Head of Infrastructure

London (Hybrid) | Salary up to £100,000

Ashdown Group is working with a growing international organisation to recruit a Head of Infrastructure to lead and modernise its global IT infrastructure and operations.

This is a senior leadership position for a technically strong infrastructure professional who enjoys remaining close to the technology. While responsible for infrastructure strategy, engineering teams and global operations, this is a hands-on technical leadership role rather than a purely strategic management position.

You will be expected to understand the technical detail, troubleshoot complex infrastructure challenges and actively contribute to the design, implementation and improvement of enterprise technology services.

Working closely with the IT Operations Director, you will drive infrastructure modernisation, platform consolidation and post-acquisition integration across UK and US operations.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead and deliver the global infrastructure strategy while remaining technically involved in day-to-day operations and engineering decisions.
• Oversee and contribute to the management, configuration, optimisation and troubleshooting of cloud, network, server, storage, identity and end-user environments.
• Drive infrastructure modernisation, cloud adoption, platform consolidation and post-acquisition integration.
• Maintain strong technical oversight of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Active Directory/Entra ID, Intune, Nutanix and enterprise networking.
• Lead infrastructure engineering teams, managed service providers and offshore technical partners.
• Take ownership of infrastructure resilience, disaster recovery, security, service management and operational performance.
• Identify and resolve complex technical issues, improve processes and ensure infrastructure remains secure, reliable and scalable.
• Manage suppliers, infrastructure budgets and cost optimisation initiatives.

About you:

You will be an established infrastructure leader with a strong technical background and experience managing complex enterprise environments across multiple locations.

You will combine leadership capability with practical technical expertise across cloud platforms, Microsoft technologies, identity, networking, virtualisation and infrastructure operations. You should be comfortable getting into the technical detail, challenging engineering decisions and contributing directly to troubleshooting and solution design when required.

Experience within a fast-paced, acquisitive or private equity-backed organisation would be advantageous, particularly where you have delivered infrastructure transformation, migration or platform consolidation.

You will be pragmatic, commercially aware and confident balancing strategic direction with hands-on technical delivery.

Qualifications & Certifications

Relevant professional qualifications are desirable, including:

• Microsoft certifications covering Azure administration, Microsoft 365 and enterprise administration.
• ITIL Foundation or Practitioner certification, demonstrating knowledge of IT service management best practices.
• Cisco networking certifications , such as CCNA or CCNP, or equivalent experience with enterprise networking technologies, including Cisco Meraki.
• Infrastructure and virtualisation qualifications covering server, storage and hypervisor technologies, including Nutanix or Hyper-V.

If you are an experienced infrastructure leader who wants to remain technically engaged while shaping and delivering a global infrastructure strategy, we would be keen to hear from you.