Lead Infrastructure Architect

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc.; Kennesaw (GA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc. is seeking a Lead Infrastructure Architect in Kennesaw, Georgia, to define and maintain the enterprise network architecture strategy aligned with business goals. This position is critical for ensuring scalable and secure infrastructure solutions.

Candidates should possess at least 7 years of experience in designing and architecting infrastructure with a Bachelor's degree in a related field. The successful applicant will work closely with various technical teams and lead initiatives for infrastructure automation and governance.

Qualifications

• 7 years of experience in enterprise-scale network and infrastructure.
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Strong knowledge of routing, switching, and WAN architectures.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the network architecture roadmap.
• Design physical infrastructure standards.
• Lead capacity planning and performance engineering.
• Evaluate and manage strategic vendors for cost-efficiency.
• Provide architectural oversight for infrastructure projects.

Skills

Strong vendor evaluation

Contract negotiation skills

Lifecycle management skills

Excellent interpersonal skills

Time management

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT or related field

Job description

Lead Infrastructure Architect

Job ID: 298935

Location: Kennesaw, Georgia

Full/Part Time: Full Time

Regular/Temporary: Regular

Job Summary

Is responsible for defining and owning the long-term enterprise network and infrastructure architecture strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives, capacity planning, and emerging technology trends. This role provides architectural governance, resiliency planning, and technical leadership across on‑premises, hybrid, and cloud‑connected infrastructure environments. This position collaborates closely with engineering, cybersecurity, and cloud teams to ensure scalable, secure, and highly available infrastructure solutions.

Responsibilities

1. Define and maintain the long‑term network and infrastructure architecture roadmap aligned with business strategy, scalability, and capacity planning objectives.
2. Design and govern physical infrastructure standards including data centers, cabling, rack layouts, power distribution, and hardware placement.
3. Lead capacity planning and performance engineering to ensure infrastructure meets current and future demand with redundancy and failover.
4. Lead network modeling, simulation, and validation activities to ensure design integrity and reduce deployment risk.
5. Design and maintain high‑availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity network architectures.
6. Evaluate and manage strategic vendors, carriers, and service providers to ensure architectural alignment and cost‑efficiency.
7. Develop and maintain high‑level and low‑level design documentation and reference architectures.
8. Provide architectural oversight and governance for infrastructure projects to ensure adherence to approved standards and designs.
9. Partners with cybersecurity teams to embed security architecture principles including segmentation, zero trust, and compliance requirements.
10. Drive infrastructure automation initiatives using infrastructure as code and configuration management tools.
11. Lead root cause analysis and post‑incident reviews, translating findings into architectural improvements.
12. Define, track, and report on infrastructure KPIs and SLOs for reliability, latency, and availability.
13. Guide integration of on‑premises infrastructure with cloud and hybrid connectivity models.
14. Evaluate emerging technologies such as SD‑WAN, SASE, EVPN/VXLAN, and high‑speed fabrics for enterprise adoption.
15. Provide mentorship and architectural leadership to senior engineers and technical teams.
16. Support audits and compliance activities by ensuring infrastructure designs meet regulatory and policy requirements.
17. Contribute to budget planning, lifecycle management, and cost‑optimization initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Educational Requirements: Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution of higher education, preferably in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience.
• Required Experience: Seven (7) years of experience designing, supporting, and architecting enterprise‑scale network and infrastructure environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry certifications such as Cisco CCNP or CCIE, AWS AdvancedNetworking, Microsoft Azure Network Engineer, CompTIA Network+, or ITIL.
• Preferred Educational Qualifications: An advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher learning in a related field.
• Preferred Experience: Experience with hybrid cloud connectivity, private circuits, and high‑availability enterprise network designs; demonstrated experience leading architectural reviews, standards development, and infrastructure governance; experience mentoring senior engineers or architects in complex enterprise environments.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Abilities

• Ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical architecture solutions.
• Able to handle multiple tasks or projects at one time meeting assigned deadlines.

Knowledge

• Extensive knowledge of enterprise network architectures, datacenter design, and infrastructure resiliency models.
• Strong experience with routing, switching, WAN, and fabric‑based architectures in large‑scale environments.
• Proficiency in infrastructure automation, orchestration, and configuration management methodologies.
• Deep understanding of high‑availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
• Experience integrating on‑premises infrastructure with public and private cloud connectivity solutions.

Skills

• Strong vendor evaluation, contract negotiation, and lifecycle management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, initiative, teamwork, problem solving, independent judgment, organization, communication (verbal and written), time management, project management and presentation skills.
• Proficient with computer applications and programs associated with the position (i.e., Microsoft Office suite).
• Strong attention to detail and follow up skills.
• Strong customer service skills and phone and e‑mail etiquette.

Other Information

This is not a supervisory position.

This position does not have any financial responsibilities.

This position will not be required to drive.

This role is considered a position of trust.

This position does not require a purchasing card (P‑Card).

This position may travel 1% - 24% of the time.

Background Check

• Credit Report
• Standard Enhanced
• Education

Equal Employment Opportunity

Kennesaw State University is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. The University is committed to maintaining a fair and respectful environment for living, work and study. To that end, and in accordance with federal and state law, Board of Regents policy, and University policy, the University prohibits harassment of or discrimination against any person because of race, color, sex (including sexual harassment, pregnancy, and medical conditions related to pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity or national origin, religion, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran or military status by any member of the KSU Community on campus, in connection with a University program or activity, or in a manner that creates a hostile environment for members of the KSU community.

For additional information on this policy, or to file a complaint under the provisions of this policy, students, employees, applicants for employment or admission or other third parties should contact the Office of Institutional Equity at English Building, Suite 225, [e-mail].