. By joining us, you become part of a community that values its people and is committed to making Austin the most thriving and resilient city in the country.