Data Center Engineering Lead

Shoprite Group of Companies; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Shoprite Group of Companies is seeking a Data Centre Engineering Lead to design, implement and optimise data centre infrastructure across leased environments, ensuring high availability, resilience and cost efficiency while aligning with business and technical requirements.

You will lead data centre architecture activities, monitor platform health, manage lifecycle processes, engage vendors and support cross-functional solution delivery.

Qualifications

• Qualification in IT or Engineering essential.
• +5 years’ experience in data centre infrastructure engineering, operations or similar.
• Experience with virtualisation, storage, Unix/Linux and backup technologies.
• Exposure to leased data centre environments and infrastructure optimisation beneficial.
• Experience working with vendors and managed service providers beneficial.
• Certifications in VMware VCP, SAN/Storage (Brocade/IBM Storage) essential.
• OpenShift Certification desirable.
• NetApp certification desirable.

Responsibilities

• Analyse infrastructure designs across compute, storage, and Unix to ensure performance and resilience.
• Review architectures and recommend improvements aligned to business requirements.
• Monitor platform health, capacity and utilisation for scalability.
• Document standards and improve lifecycle management practices.
• Lead and prioritise team activities for timely delivery.
• Resolve operational issues and optimise resource utilisation.
• Analyse backup/recovery environments and validate disaster readiness.
• Support business engagement and cross-functional solution delivery.
• Monitor vendor performance and drive cost optimisation initiatives.

Skills

Virtualisation

Unix/Linux

Backup technologies

Vendor management

Education

Qualification in Information Technology or Engineering

Tools

VMware VCP

SAN/Storage Certifications

OpenShift Certification

NetApp Certification

IBM Power VM

ITSM Experience

Job description

The purpose of a Data Centre Engineering Lead is to design, implement and optimise data centre infrastructure solutions across leased environments by ensuring high availability, resilience, cost efficiency, and alignment to business and technical requirements, while supporting lifecycle management, vendor engagement, and infrastructure performance.

What you'll do

Data Centre Engineering & Architecture

• Analyse infrastructure environments across compute, storage, virtualisation, and Unix platforms to ensure performance and resilience
• Review architecture designs and recommend improvements aligned to business and technical requirements
• Monitor platform health, capacity, and utilisation to support scalability and efficiency
• Document standards, configurations, and engineering practices to ensure consistency. Improve lifecycle management practices through continuous review and optimisation

Leadership & Operational Support

• Monitor team activities and support prioritisation to ensure timely delivery of work
• Diagnose operational issues and support resolution across engineering domains
• Review workloads and recommend improvements to resource utilisation and efficiency
• Support escalation handling by investigating complex incidents and recommending solutions
• Document processes and improve operational practices to enhance stability and performance

Backup, Recovery & Continuity

• Analyse backup and recovery environments to ensure data protection and reliability
• Monitor recovery objectives and test disaster recovery processes to validate readinessDiagnose recovery failures and resolve issues to improve resilience
• Review continuity processes and recommend improvements aligned to business needs
• Document recovery procedures and support ongoing optimisation

Business Engagement & Solution Delivery

• Analyse business and application requirements to support infrastructure solution design
• Recommend scalable and supportable infrastructure configurations
• Support delivery of projects, migrations, and infrastructure initiatives
• Review solution performance and improve alignment to business expectations
• Work collaboratively to support integrated, cross-functional solution delivery

Vendor & Cost Optimisation

• Monitor vendor performance and support service delivery against agreed standards
• Analyse vendor solutions and recommend improvements or alternatives
• Support cost optimisation initiatives through infrastructure and service reviews
• Review procurement inputs and document recommendations for decision-making
• Improve vendor engagement practices to enhance service quality and efficiency

What you bring

• A Qualification in Information Technology, Engineering or in a related field - (essential).
• +5 years’ experience in data centre infrastructure engineering, operations or similar - (essential).
• Experience with virtualisation, storage, Unix/Linux and backup technologies - (essential).
• Exposure to leased data centre environments and infrastructure optimisation - (beneficial).
• Experience working with vendors and managed service providers - (beneficial).

Certifications in VMware VCP, SAN or Storage Certifications (Brocade / IBM Storage) - (essential)

OpenShift Certification - (desired)

NetApp - (desired)Experience in IBM Power VM - (essentialA)ITSM Experience - (essential)