| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Information Technology |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Information Officer |
| Direct reports | Infrastructure Manager, Data Centre Manager, Cloud Architect, IT Manager |
| Experience | 15+ years in IT infrastructure, with 5 or more years leading data centre, network and server teams |
Head of IT Infrastructure job description template
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Job title: Head of IT Infrastructure
Department: Information Technology
Reports to: Chief Information Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Head of IT Infrastructure owns the platforms everything else runs on: data centres, cloud accounts, networks, servers, storage, end-user computing, telephony and backups. They decide how infrastructure is designed, bought, secured and supported, and they manage the budget and vendors behind it. The role reports to the CIO or IT Head in large companies, banks, BPOs and IT services firms. A good one keeps outages rare and short, costs predictable, audit findings closed and capacity ready before the business asks for it.
Key responsibilities
- Set the infrastructure strategy for data centre, cloud, network and end-user computing, including what stays on-premise and what moves to the cloud.
- Prepare the annual infrastructure budget for hardware refresh, cloud, bandwidth, licences and AMCs, and control spend against it.
- Plan capacity for compute, storage, bandwidth and power, and approve purchases before shortages affect users.
- Negotiate contracts with telecom providers, colocation vendors, OEMs and managed service partners, and enforce SLA penalties when service slips.
- Approve the LAN, Wi-Fi, WAN, firewall and backup link design for every new office, plant or branch.
- Own availability and disaster recovery for core systems, and review the results of scheduled DR drills with application owners.
- Chair the change advisory board for infrastructure and decide on high-risk and emergency changes.
- Lead the response to network or data centre outages, keep leadership informed and review root cause reports.
- Close infrastructure findings from internal audit, ISO 27001 audits and client audits within the agreed timelines.
- Build the team's skills and shift coverage, and plan succession for critical operations roles.
Requirements
- Engineering degree in Computer Science, IT or Electronics, or an MCA
- ITIL Foundation or a higher ITIL certification
- CCNP, VMware or cloud architecture certifications are an advantage
- 15+ years in IT infrastructure, with 5 or more years leading data centre, network and server teams
KRAs and KPIs for a Head of IT Infrastructure
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Availability | Core network, server and data centre availability at or above 99.95 percent each month |
| Major incidents | Priority 1 infrastructure incidents resolved within 4 hours, with root cause shared within 5 working days |
| Budget control | Infrastructure capex and opex within 5 percent of the approved annual budget |
| Disaster recovery | DR drills completed on schedule for all critical systems, meeting the agreed recovery objectives |
| Audit findings | No infrastructure audit observation open past its agreed closure date |
| Vendor performance | Every critical vendor reviewed quarterly against SLA, with penalties applied where due |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: VMware vSphere, Cisco or Fortinet network equipment, Veeam or Commvault, ServiceNow or a similar ITSM tool, AWS or Azure, Zabbix, PRTG or SolarWinds, Excel for budgets.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: IT Head, Chief Information Officer
Interview questions for a Head of IT Infrastructure
- How would you decide which workloads stay in our own data centre and which move to the cloud?
- A fibre cut takes down the WAN link to 60 branches during business hours. Walk me through the first hour.
- The budget covers only half of the ageing servers. How do you plan the hardware refresh?
- Which SLAs and penalties do you insist on in a managed network services contract?
- Tell me about an audit finding you disagreed with. How did you close it?
- How do you staff infrastructure operations so nights and festival holidays are covered?
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What does a head of IT infrastructure do?
A head of IT infrastructure is responsible for a company's networks, servers, storage, data centres, cloud accounts, end-user devices and backups. They set infrastructure strategy, own the budget and vendor contracts, approve risky changes, lead the response to major outages and make sure disaster recovery actually works. Infrastructure, network and server teams report to them.
What is the difference between an IT head and a head of IT infrastructure?
An IT head leads the entire IT function, including applications, ERP, infrastructure, security and support. A head of IT infrastructure covers only the platforms: networks, data centres, servers, cloud and end-user computing. Mid-sized companies often combine the two jobs, while larger ones separate them and the infrastructure head reports to the IT head or CIO.
Which certifications help a head of IT infrastructure?
ITIL is the most common requirement because the role runs change, incident and problem management. Network certifications such as CCNP, VMware certifications and cloud architecture certifications from AWS or Microsoft add weight. Many employers value a record of data centre moves and successful DR drills more than any single certificate.