Infrastructure Solution Architect

Infrastructure Solution Architect100% Remote w/ travel to Buffalo, NY required every 4 to 6 weeks, Travel & lodging expenses will be reimbursed6+-month contractWeb Cam InterviewW2 only (DOE)Here is a different overview of the skillsets and experience that we're in search of:10+ years in infrastructure architecture, with recent experience in a Solution Architect or Infrastructure Architect role.Proven ownership of hybrid cloud architectures spanning Azure, data centers, and co-location facilities.Strong background in data center infrastructure, including compute, storage, networking, disaster recovery, resiliency, capacity planning, and workload placement.Experience translating high-level architecture into detailed implementation guidance for engineering teams.Demonstrated expertise in high availability, failover, disaster recovery, operational readiness, and reliability engineering.Familiarity with SRE practices, including observability, monitoring, telemetry, SLIs/SLOs, and infrastructure automation.Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation, etc.) and modern infrastructure platforms.Ability to drive architecture decisions across cloud, networking, identity, virtualization, storage, and platform services.Experience working within architecture governance processes and partnering with Enterprise Architecture teams.Candidates that are typically not a fit:Microsoft 365 / Exchange / Active Directory specialists.Pure cloud migration engineers without significant data center or hybrid experience.Network-only architects.Infrastructure operations managers with limited architecture ownership.DevOps engineers without broad enterprise infrastructure design responsibility.Ideal background examples: Enterprise infrastructure modernization, hybrid cloud transformation, data center migration/consolidation, Azure landing zones, co-location strategy, resiliency engineering, platform architecture, and SRE adoption.Hi everyone - For this position (Solution Architect for Infrastructure), I'm providing guidance below as to what we're looking for when we say infrastructure. Recent hands-on data center / colocation architecture experience required (not cloud-only).Design and operation of physical infrastructure: racks, power, cooling, cabling, and capacity management.Server, storage, and network architecture in enterprise data center environments.Data center migration and consolidation experience, including migrations into/out of colo facilities.Infrastructure resiliency and disaster recovery across multiple data center locations.Strong compute, virtualization, storage, and network fundamentals (VMware, SAN/NAS, backup, load balancing, firewalls, etc.).Hybrid infrastructure experience: colocations integrated with cloud, not cloud-native only.Experience working with colo providers and facilities teams (power, circuits, cross-connects, cage builds, audits).Mainframe and/or midrange infrastructure experience is a plus.Reject profiles that are primarily AWS/Azure/GCP solution architects with minimal physical infrastructure experience.NOTES FROM MANAGER/REQUIRED SKILLS & EXP.:Acts as the solution architecture extension of EA – Infrastructure, translating enterprise conceptual, logical, and high-level physical infrastructure designs into detailed physical design guidance for hybrid environments spanning Azure cloud and co-location data centers.Guides and supports engineering teams in delivering infrastructure solutions aligned with EA-defined architecture standards, hybrid patterns, and cloud strategy, ensuring consistency across platforms and workloads, including AI and digital services.Provides architecture guidance for:Hybrid infrastructure design, including cloud/on-prem integration, connectivity, and workload placement strategiesScalability and performance optimization, ensuring infrastructure can support dynamic workloads and growthResilience and reliability patterns, including high availability, failover, and disaster recovery aligned with SRE principlesNetworking and platform integration, ensuring secure, performant connectivity across distributed environmentsCost efficiency and capacity management, aligned with enterprise FinOps and infrastructure optimization strategiesSupports the adoption of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, including: SLIs/SLOs and reliability design considerationsObservability, monitoring, and telemetry integrationAutomation and infrastructure-as-code patternsOperational readiness and recoverability frameworksPartners with engineering teams throughout the SDLC—from design through production, providing design oversight, guiding implementation decisions, and ensuring adherence to enterprise standards for scalability, resilience, security, and operability.Collaborates closely with EA, platform engineering, and SRE teams to ensure consistent adoption of enterprise infrastructure patterns, while feeding implementation insights back into continuous improvement of architecture standards.Skill Set 1: InfrastructureSkill Set 2: Solution ArchitectureSkill Set 3: Effective CommunicationsFUNCTION:Supports an assigned portfolio through architecting and designing comprehensive solutions to meet product needs.Works collaboratively with other Solution Architects to assist in the creation of solutions that align to architecture standards and principles, leveraging common solutions and services, while meeting financial targets.POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:Actively participate and collaborate on the design, building, testing and deployment of technology solutions and designs with the assigned Agile teams.Collaborate with domain leadership and enterprise architects to understand business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determine corresponding solution designs.Assist domain decision-making by working with domain subject matter experts to articulate the value and tradeoffs of the solution options.Participate in the creation of enterprise architecture standards and evaluate the quality and compliance of delivered solutions to ensure alignment with those standards.Collaborate with stakeholders on initiatives in Agile team ceremonies.Produce, enhance, and refine conceptual, logical, and physical solution architecture for strategic initiatives that align with Enterprise Architecture principles and vision.Contribute to the research and identification of potential impacts of existing, new, and emerging technologies and trends within a domain.Participate in governance activities as required.Objectively contribute to the evaluation and resolution of domain specific architecture problems in partnership with domain subject matter experts.Assist other enterprise and solution architects to manage and design architecture for dependent products.Harness existing technology resources through collaboration to benefit solutioning efforts.Understand and adhere to the Company's risk and regulatory standards, policies, and controls in accordance with the Company's Risk Appetite. Identify risk-related issues needing escalation to management.Identify risk-related issues needing escalation to management.Promote an environment that supports diversity and reflects the M&T Bank brand.Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators as applicable.Complete other related duties as assigned.MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:Bachelor's degree and 5 years of relevant work experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 9 year's higher education and/or relevant work experienceExperience with multiple programming languagesAbility to work and communicate with various stakeholders at differing levels of the organizationExperience in software or service engineering and deliveryAbility to research and apply modern technology trends related to technology initiativesAbility to research, evaluate and articulate multiple approaches to solving technical problemsExperience in developing and integrating applications using relevant software architecture principles and patternsIDEAL QUALIFICATIONS PREFERRED:Graduate degree in technical disciplineExperience working in two or more technical roles related to banking technical designExperience in delivering technology and enterprise level presentationsExperience working in an Agile environmentIndustry recognized certification in programming languages and/or cloud technologiesExperience working in the financial services industry