Specialist, Infrastructure Architect

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey empowers our members to achieve their best health. For over 90 years, we have been New Jersey’s health solutions leader driving innovations that improve health care quality, affordability, and member experience. Our members are our neighbors, our friends, and our families. It is this understanding that drives us to better serve and care for the 3.5 million people who place their trust in us. We pride ourselves on our best-in-class employees and strive to maintain an innovative and inclusive environment that allows them to thrive. When our employees bring their best and succeed, the Company succeeds.

About the role

This position designs, implements, and maintains scalable, secure, and highly available IT infrastructure systems impacting the enterprise. Subject matter expert in the areas of technology and collaborates across departments and business organizations to ensure our operating infrastructure and technologies meet the business’s needs and industry standards. Responsible for identifying new and emerging technologies that keep Horizon at the forefront of innovation and for developing the technology roadmaps necessary to deliver them. Included in the responsibility is defining the adaptation of AI in the field of infrastructure and Cloud.

Responsibilities

• Architect on identifying and assessing new technologies that enable a scalable, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure solutions in cloud and on-premises environment and the roadmaps to deliver the functionality end-to-end and across any devices.
• Expert knowledge of new technologies and takes a lead role with the implementation and development of long-term IT infrastructure strategies to align with business goals and industry.
• Provide clear and consistent communication across both technical and non-technical audiences.
• An Architectural SME (Subject Matter Expert) on cross-organizational efforts involving IT, Security and the Business to ensure seamless integration and operation of systems as well as incorporation of end-user devices.
• Ensure the business needs are identified, requirements documented, and the implementation is in accordance with corporate policies and standards.
• Identifies IT infrastructure automation opportunities utilizing appropriate technologies that enables infrastructure and end-user device provisioning, monitoring, and maintenance.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to all team member levels, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
• Responsible for ensuring all IT infrastructure adheres to regulatory and security standards. Keeps up to date on the latest corporate security and compliance policies and how they impact the systems. Knowledge of CIS strategies and implementations are required.
• Expert on the resolution efforts for complex IT infrastructure issues and perform root cause analysis to prevent recurrence.
• Work with cross-organizational teams to identify and implement strategies to optimize IT and infrastructure costs.
• Take part in efforts to evaluate and collaborate on third party services and the selection of vendors. Partner with Sourcing to review contracts.
• Ongoing enhancement of infrastructure services and performance. Staying current with emerging techs and best practices that align with business goals.

Requirements

• HSD or GED required, Bachelor Degree preferred (or equivalent work experience)
• Requires a minimum of 8 years in IT Engineering or a related field.
• Expert experience with IT technologies, protocols, and architecture
• Comprehensive expertise in enterprise infrastructure architecture, including compute, storage, and backup systems (Nutanix, VMware, physical servers), SAN/NAS technologies (Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCIP, FCoE, NVMe, NFS, SMB), hybrid cloud platforms (Azure/AWS), networking, high availability and DR strategy, virtual desktop environments, and strategic roadmap development, architecture governance, and cross-functional technical direction.
• Understanding of automation and IaC (Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python), security and governance (IAM, NIST, CIS), observability platforms (Splunk, Elastic, Dynatrace), database and middleware infrastructure highly preferred.
• Experience supporting virtual desktop cloud Preferred/Not Required
• Horizon BCBSNJ employees must live in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Delaware.

Certifications

• CompTIA Storage Certified
• CIS Certification; CITAM; ITIL
• AWS cloud certifications
• Azure cloud certifications
• VMWare certifications
• Nutanix certifications

Knowledge

• IT technologies and architectures: Expert understanding of compute systems, including physical servers, VMWare, and Nutanix hypervisors, NAS and SAN storage, and cloud storage.
• Storage protocols and standards: Expert knowledge of storage protocols, such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS, and SMB.
• Data management and protection: Expert Understanding of data management concepts, including backup, recovery, and disaster recovery.
• Cloud-based systems: Knowledge of cloud compute and storage solutions, including AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Azure.
• Virtualization: Advanced Understanding of virtualization technologies, including VMware (Virtual Machine Software), Nutanix, and Hyper-V.
• End User Computing: expert knowledge of end user computing systems, desktops, and virtual desktop environments such as Citrix, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Amazon Workspaces / Appstream.
• Requires expert knowledge of distributive computing platforms.
• Requires expert knowledge of Information Technology diagnostic tools.
• Requires expert knowledge of technical analysis, implementation, configuration, and upgrading of system technology.
• Requires expert knowledge of systems management software, remote control, patch management, software distribution, and computer operating systems.
• Deep knowledge of security best practices and compliance frameworks

Skills

• Design and implementation: Ability to design and implement complex