A Joint Venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space is a global space manufacturer delivering, for more than 40 years, high‑tech solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth Observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Thanks to our diversity of skills, talents and cultures, our customers (governments, institutions, space agencies, telecommunications operators), therefore have Space to Connect, Secure & Defend, Observe & Protect, Explore, Travel & Navigate.
Job: IT Solution Architect
Within the Enterprise Architecture department, the IT Solution Architect participates during the design and build phases of projects in order to guarantee the global consistency of the enterprise IT technical architecture.
We are looking for an IT Solution Architect to join our Network & Security squad and implement technical architecture designs that will improve our organization’s network & infrastructure, and ultimately support upcoming business & IT transformations.
Responsibilities

Guarantee consistency of technical architecture

Ensure compliance with the enterprise architecture methodology, design process, principles & rules and relevant IT standards & norms
Apply a frugal approach by promoting reuse of architecture components & patterns and favoring cost‑efficient & sustainable designs
Advocate technical design choices to ensure coherence across all Thales Alenia Space countries
Contribute to the capitalization and sharing of knowledge on the Information System (modeling, documentation, communications, trainings)
Propose new additions and updates to the architecture principles & rules repository
Participate actively in the architecture governance process, from demand to delivery


Advise upon technical architectures & solutions

Design single‑TAS technical architectures in response to a business project or architecture change requests
Analyze and check the technical impacts of proposed solutions and their coherence with existing architecture for all countries (As‑Is & To‑Be analysis)
Propose designs that respect contextual constraints: priority, time, resources, organization & data
Inform stakeholders about any issues with current technical solutions being designed and implemented
Collaborate with IT & Security teams to ensure proposed architecture meets performance, adaptability & interoperability objectives
Facilitate architecture design, risk assessment & security validation and document decisions in the decision log
Support, provide expertise and perform verifications during implementation and rollout before delivery in production


Innovation

Research current and emerging technologies in agreed technical areas
Identify & propose opportunities/use‑cases for sustainable benefits or to resolve recurrent issues with emerging technologies or designs
Participate in proof of concepts



Technical Skills

Infrastructure domain (Storage, Backup, Data management, Virtualization, security constraints)

Storage: DAS, NAS, SAN, HCI, SDS
Mass Storage Units: Block & File‑Services
Data storage structuration: Gold/Bronze services
Block Storage SAN: FC, iSCSI, topology design, FC network design, geoclustering, switching architecture, zoning (back‑end reference)
Deduplication & long‑distance replication
HCI/SDS infrastructures
Object Storage: S3/S3+ (ECS, Scality, Ceph)
Vendor skills: Dell/EMC/HPE/Brocade/Nutanix/VMware and others


Backup/DRP (Physical/Virtual/End‑user PC)

Backup architecture for physical servers, virtual servers & end‑user laptops
Data archiving & long‑term retention over media lifecycles
Backup knowledge on physical & virtual tapes & robotic libraries; FC SAN topology for Tape‑Drives
DRP via backup infrastructure: impact analysis to meet Thales Corp. DLO/RTO, data geo‑locations, local & global catastrophic event identification
Vendor skills: Atempo, Veeam, Avamar and others


Servers & Platforms: Dell/EMC/HPE, network and SAN interfaces

Legacy server architecture & sizing
HCI virtualization (Nutanix / VSAN) architecture & sizing
Legacy VMware ESXi node sizing


Virtualization: VMware full stack

Legacy VMware vSphere cluster architecture
HCI VMware vSAN architecture
HCI Nutanix architecture
VMware NSX architecture & security features
VMware vREALIZE automation suite


BigData Infrastructure

Docker/Kubernetes architecture
Network overlays: VLAN, VxLAN, Flannel, Calico, GENEVE
Stateless / persistent architectures & storage impact (PV, PVC)
Rancher / Ansible / Terraform / Packer / GoVC architecture
ElasticSearch / InfluxDB architecture
Backup & recovery for metadata and data


Datacenter Architecture & Servitudes specifications

Energy & thermal constraints/specifications
Electrical power balancing architecture & rules
Equipment location definition to increase service availability
Data room architecture documentation



Desired Architecture & Technology Certifications

TOGAF
VMware Certified Professional / Advanced Professional

Network Virtualization (VCP‑NV)
Datacenter (VCP‑DCV)
Cloud Management & Automation (VCP‑CMA)
Security (VCP‑Security)


Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer or Professional Cloud Architect
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Cisco CCNP Enterprise

Managerial And Behavioral Skills

Excellent communication skills
Ability to build good relationships with clients, operational managers and colleagues
Ability to gather and assimilate information
Problem‑solving aptitude
Organizational and leadership skills
Assist with solving technical problems when they arise
Ensure the implementation of agreed architecture and infrastructure
Address technical concerns, ideas and suggestions

Languages

Italian
English – Ability to write IT documents and attend/manage meetings in Italian and/or English; architecture studies are in English
French [Nice to have]

Experience

Proven experience as a Senior Architect (minimum 5 years)

At Thales Alenia Space we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With around 8,900 employees in 10 countries and 17 sites in Europe plus a plant in the US, our mobility policy enables employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth #SpaceForLife. Great journeys start here, apply now!
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