At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation.

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

About the Role

Reporting to the VP, Technology Resilience, the Senior IT Infrastructure Governance & Architecture Specialist owns enterprise-wide governance of IT infrastructure design, architecture, high availability (HA), and technology standards across F5's hybrid and multi-cloud environment. This is a centralized, strategic governance role — not a hands-on engineering or implementation position. Think of it as the most senior technical lens on the enterprise: you will assess what exists, evaluate what's been proposed, identify what's broken or at risk, and drive the organization to the right outcome.

You will work alongside our Senior Architects, DR and BC specialists owning the complementary domain of design integrity, architecture governance, and high availability assurance.

This role requires someone who is deeply experienced, independently driven, highly confident, and capable of engaging executives and engineering teams with equal authority. You don't need to be told what to do — you already know what good looks like, and you hold others to that standard.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Design Governance: Evaluate current-state and proposed IT designs across backup infrastructure, networking, compute/storage, cloud platforms, and high availability — assessing against industry standards and F5's risk tolerance. Produce structured findings, gap analyses, and actionable recommendations.
ARB & M&A Governance: Serve as a reviewing authority on the Architecture Review Board (ARB); lead infrastructure governance assessments for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures — evaluating inherited environments and integration risk.
Standards Ownership: Establish and enforce enterprise architecture standards and governance frameworks for HA design, infrastructure resilience, and technology lifecycle; ensure alignment with NIST, ISO 27001, SOX, GPDR and applicable regulatory requirements.
Assessment & Reporting: Conduct deep-dive assessments of as-is configurations, deployment patterns, and design documentation; translate technical findings into executive-level reports, risk scorecards, and remediation roadmaps presented to senior leadership and governance bodies.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, Network Operations, Security/CISO, and application teams to guide redesigns, enforce standards, and integrate governance into change management and project delivery lifecycles.
Vendor & Technology Governance: Evaluate infrastructure vendor solutions (backup platforms, cloud-native HA/DR services, network and compute technologies) from a governance and standards perspective; influence procurement and architecture decisions.
Continuous Improvement: Monitor emerging threats, technology trends, and evolving industry frameworks; proactively evolve F5's infrastructure governance posture toward greater resilience, automation, and risk reduction.

Required Qualifications

Experience: 12+ years of progressive enterprise IT experience, with a minimum of 5+ years in a governance, architecture review, or enterprise assessment role (not hands-on engineering).
Domain Expertise: Expert-level knowledge across two or more of the following: backup/recovery architecture (preferred), network design, compute/storage design, cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, GCP), and high availability design patterns (preferred).
Governance Skills: Demonstrated experience leading architecture review processes, conducting gap analyses, producing executive-grade documentation, and driving remediation outcomes across large, complex organizations.
Cloud Proficiency: Solid understanding of multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructure architectures and their HA/resilience implications (not deep implementation experience required).
Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to present complex technical findings to C-suite and board-level audiences and influence outcomes.
Self-Direction: Proven ability to work autonomously, manage competing priorities, and deliver measurable outcomes without close supervision.
Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, or a related field (Master's or MBA strongly preferred).
Certifications (one or more preferred):
- TOGAF 9/10 (The Open Group Architecture Framework — enterprise architecture governance gold standard)
- Cisco CCIE (Enterprise Infrastructure, Data Center, or Cloud — deep network/infrastructure mastery)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert (cloud architecture governance)
- ITIL 4 Managing Professional or Strategic Leader (IT service/infrastructure governance)
- Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) from ISACA (IT audit and control governance)

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

Experience in regulated industries (OEM, Technology, Government) with direct audit and compliance exposure.
Familiarity with M&A technical due diligence and integration governance.
CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control) or CGEIT (Governance of Enterprise IT) from ISACA.
SABSA Chartered Architect or CISSP for security architecture governance overlay.
Knowledge of backup governance platforms (e.g., Commvault, Cohesity, Veeam) from a standards/assessment perspective.
Background in ransomware resilience architecture or cyber-recovery design review.
Experience with NIST CSF, ISO/IEC 27001, and CIS Controls as governance frameworks.

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination. F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting accommodations@f5.com.

SR IT Infra Governance & Architecture Specialist

Job Description