Job Description

The consultant designs and governs hybrid integration patterns between on-premises data centers and cloud platforms, ensuring secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective infrastructure services. Working closely with Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure Engineering, Security, Application Teams, Operations, and Managed Service Providers, the role drives cloud transformation while maintaining operational stability and governance.

Job Title: Principal Consultant – Data Center Infrastructure

Role Summary

The Principal Consultant is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing enterprise on-premises infrastructure environments. The role provides technical leadership in data center operations, Linux platform administration, virtualization, infrastructure automation, and operational excellence. The consultant will drive infrastructure modernization, standardization, automation, and lifecycle management while ensuring high availability, security, and performance of enterprise systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise on-premises data center infrastructure.
• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives across compute, virtualization, storage, and operating system platforms.
• Architect and support highly available Linux-based environments.
• Administer and maintain Linux operating systems, including:
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
• CentOS
• Provide technical leadership for enterprise server infrastructure and virtualization platforms.
• Develop and implement infrastructure standards, operational procedures, and best practices.
• Implement and maintain automated operational processes, including:
• OS patch management
• Server provisioning
• Configuration management
• Compliance and lifecycle management
• Automate virtual machine provisioning using OneData Platform and ServiceNow.
• Manage server lifecycle activities, including installation, upgrades, decommissioning, and capacity planning.
• Perform operating system hardening and ensure compliance with enterprise security standards.
• Troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues and provide Level 3 technical support.
• Collaborate with storage, backup, networking, security, and application teams to deliver integrated infrastructure solutions.
• Monitor infrastructure health, performance, and availability, and recommend continuous improvements.
• Mentor infrastructure engineers and provide architectural guidance for enterprise projects.
• Support disaster recovery planning, business continuity, and high-availability solutions.

Required Skills

Infrastructure

• Strong experience managing enterprise on-premises data center infrastructure.
• Expertise in enterprise server hardware (HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco UCS, or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of virtualization technologies (VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, or KVM).
• Experience with SAN/NAS storage technologies.
• Good understanding of enterprise networking concepts.

Linux Administration

• Expert-level administration of:
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
• CentOS
• Linux installation, upgrades, kernel management, troubleshooting, and performance tuning.
• Package management, user administration, LVM, multipathing, and file systems.
• High Availability (HA) clustering and system hardening.

Automation

• Experience implementing automated infrastructure operations.
• Automated OS patching and compliance management.
• VM provisioning through OneData Platform and ServiceNow.
• Scripting using Bash, Python, or Ansible.
• Infrastructure configuration management and automation.

Operations

• Incident, Problem, and Change Management.
• Performance tuning and capacity planning.
• Backup and recovery operations.
• Disaster Recovery (DR) implementation and testing.
• Infrastructure monitoring and health management.

Preferred Skills

• VMware vSphere administration.
• Red Hat Satellite or SUSE Manager.
• ServiceNow workflow integration.
• Monitoring tools such as Zabbix, Nagios, Prometheus, or Grafana.
• ITIL processes and enterprise operations.
• Knowledge of enterprise backup solutions (Commvault, NetBackup, Veeam, etc.).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• RHCSA/RHCE, SUSE Certified Administrator, or equivalent Linux certifications preferred.
• VMware VCP certification is an advantage.
• ITIL Foundation certification is desirable.

Experience

• 12–18 years of experience in enterprise data center infrastructure and Linux administration.
• Proven experience supporting large-scale on-premises environments.
• Strong background in virtualization, Linux platforms, infrastructure automation, and enterprise operations.
• Experience leading infrastructure transformation and operational improvement initiatives.
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Engineering, or a related discipline.