Technical Specialist - Storage, Backup, Data Management

SUMMARY:
Technical specialist across storage, backup, and data management environments

POSITION INFO:

Technical Specialist: Storage, Backup, Data Management

Location: Sandton, Johannesburg

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Technical Consultant to act as a technical authority across storage, backup, and data management environments.

This role is responsible for designing, integrating, and optimising enterprise infrastructure solutions across multiple platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, compliance, and cost efficiency.

The successful candidate will play a key role in:

• Driving technical thought leadership
• Ensuring end-to-end integration of infrastructure solutions
• Supporting data lifecycle management and regulatory compliance
• Mentoring teams and uplifting technical capability within the organisation

Key Responsibilities

1. Storage Engineering & Architecture

• Design and implement enterprise storage solutions across SAN, NAS, Object Storage, and HCI environments
• Configure and optimise storage platforms (e.g. Dell PowerMax, NetApp, Hitachi, Pure Storage)
• Define and implement storage tiering strategies aligned to workload performance and cost
• Develop capacity planning models and forecasting reports
• Lead storage refresh, migration, consolidation, and upgrade programmes
• Ensure high availability, resilience, and scalability of storage environments

2. Backup & Recovery Management

• Architect and implement backup solutions (e.g. Commvault, Veeam, NetBackup, Rubrik, Cohesity)
• Define and manage backup policies, retention strategies, and scheduling
• Design and execute Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies and testing
• Optimise backup performance (compression, deduplication, window reduction)
• Integrate backup environments with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP)

3. Archiving, Compliance & Data Lifecycle Management

• Develop and implement enterprise archiving strategies (structured & unstructured data)
• Deploy archiving solutions (e.g. IBM Optim, Mimecast, Enterprise Vault)
• Ensure compliance with:
• • POPIA
  • SARB
  • SARS
  • National Archives Act
• Define data classification, retention, and lifecycle policies
• Support governance and audit requirements across the data estate

4. Technical Leadership & Advisory

• Act as a subject matter expert (SME) across storage and data management technologies
• Provide technical guidance on solution design and integration across platforms
• Align infrastructure solutions with enterprise architecture and business strategy
• Mentor engineers and contribute to capability development within GT
• Engage stakeholders across architecture, engineering, and operations teams

Required Skills & Experience

Core Infrastructure & Platforms

• Strong experience in enterprise storage environments (SAN/NAS/Object)
• Deep knowledge of storage vendors:
• • Dell EMC (PowerMax, Compellent)
  • NetApp
  • Hitachi (VSP, HUSVM, HUS)
• Experience with backup technologies:
• • Commvault
  • NetBackup
  • Veeam (advantageous)

Systems & Operating Environments

• UNIX: Solaris, AIX
• Linux: Red Hat (RHCE preferred)
• Microsoft Windows Server
• Virtualisation: VMware (VCP preferred)

Networking & Infrastructure

• Cisco Nexus, Cisco Fabric, Cisco UCS
• SAN technologies:
• • Brocade SAN switches
  • Cisco MDS
• Load balancing: F5 Big-IP

Cloud & Modern Platforms

• Exposure to cloud environments:
• • Microsoft Azure
  • AWS
  • GCP
• Hybrid infrastructure and cloud integration experience

Additional Technical Capabilities

• Capacity planning and performance optimisation
• Disaster Recovery (DR) and business continuity
• Data lifecycle management and governance
• Infrastructure automation (nice-to-have)

Key Competencies

• Strong solution design and systems thinking
• Ability to operate across multiple technologies and domains