Senior Storage, Backup & Archiving Architect (Contract)

About the position

We are seeking an experienced and highly technical Storage, Backup & Archiving Architect to provide thought leadership across Group Technology. This role is responsible for deg, integrating, and optimising enterprise wide storage, data protection, and archiving solutions across multiple technologies and platforms. The successful candidate will influence architectural direction, ensure compliance, and guide the organisation toward sustainable, scalable, and resilient technical solutions.

Core Responsibilities (Bullet Points for Job Advert) 1. Storage Engineering & Architecture

• Design and implement enterprise storage solutions including SAN, NAS, Object Storage, and Hyper?Converged platforms.
• Configure and optimise storage arrays (Dell PowerMax, Pure Storage, Hitachi, NetApp).
• Develop and maintain storage tiering strategies aligned to cost, performance, and business needs.
• Create and manage capacity planning models, utilisation reports, and forecasting dashboards.
• Lead enterprise storage refresh cycles, upgrades, migrations, and consolidation initiatives.
• Ensure storage availability, performance tuning, and adherence to architectural best practices.

2. Backup & Recovery Management

• Architect enterprise backup solutions using Commvault, Veeam, TSM/Spectrum Protect, Rubrik, or Cohesity.
• Develop backup policies, schedules, retention strategies, and media workflows.
• Implement and test DR capabilities for critical systems and workloads.
• Optimise backup windows, deduplication, compression, replication, and overall throughput.
• Integrate backup and recovery platforms with Azure, AWS, and GCP environments.
• Support security, immutability, encryption, and compliance requirements for all backup tiers.

3. Archiving & Compliance

• Develop and implement enterprise archiving strategies for structured and unstructured data.
• Deploy archiving platforms such as IBM Optim, Mimecast, Enterprise Vault, or cloud?native archives.
• Ensure solutions align with POPIA, PFMA, National Archives Act, SARB, SARS, and internal governance frameworks.
• Manage data classification, retention, defensible deletion, and end?to?end lifecycle management.
• Support audit readiness and generate compliance documentation or evidence where required.

Technical Skills Required Operating Systems

• UNIX (Solaris, AIX)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHCE certification advantageous)
• Microsoft Windows Server

Virtualisation & Cloud

• VMware (VCP preferred)
• Cloud integrations (Azure, AWS, GCP)

Network & Storage Infrastructure

• Cisco Fabric technologies
• Cisco Nexus switching
• Brocade SAN switches
• Cisco MDS SAN switches

Backup & Recovery Platforms

• Commvault
• Veeam
• NetBackup
• TSM / Spectrum Protect
• Rubrik
• Cohesity

Hardware Technologies

• Dell EMC (PowerMax, Compellent)
• HP Servers
• Intel platforms
• Cisco UCS
• Sun / Oracle Server Hardware
• Hitachi VSP, HUSVM, HUS
• NetApp
• F5 BigIP

Desired Skills:

• AIX
• Cisco Systems
• Cloud Architecture
• Solaris
• VMware