With more than 250,000 employees worldwide, Continental is one of the global leaders in tyre development and production. We have also embraced the trend towards digitalisation. In Otrokovice, we have one of the world's largest production sites.

We are seeking an experienced Datacenter Infrastructure Architect & Senior VMware Specialist to lead the design, optimization, and management of our virtualization and datacenter infrastructure. This role combines infrastructure architecture, service design, and provider management, ensuring a scalable, secure, and high-performing IT environment.

As a Level 3 Senior Specialist for VMware Virtualization, you will be responsible for expert-level troubleshooting, continuous improvement, and automation within virtualization platforms. You will also oversee service providers, manage SLAs, and define strategies for high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), and security compliance.

If you are a strategic thinker with deep expertise in VMware, hypervisors, and datacenter services, we’d love to hear from you!

1. Datacenter Infrastructure Design & Optimization

- Design and optimize compute, storage, networking, and backup infrastructure with a primary focus on hypervisors (VMware).

- Define and implement best practices for scalability, availability, and security.

- Ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations, and security policies.

- Plan and oversee technology refresh cycles and capacity management.

- Align infrastructure with business requirements, scalability needs, and future technological advancements.

2. Service Provider & Vendor Management

- Oversee external IT service providers, ensuring contractual compliance and high-quality service delivery.

- Negotiate and manage SLAs, evaluate vendor performance, and conduct regular reviews to drive continuous improvement.

-Develop disaster recovery and business continuity strategies with service providers to ensure minimal downtime.

3. VMware Virtualization Architecture & Operations

- Design, implement, and optimize VMware virtualization platforms to meet performance, scalability, and security requirements.

- Define and maintain virtualization best practices (HA, FT, resource management, DR).

- Ensure seamless integration of VMware architecture with storage, networking, and security.

- Implement backup and restore strategies for virtual machines to align with business continuity goals.

4. Advanced VMware Troubleshooting & Level 3 Support

- Provide expert-level support and act as an escalation point for complex VMware-related incidents.

- Troubleshoot and optimize virtualization environments for performance, efficiency, and reliability.

- Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and implement long-term stability solutions.

- Work with automation tools to streamline virtualization management.

5. IT Service Management & Governance

- Establish a comprehensive support hierarchy (L1 to L3) for infrastructure services.

- Ensure documentation, escalation procedures, and knowledge bases are in place to support seamless operations.

- Manage incident, change, and problem management processes, coordinating escalations effectively.

- Identify opportunities for automation, cost reduction, and process optimization.

Monitor service utilization and resource allocation to enhance efficiency.

6. Innovation & Future Strategy

- Evaluate new technologies and processes to enhance infrastructure and service efficiency.

- Define automation strategies to improve VMware operations and reduce manual effort.

- Stay updated with emerging trends in datacenter technology and virtualization.

DataCenter technologies

- Strong understanding of datacenter stack components ,technologies and architecture including server, storage, backup, SAN, hypervisor, LAN, OS, Monitoring, Log mgmt, scripting, converged infrastructure, NAS, FC,                           

- Monitoring and performance management, capacity planning, IT sercurity & compliance, risk management, industry standards                                                                                                        

- Several years of experience working in data center technologies, operations or management roles.                                                                                                           

VMware Architect/Expert

- DC infrastructure architect, Broadcom/Vmware vSphere architect and Expert, VMware Aria expert, VSAN expert, DC-LAN, NSX                                                                                                      

- Expertise in VMware Horizon, VDI, SRM, expertise in capacity planing and resource optimization, security best practices                                                                                                

Service provider management

Contract & SLA management, performance evaluations, Issue escalation & problem resolution, cost & budget control                                                                                               

Soft skills

- Good communication, proficient in English, both spoken and written, Intercultural sensitivity                              - ITSM proccesses, ITIL, proficiency in service management tools and software, project management (Agile and classic)                                                                              -

- Strong problem-solving and analytincal skills                                                                                                 

Strategic thinking

- Capability to create and implement business strategies that optimize data center operations                                                                                                

Ready to drive with Continental? Take the first step and fill in the online application.