The Role – Architect / System Engineer - VMWare

Whilst specific responsibilities will be dependent upon the changing needs of the Tesco business, the following provides an overview of the role’s key responsibilities and measures:

About The Tesco Technology Infrastructure Team

The Infrastructure Engineering team design, develop and operate all infrastructure used by Tesco Technology across our data centres, offices, stores and distribution centres. This encompasses multiple domains; private and public cloud, connectivity, end-user computing, CI/CD and monitoring toolkit. This includes both 3rd party and internally developed infrastructure applications and infrastructure that support the wider Tesco business.

Key activities include:

The Infrastructure team are supporting both the current Infrastructure and also the work required to continue the transformation of Tesco Technologies Infrastructure to modern platforms that can be easily consumed through self-service APIs, automatically handle failures and use best of breed modern technologies

Desired Skills and Experience

  • Architect, Design and Deliver solutions using existing Infrastructure components.
  • Where new infrastructure technologies are being introduced, implement them and establish best practice for their adoption.
  • Resolve incidents that have not been seen before and initiate change to ensure that issues can be easily dealt with in future.
  • Contribute to the Technology Roadmap for Tesco Technology Data Centres
  • Evaluate new tools and techniques being able to understand their value and impact.
  • Understand current application development techniques (12 factor app) and their implications to infrastructure
  • Lead group design discussions on my area of expertise and be able to present with authority to a variety of audiences.
  • Collaborate with Software Engineers to understand their requirements and assist them consuming Infrastructure in the most seamless way possible.
  • Coach and mentor system engineers across Technology who are at a more junior level.  Ensure that my own team’s designs are of a high quality and understand the impacts to any other areas of infrastructure.
  • Keep my technical skills up to date and keep track of new technologies, understanding how they might benefit the Technology team and wider Tesco.
  • Introduce automation to all aspects of my day to day work.
  • This role will best suit an individual who enjoys working as part of a team, is well organised, pragmatic and a lateral thinker with an inquisitive mind who is motivated to make change for the better and, most importantly, puts our customers first.
  • Designs, develops and operates the Infrastructure platforms that allow development teams and business colleagues to consume infrastructure.
  • Designs, develops and operates the automation to allow Infrastructure platforms to be consumed in a controlled, auditable and repeatable manner.
  • Setting the strategy, objectives and high-level plans for infrastructure.
  • Works with development teams to collaborate in creating appropriate infrastructure solutions.
  • Evaluating partners, software and hardware and finding the right mix to deliver the strategy.
  • Driving innovation at Tesco through infrastructure transformation.
  • Defining and overseeing standards and simplification across the estate.
  • Designing, delivering and operating new and re-usable infrastructure solutions.
  • Previous experience working in a DevOps environment and automating Infrastructure solutions.
  • Previous experience of designing delivering a Software Defined Data Center using VMWare technologies
  • Previous experience at designing solutions for large complex global organisations.
  • Stakeholder management
  • Technical skills in:
  • VMWare ESXi, vCenter
  • VMWare NSX
  • vRealise
  • Openstack
  • Desired State Configuration Tools
  • CI/CD
  • Flexibility, ability to plan and organise, responsiveness, creativity, self-starter 
  • Able to build solid working relationships with peers and senior leadership
  • Ability to demonstrate strong written, verbal communication and presentation skills to all levels of seniority and disciplines within the organisation.