At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead virtualization and private cloud projects, ensuring top-notch technical delivery.
- Company: Join a leading tech firm focused on innovative cloud solutions.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, remote work options, and professional growth opportunities.
- Other info: Dynamic role with opportunities for mentorship and career advancement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in the evolving world of virtualization and cloud technology.
- Qualifications: Expertise in VMware and Red Hat platforms required; strong leadership skills a plus.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Certifications:
- VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization (VCP-DCV) required; VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) strongly preferred.
- Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration required; Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) strongly preferred.
- Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenStack Administration required or clearly demonstrated equivalent experience.
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) - beneficial.
Adjacent Technical Skills (Beneficial, Not Required):
- Depth in the specialist area above is mandatory.
- Experience in public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), particularly hybrid and cloud-adjacent private cloud designs.
- Networking (routing/switching, data center fabric) given the tight coupling with NSX/OVN-Kubernetes design.
- Storage architecture beyond vSAN/Ceph, including traditional SAN/NAS platforms.
- Security architecture, particularly micro-segmentation and platform hardening.
- AI infrastructure exposure, as GPU-enabled virtualization and OpenShift AI are an increasing share of client demand.
- Backup and DR platforms (Veeam, Rubrik, or equivalent).
Leadership & Delivery Expectations:
- Leads technical delivery independently and acts as the final technical authority on virtualization platform decisions for an engagement.
- Mentors other engineers and architects across both VMware and Red Hat platform domains.
- Navigates vendor and licensing complexity confidently, translating commercial constraints into sound technical roadmaps for clients.
- Communicates platform trade-offs clearly to both hands-on engineering teams and infrastructure leadership.
- Comfortable owning migration cutover windows and the associated risk management.
Role Summary:
World Wide Technology is looking for an Enterprise Architect who lives and breathes virtualization and private cloud platforms - someone equally fluent architecting a VMware vSphere/NSX estate and a Red Hat OpenShift or OpenStack platform, and who can lead clients through the platform decisions reshaping this space, including VMware-to-Kubernetes migration. This role owns technical delivery for virtualization and private cloud engagements end to end: architecture and low-level design, build oversight, migration execution, and operational handover. The candidate will be the final technical authority on virtualization platform decisions for their engagements, while mentoring the wider delivery team. Given how tightly virtualization now intersects with containers, storage, networking, and even AI infrastructure, strong adjacent technical breadth is a real advantage for this role, even though platform depth in VMware and Red Hat remains the core requirement.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own end-to-end technical delivery of virtualization and private cloud engagements: architecture definition, low-level design, build/migration oversight, and go-live validation.
- Host and chair Architecture Review Board (ARB) and Technical Design Authority (TDA) sessions for virtualization engagements, owning governance gates, decision records, and design sign-off.
- Architect and validate VMware environments: vSphere/ESXi cluster design, vCenter, vSAN, NSX-T/NSX-V network virtualization, and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployments.
- Architect Red Hat platforms: OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) design and installation (IPI/UPI), OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt) for VM-to-container consolidation, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) design and deployment.
- Lead VMware-to-Kubernetes and VM-to-container migration strategy engagements, including workload assessment, sequencing, and risk mitigation - particularly relevant given ongoing VMware/Broadcom licensing changes driving client re-evaluation.
- Design software-defined storage and networking as applied to virtualization platforms: vSAN, Ceph/OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF), and NSX.
- Define disaster recovery and business continuity architectures for virtualized estates, including Site Recovery Manager and equivalent DR orchestration.
- Lead technical design workshops, present architecture options and trade-offs to infrastructure leadership, and own resulting low-level design documentation.
- Champion infrastructure-as-code and automation (Ansible, Terraform, GitOps/ArgoCD) to reduce manual platform operations.
- Mentor other virtualization and platform engineers, and contribute to WWT's private cloud reference architectures.
- Define migrations strategies.
Required Technical Skills & Experience:
- 8–10+ years in virtualization, private cloud, or infrastructure architecture roles.
- Demonstrated ownership of technical delivery for enterprise-scale virtualization or private cloud transformation programmes.
- Direct hands-on experience with VMware-to-Kubernetes or VM-to-container migration engagements strongly preferred.
VMware Platform (Expert Level):
- Core platform: vSphere/ESXi cluster design, vCenter architecture, resource pools, DRS/HA tuning.
- Storage: vSAN design and sizing, stretched clusters, storage policy-based management.
- Networking: NSX-T/NSX-V network virtualization, micro-segmentation, and distributed firewall design.
- Platform: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployment and lifecycle management.
- DR & VDI: Site Recovery Manager design; Horizon VDI architecture is a plus.
Red Hat Platform (Expert Level):
- OpenShift: OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) architecture and installation (IPI/UPI), cluster networking (SDN/OVN-Kubernetes), and multi-cluster design.
- OpenShift Virtualization: KubeVirt-based VM-to-container consolidation strategy and implementation.
- OpenStack: Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) architecture, deployment, and lifecycle operations.
- Automation: Red Hat Satellite and Ansible Automation Platform for lifecycle and configuration management.
Containers & Cloud-Native Fundamentals:
- Kubernetes architecture fundamentals: control plane design, networking (CNI, Multus, SR-IOV), and storage (CSI, ODF/Ceph).
- Operator framework familiarity and experience packaging or consuming Kubernetes operators.
- Software-defined storage: Ceph/OpenShift Data Foundation design and sizing for both block and object workloads.
Migration, DR & Commercial Strategy:
- Hands-on experience with private/hybrid cloud design principles: capacity planning, workload placement, and migration methodology (P2V/V2V, VM-to-container).
- Disaster recovery and business continuity architecture for virtualized and containerized environments.
- Fluency in VMware/Broadcom and Red Hat subscription/licensing models sufficient to advise clients on cost and platform strategy.
Automation & Delivery:
- Infrastructure-as-code proficiency: Ansible and Terraform for platform provisioning.
- GitOps experience (ArgoCD or equivalent) for OpenShift/Kubernetes application and platform delivery.
- Strong client-facing design and delivery leadership skills; ability to run technical workshops and own low-level design documentation to a professional-services standard.
Architecture Governance & Design Authority:
- Proven experience hosting and chairing formal Architecture Review Board (ARB) and Technical Design Authority (TDA) forums, including agenda ownership, decision logging, and stakeholder facilitation.
- Ability to define and operate governance gates across the engagement lifecycle: design authority sign-off, change control, and exception/waiver management for virtualization and private cloud decisions.
- Experience producing and maintaining architecture decision records (ADRs), design standards, and reference architectures that are actively enforced through ARB/TDA governance.
- Comfortable presenting and defending architecture decisions to senior client governance bodies, including constructively challenging non-compliant or high-risk designs.
Job Details:
- Job Type: Full-time
- Category: Delivery Engineering
- Salaried: Salaried
Enterprise Architect - Virtualization in Whitehall employer: World Wide Technology
World Wide Technology is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work culture that fosters innovation and collaboration in the heart of London. With a strong focus on employee growth, you will have access to extensive training and development opportunities while working alongside industry leaders in cloud and AI transformation. The company's commitment to diversity and inclusion, coupled with its strategic partnerships, ensures that you will be part of meaningful projects that drive real change in the financial services sector.
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We think this is how you could land Enterprise Architect - Virtualization in Whitehall
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We think you need these skills to ace Enterprise Architect - Virtualization in Whitehall
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Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at World Wide Technology.
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Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at World Wide Technology
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If World Wide Technology uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
