Infrastructure / Middleware / API Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME) - MSON#24

Job Title: Infrastructure / Middleware / API Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Category: Infrastructure / Cloud / DevOps
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Experience: 9+ Years

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced Infrastructure / Middleware / API Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME) to provide technical leadership, architecture guidance, and operational expertise across enterprise infrastructure environments.

The SME will oversee complex operating system and hardware administration activities, middleware and gateway operations, REST API connectivity, infrastructure performance, and service reliability. The role will serve as a technical authority for complex incidents, infrastructure optimization, operational standards, and service improvement initiatives.

The successful candidate will work closely with infrastructure architects, cloud and DevOps teams, application developers, security specialists, and senior technology leadership to establish reliable, secure, scalable, and supportable infrastructure services.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Infrastructure Strategy

• Provide subject matter expertise for enterprise infrastructure, operating systems, middleware platforms, gateways, and API integration environments.
• Define technical standards, operational procedures, configuration guidelines, and infrastructure administration best practices.
• Evaluate infrastructure requirements and recommend improvements to availability, scalability, resilience, and performance.
• Advise technical teams on operating system architecture, hardware capacity, service dependencies, and infrastructure lifecycle management.
• Guide infrastructure provisioning, configuration, upgrades, patching, and maintenance strategies.
• Support the development of infrastructure roadmaps and technology modernization initiatives.
• Review technical designs and operational plans to ensure alignment with reliability, security, and business continuity requirements.
• Provide technical guidance across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments where applicable.

Operating System and Hardware Administration

• Oversee complex operating system administration, server configuration, infrastructure maintenance, and hardware-related troubleshooting.
• Establish standards for operating system hardening, patch management, configuration consistency, and system lifecycle management.
• Lead investigations into critical system failures, resource constraints, performance degradation, and infrastructure instability.
• Evaluate system capacity, utilization trends, and hardware requirements to support business growth and service demand.
• Guide backup, recovery, high-availability, and disaster recovery strategies.
• Establish operational controls and procedures for infrastructure changes and maintenance activities.
• Ensure infrastructure configurations align with security policies, compliance requirements, and organizational standards.

Middleware and Gateway Expertise

• Provide technical leadership for middleware services, application servers, gateway components, and enterprise integration infrastructure.
• Define best practices for middleware configuration, service connectivity, routing, availability, and performance optimization.
• Lead troubleshooting of complex middleware failures, gateway routing issues, connection problems, and service disruptions.
• Evaluate middleware architecture and gateway configurations for scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency.
• Guide configuration upgrades, platform migrations, service transitions, and infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Establish monitoring standards and operational procedures for middleware and gateway services.
• Collaborate with architecture, networking, security, and application teams to resolve complex interoperability challenges.
• Assess middleware-related risks and recommend preventive measures to improve service reliability.

REST API and Integration Operations

• Provide expert guidance on REST API connectivity, gateway integration, service communication, and operational support.
• Establish standards for API monitoring, availability, response-time tracking, error analysis, and incident resolution.
• Lead investigations into complex API failures involving authentication, authorization, routing, timeouts, backend dependencies, and connectivity.
• Advise teams on API gateway configurations, request routing, access controls, and service reliability.
• Collaborate with development teams to identify integration bottlenecks and resolve production API issues.
• Define API operational support procedures, troubleshooting guidelines, and service-level monitoring practices.
• Review API integration designs for reliability, maintainability, security, and operational readiness.
• Recommend improvements to API observability, diagnostics, and integration support processes.

Incident Management and Service Reliability

• Act as the escalation point for critical and recurring infrastructure, middleware, gateway, and API incidents.
• Lead root-cause analysis for major incidents and establish corrective and preventive action plans.
• Provide technical direction during service restoration and coordinate resolution efforts across multiple technical teams.
• Develop incident response standards, troubleshooting playbooks, and operational runbooks.
• Identify recurring failure patterns and recommend long-term solutions to improve service stability.
• Establish and review operational performance indicators, including availability, incident recurrence, response times, and service reliability.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across infrastructure operations and support processes.

Security, Governance, and Operational Excellence

• Collaborate with security teams to establish infrastructure hardening, access management, vulnerability remediation, and compliance practices.
• Define governance standards for infrastructure changes, configuration management, and operational documentation.
• Ensure that infrastructure and API operations follow established security, risk-management, and change-control requirements.
• Evaluate automation opportunities for routine administration, monitoring, diagnostics, and incident response.
• Support capacity planning, disaster recovery exercises, and business continuity initiatives.
• Review operational procedures and recommend improvements to reduce risk and improve efficiency.

Technical Mentoring and Knowledge Management

• Mentor systems administrators, infrastructure engineers, middleware specialists, and operations support personnel.
• Provide technical guidance during complex troubleshooting and incident resolution.
• Establish knowledge-sharing practices, technical documentation standards, and operational training materials.
• Conduct technical reviews and recommend improvements to team capabilities and operational maturity.
• Support knowledge transfer during infrastructure migrations, platform upgrades, and service transitions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a related field. A master's degree is an asset.
• 9+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, systems administration, middleware operations, platform support, or related technical disciplines.
• Extensive experience administering enterprise operating systems and infrastructure environments.
• Strong expertise in middleware services, application servers, gateway components, and enterprise application connectivity.
• Advanced understanding of REST APIs, HTTP protocols, authentication mechanisms, API troubleshooting, and service integration.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex technical investigations and root-cause analysis.
• Strong knowledge of networking concepts, including TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, routing, and connectivity troubleshooting.
• Experience defining operational standards, monitoring practices, incident-management procedures, and technical documentation.
• Understanding of infrastructure security, patch management, configuration control, backup, and recovery practices.
• Proven ability to lead technical discussions, influence stakeholders, and mentor technical teams.
• Excellent analytical, communication, technical leadership, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting enterprise-scale infrastructure, distributed applications, and hybrid environments.
• Expertise in API gateways, reverse proxies, middleware platforms, or enterprise integration technologies.
• Exposure to cloud infrastructure, DevOps practices, infrastructure automation, and configuration management.
• Experience developing infrastructure standards, operational frameworks, and technical roadmaps.
• Familiarity with high-availability architecture, disaster recovery planning, and service reliability engineering.
• Relevant certifications in systems administration, infrastructure architecture, cloud platforms, networking, or middleware technologies are an asset.