Storage and Backup Dell Architect - Must have MSP Experience

Managed Service Provider

Chicago IL Preferred BUT REMOTE anywhere is ok

Needed ASAP

Contract to hire

W2 ONLY

NO C2C

Storage and Backup Enterprise Architect with solutions, data center, Dell, and Hyperconverged

Job Summary:

This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing Managed Services Provider . We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Level 5 Storage & Backup Enterprise Services Architect to join our dynamic IT team. The ideal candidate will possess in-depth knowledge of storage and backup systems and demonstrate strong leadership and problem-solving skills. This is a senior-level position that requires extensive experience in designing, implementing, and maintaining complex storage and backup environments.
This position is supported by a 24x7x365 team, but occasional evening and weekend work may be required to handle emergencies or perform system maintenance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architecture & Managed Services Leadership

• Define and own customer-facing hybrid cloud architectures for Azure-based managed services.
• Design, standardize, and evolve multi-tenant managed service platforms supporting multiple enterprise customers.
• Ensure architectures align with contractual SLAs, SLOs, and support models.
• Establish and enforce architecture, security, and operational standards across customer environments.

• Hands-On Technical Leadership

• Maintain hands-on involvement with storage and backup systems in production.
• Lead troubleshooting and serve as the highest-level escalation point for complex customer issues.
• Architect resilient platforms with strong monitoring, alerting, backup, and disaster recovery.

• Customer Engagement & Advisory

• Act as a technical lead and trusted advisor for enterprise customers.
• Participate in customer architecture reviews, technical workshops, and QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews).
• Translate customer business requirements into secure, supportable cloud architectures.
• Support presales and solution design, including architecture validation, scoping, and risk assessment.
• Guide customers through cloud adoption, modernization, and hybrid integration strategies.

• Operations & Reliability

• Provide architectural leadership for 24×7 managed service operations, including on-call participation.
• Lead major incident response efforts, including customer communication and post-incident reviews.
• Drive reliability, performance, and cost optimization improvements across customer platforms.
• Ensure operational readiness for new customers and onboardings.

• Mentorship & Influence

• Mentor senior engineers and architects within the MSP organization.
• Influence technical strategy, tooling, and service offerings across the managed services portfolio.
• Evaluate Azure services and technologies to improve customer outcomes.

• Problem-Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex issues.
• Leadership: Demonstrated leadership abilities, including project management and team mentoring.
• Communication: Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to convey technical information to non-technical stakeholders.
• Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and adapt to changing priorities and technologies.

Qualifications & Experience:

Required:

• Education: Bachelor''s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. Master''s degree preferred.
• Experience:

• 15+ years of experience in storage and backup system administration and engineering in enterprise environments.
• 5+ years designing and operating Microsoft Azure for enterprise or MSP customers.
• Deep, hands-on storage and backup system administration experience in enterprise production environments.
• Proven experience managing Dell storage and backup solutions.
• Deep expertise in the administration of storage and backup systems.
• Experience with backup and recovery processes.

• Certifications

• Certified in at least one Backup & Data Protection technology (Veeam, Cohesity, Commvault, Druva, etc.).
• Certified in Dell EMC Enterprise Storage Platform
• Azure Architect Certification

• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Excellent customer-facing communication skills, including the ability to explain complex designs clearly.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

Preferred:

• 15+ years of prior Storage and Backup administration experience in complex corporate or enterprise environments.
• Extensive experience delivering customer-facing managed services in SLA-driven environments.
• Strong expertise in hybrid cloud architecture, enterprise networking, identity, and security.
• Strong expertise in Cisco products.
• Extensive background in 24×7 cloud and infrastructure operations, including incident response.
• Experience with containers and orchestration at scale (Docker, Kubernetes / AKS).
• Additional Azure certifications (Azure Security Engineer Associate, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert).
• Experience working in MSPs or consulting organizations supporting multiple enterprise customers.
• Familiarity with ITIL, SRE, or service management frameworks.
• Experience supporting regulated, high-availability, or compliance-driven environments.
• Exposure to cloud migration and modernization engagements.