Architect – Enterprise Data Centers - Full-time / Part-time

“Want to know what it’s like to work in IT at The Home Depot?”

POSITION PURPOSE –

The Architect will provide architectural leadership & long term planning for Home Depot Enterprise Data Centers. Research and drive innovative initiatives through partnering with internal engineering groups and outside vendors. Examine the current environment, and create a future architecture for the Enterprise Data Centers in partnership with engineering architects. Shepherd the final architecture through the various architecture governance processes including the Architecture Review Board. Develop facility and technical infrastructure reporting. Implement best practices & submit recommendations for process improvements; serve as the process expert for data center workflows. Drive setting standards and documenting them for the team to follow. Build long term, productive relationships, and engage effectively with all key internal clients and partners. Drive consensus amongst sometimes competing requirements of clients. Develop and maintain a broad range of performance criteria and control mechanisms to ensure compliance with all appropriate regulations and to allow for internal and external benchmarking and performance measurement. Participate in budgetary and demand planning exercises.  

Design, plan, analyze, recommend, install, and support the Data Center environment.
a. IT Infrastructure placement/floor provisioning
b. Long term planning for the floor layout of the Enterprise Data Centers
c. Own and update the Enterprise Data Centers floor plans (Visio/CAD/DCIM)
d. Space, power, heat, cooling, access, traversals, density, weight, in-rack power solutions, rack based thermal sensors, and zoning planning

Establish architecture for all aspects of the technical infrastructure including SCS, racks, cable management, power management, temperature management, etc…
Partner closely with IT, Enterprise Data Center Facilities MEP managed services team, technology engineering, and corporate facilities, in developing programmatic and planning requirements for infrastructure support of Enterprise Data Centers, technology rooms, and workplace engineering such as power density, resiliency, business needs, etc…
Leverage Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD) or equivalent analysis to make architectural decisions for Data Center floor strategy

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 12+ years' Data Center experience
• 8+ years in a Data Center Architect role
• 5+ years in Tier III+ Data Center environment
• BA/BS degree+
• Must have knowledge of all elements of a Data Center environment, including: Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) & Asset Management, technical infrastructure, mechanical, electrical (e.g. RPPs, Floor PDUs, Rack PDUs), HVAC, fire suppressant, physical security,  etc…
• Must have knowledge of all technical infrastructure components of a Data Center environment: Structured Cabling Solutions (SCS) for both network and storage data environments, racks & components, as well as space, power, heat, cooling, access, traversals, density, weight, in-rack power solutions, rack based thermal sensors, and zoning planning
• Experience with Data Center technology components including but not limited to, Servers, SAN  Switches, Networks, Security Appliances, SAN/NAS storage, Engineered Solutions (Mainframe, Oracle Exadata, HP Tandem, Hadoop, Teradata, etc…)
• Experience with strategic planning and development of engineering requirements related to the development, design and construction of Data Centers.
• Experience with Data Center consolidation, equipment decommissions, migrations and virtualization initiatives
• Experience transforming legacy data centers 
• Expert knowledge of Mechancial, Electrical, Plumbing infrastructure supporting the Data Centers
• General knowledge of change control
• General knowledge across all operating systems
• General knowledge ITSM based ticket assignments
• Experience in building actionable metrics 
• Experience creating, managing, & maintaining service catalogs and SLAs
• Strong understanding of procurement processes
• Strong written & verbal communications skills, presentation & facilitation skills
• Ability to influence business owners, senior management, and matrixed engineers/architects.
• Ability to work in a matrixed resource environment to accomplish goals and meet schedules
• Strong understanding of financial/budgeting concepts 
• Microsoft Office
• Experience with Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD)

EDUCATION REQUIRED – The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

YEARS OF RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE - 9

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with ServiceNow
• Experience with DCIM/Asset Management/CMDB tools
• Experience with PowerLogic
• Experience with CAD

REQUIRED SOFT SKILLS

• Planning and Organizing: Develop a tactical and strategic courses of action to accomplish specific goals, prioritize work, meet deadlines, manage time wisely, etc.
• Solving Problems: Analyze information to recognize potential problems, propose and pilot solutions, etc.
• Customer Service: Provide outstanding internal/external customer service
• Getting Things Done: Demonstrate ability to get results despite a large workload, competing demands, and a fast-paced environment, including getting work done despite competing priorities of matrixed teams 
• Must be detail-oriented and able to follow process/procedures
• Must have good interpersonal skills and maintain good working relationships with Application, Infrastructure, and Data Center teams
• Team player and should take ownership and drive a task, work effort, or project to completion
• Must be able to multi-task and change priorities on a short notice
• Ability to utilize operational experience to effectively write standard processes & procedures in a clear & concise manner to ensure ease of use  

MAJOR TASKS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES –

Experience with Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD)

Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing (MEP): (Generators, Diesel Fuel Systems, Generator Switch Gear, Main Switch Gear, UPS systems, Batteries, Static Switches, fire infrastructure, Chilled Water Systems, Air Handlers, CRAC, RTU, Cold/Hot aisle, etc.)

Evaluate existing data center’s MEP systems design for maintainability, fault tolerance and production controls:

Identify life cycles, PM requirements, and inspections required for all MEP and data center infrastructure that currently isn’t being addressed through our PM schedule or 12 year plan.

Mature and own our 12 year plan

Update the preventive maintenance schedule (Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-Annual, Annual, every two years, every three years, etc.)

Maintain life cycle documentation

Develop and maintain system capacity dashboards and metrics for electrical and mechanical equipment, systems, technology rooms, etc. for data centers. This will include analysis of actual usage versus planned usage, forecasting strategy, and assessment of future needs or upgrades: develop and maintain MEP capacity planning strategies.

Develop/enhance and ensure the adoption and dissemination of best practices in design, construction, procurement, infrastructure standards.

Build strong relationships with all engineering matrixed teams, contractors, consultants & external vendors, continually driving to provide commercial and innovative methods of operation across a wide range of projects.

Partner with outside inspectors as appropriate

NATURE AND SCOPE –Typically reports to Senior Architect, Senior Manager, or Director No associates report to this role on a permanent basis, but requires the leadership of a work group: assign and review work, train and contribute to performance appraisal (but not hiring, firing or disciplinary action).

ENVIRONMENTAL JOB REQUIREMENTS –Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable. Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.

PHYSICAL JOB REQUIREMENTS –

Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND COMPETENCIES –

Expert technical proficiency in one or more of the following: Retail applications, Windows platform, UNIX platforms, MVS COBOL, JAVA, J2EE, Relational Databases, Websphere Application Server, Websphere Commerce, Websphere MQ, Networking (Voice, LAN, WAN), SAP, Siebel, Peoplesoft. Comprehensive understanding of systems, applications, and/or networks so that practical solutions can be provided that factor system performance, usability, quality, cross-system inter dependencies, scalability, and overall cost to develop and maintain. Strong problem solving and analytical skills. Strong oral and written communications skills.