Overview of the role

Group Technology & Digital Platforms (GTDP) is responsible for creating, implementing, and sustaining a world-class service provision and agile development capability to facilitate the ambitious growth and business transformation agenda of the Al-Futtaim Group across all geographies. This covers Business Application Management, Infrastructure & Operations, Enterprise Architecture, Service Management, Information Security, IT Procurement, and IT Governance. GTDP also manages and innovates the entire life cycle of SAP ERP system for Automotive, Retail, Real Estate and Financial Services and other LOBs including development, selective outsourcing, and application management. The Group IT Infrastructure includes Cloud and on-premises data centers hosting state of the art servers & storage, converged networks, workplace, services, and security systems. This position reports to the Manager – Cloud Engineering within Enterprise Platform Services (EPS).

What you will do

• Cloud Architecture Design: Design and implement complex cloud-based solutions on Azure that meet business requirements, including high availability, disaster recovery, and scalability.
• Solution Development: Develop and document architecture blueprints, reference architectures, and detailed solution designs. Collaborate with development, operations, and security teams to design, build, and maintain cloud infrastructure.
• DevOps Expertise: Leverage strong knowledge of CI/CD solutions to enhance software delivery pipelines and Azure Policies
• Cloud Infrastructure Management: Deploy and manage Azure cloud infrastructures using Infrastructure as Code (IaaC) tools such as Terraform, ARM, PowerShell and other tools .
• Identity and Access Management: Good understanding of Microsoft Identity and Access Management products to secure applications and data.
• Technical Leadership: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to cloud engineers, developers, and other IT staff. Drive architecture discussions related to cloud security, privacy, compliance, scalability, performance, and high availability/disaster recovery (HA/DR).
• Cloud Security Best Practices: Ensure compliance with company security policies while managing data storage and processing functions.
• Collaboration: Work closely with application, engineering, security, and operations teams to build and optimize Kubernetes and Azure PaaS/IaaS solutions.
• Continuous Improvement: Participate in developing and refining the end-to-end CI/CD process, ensuring quality and reliability in software delivery.
• System Review and Enhancement: Regularly review and recommend improvements to existing systems and processes.
• Lifecycle Management: Implement strategies, policies, and guidelines for the development lifecycle, ensuring effective design, selection, and maintenance of systems.
• Manage support vendor escalations in a timely manner. Track incidents and problem tickets and maintain SLA compliance.
• Implement and maintain network infrastructure in Cloud and Hybrid environment as per defined standards and policies.
• Automate controls and processes to provide improved metrics and operational support using Infrastructure-as-code and security-as-code.
• Liaise with Core Teams (Enterprise Architects, Lead Cloud Architects, other infra teams) to ensure alignment with approved standards and guidelines.
• Assist Application and Infrastructure team for creating Landing zones in Cloud infrastructure.
• Perform proactive and reactive upgrades and maintenance outside of business hours, following the company's change management and operational procedures.
• Create documentation, SOPs and knowledge base articles as required.

Skills

Required skills to be successful

• Troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• Good communication and collaboration and people skills
• Solid systems administration with extensive experience working with virtual environments.

What equips you for the role

• Bachelors degree in IT, Computer Science or any related field.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in Information Technology and with minimum 5 yrs of hands-on experience in cloud computing (Microsoft Azure preferably) and solutions.
• Good experience with cloud environments - Azure, Azure DevOps certified certifications preferred.
• Proficiency in designing and managing Azure services such as Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Azure Active Directory, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Functions, and Azure DevOps.
• Demonstrated experience in scripting and automation, orchestration tools, Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD concepts to automate creation of testing, staging and production environments.
• Intensive Experience in SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
• Experience with Continuous Integration and Continues Delivery systems.
• DevOps mindset and tools like Git, GoCD/Jenkins, Ansible, Terraform.
• Automation experience with PowerShell and/or Python.
• Good experience with Disaster Recovery Planning/Documenting/Implementing