Senior Ab Initio Platform Architect / Infrastructure Engineer

Location : Fully Remote (US-Based)

Position Type : Full-Time / Contract

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Ab Initio Platform Architect / Infrastructure Engineer to provide technical leadership and architectural guidance for a major cloud modernization initiative. In this role, you will lead the Phase 1 lift-and-shift migration of an established enterprise Ab Initio platform (comprising 1,700–1,780 graphs and 100+ sandboxes) into AWS .

This is not a developer position. We need a platform specialist who understands the underlying infrastructure—operating systems, storage, networking, security, scheduling, and access management—necessary to support heavy ETL workloads. You will provide the seniority and external perspective required to evaluate the current footprint, identify migration risks, challenge assumptions, and design a stable AWS-hosted platform that lays the groundwork for a potential future migration to modern data platforms.

Key Responsibilities

1. Discovery, Planning & Strategy

• Assess and inventory the existing ecosystem of 1,700+ Ab Initio graphs and 100+ sandboxes to map upstream/downstream system dependencies.
• Formulate a realistic migration strategy , defining timelines, technical sequencing, and minimal-disruptive testing pathways for application teams.
• Identify modernization risks and apply lessons learned from past enterprise-scale migrations to protect business continuity.

2. AWS Migration & Infrastructure Engineering

• Design and operationalize the target-state Ab Initio platform architecture within AWS.
• Partner with core infrastructure teams to configure and optimize AWS cloud components including EC2, cloud storage, firewalls, and networking.
• Ensure seamless integration with Redshift and existing enterprise data pipelines while maintaining low-risk, lift-and-shift code parity.

3. Ab Initio Platform Administration

• Configure and administer Ab Initio enterprise environments, user sandboxes, and automated scheduling workflows.
• Manage access, security controls, and operational processes to guarantee platform stability during and after the cloud transition.
• Troubleshoot complex platform infrastructure and performance bottlenecks across Red Hat Linux/Unix environments.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Architecture

• Provide senior-level guidance to a dedicated platform team, upskilling existing resources with modern architectural best practices.
• Bridge organizational silos by collaborating closely with Linux admins, Cybersecurity, Storage, Networking, and business application users.
• Future-proof Phase 1 decisions to ensure the newly established AWS infrastructure is built cleanly, keeping future data platform modernization pathways open.

Role Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Deep Ab Initio Expertise : Proven track record in senior-level Ab Initio platform administration, environment configuration (sandboxes), and infrastructure architecture.
• Hands-on AWS Engineering : Extensive experience building, configuring, and migrating enterprise applications to AWS (EC2, AWS Storage, Route 53, IAM, and Cloud Networking).
• Linux/Unix Systems Administration : Strong background managing and performance-tuning Red Hat Linux or similar Unix environments underlying heavy data workloads.
• Enterprise Migration Blueprinting : Demonstrated experience leading the discovery, mapping, and planning phases of large-scale ETL platform modernizations.

Preferred Qualifications (Nice-to-Have / Not Required)

• Databricks Familiarity : Technical exposure to Databricks or an understanding of planning long-term migrations from legacy ETL frameworks toward lakehouse architectures is a plus, but not required .
• Prior experience executing lift-and-shift migrations for legacy enterprise data platforms to cloud environments.
• Practical exposure to Amazon Redshift data warehouses.
• Excellent communication and advisory skills; comfortable operating across distributed teams, challenging legacy assumptions, and presenting alternative, risk-mitigated strategies to leadership.