Platform Architecture, Stabilization & Modernization

• Assess the existing AAP landscape across virtual machines and container-based infrastructure, identifying architectural gaps, operational risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Define and review target architectures, reference designs, deployment patterns, and platform engineering standards.
• Plan and guide the migration from AAP 2.5 to AAP 2.7 on OpenShift, including compatibility assessments, dependency analysis, readiness reviews, testing, rollout, and rollback strategies.
• Improve platform reliability, scalability, maintainability, operational efficiency, and lifecycle management.
• Establish repeatable deployment patterns, governed golden paths, and self-service capabilities for internal platform consumers.

Automation Engineering & Governance

• Define and implement standards for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration as Code, automation development, testing, validation, and release management.
• Establish governance frameworks covering repository ownership, access management, tiered RBAC, LDAP and SAML group mapping, platform onboarding, and lifecycle processes.
• Improve execution-environment management, custom execution nodes, inventory management, configuration validation, drift detection, and baseline compliance.
• Introduce CI/CD quality gates, security scanning, automated testing, and standardized automation development practices.
• Define documentation standards covering Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), runbooks, operational procedures, onboarding guides, and repository documentation.

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Conduct platform security, operational, and risk assessments and develop actionable remediation plans.
• Strengthen access controls, auditability, centralized logging, evidence-based compliance reporting, and shared-responsibility models.
• Review and validate backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery procedures.
• Improve secrets management and reduce reliance on static credentials through integration with HashiCorp Vault.
• Ensure platform architecture, operating procedures, and governance controls support applicable regulatory, security, and audit requirements.

Enterprise Integration & Platform Engineering

• Design and advise on integrations between AAP, Terraform Enterprise, HashiCorp Vault Enterprise, ServiceNow, source-control systems, CI/CD platforms, Grafana, and other internal services.
• Support Event-Driven Ansible, ITSM workflows, operating-system and infrastructure automation, and cross-platform orchestration.
• Define and improve standardized integration patterns and reusable automation components.
• Evaluate AI-assisted automation authoring, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and AI interfaces, considering enterprise security, governance, and adoption requirements.

Service Management, Observability & Continuous Improvement

• Define and improve Service Level Objectives (SLOs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), operational metrics, monitoring, and observability practices.
• Recommend and support Grafana dashboards, operational reporting, and evidence-based service improvement.
• Establish platform operating models, operational procedures, governance processes, and continuous improvement roadmaps.
• Maintain risk registers, track issues and mitigations, and provide clear progress reporting and decision-support materials.

Consulting, Coaching & Knowledge Transfer

• Facilitate architecture reviews, technical workshops, stakeholder discussions, and structured decision-making sessions.
• Provide hands-on technical guidance, implementation reviews, validation, and troubleshooting support at key project milestones.
• Coach internal engineers and platform teams on architecture, automation engineering, governance, and operational best practices.
• Transfer knowledge, skills, and ownership to internal teams to ensure long-term platform sustainability and independence.
• Produce actionable recommendations, implementation plans, reference solutions, and prioritized improvement roadmaps.

Required Experience & Skills

• Extensive experience with Ansible Automation Platform, including enterprise deployments, architecture, administration, operations, and platform lifecycle management.
• Proven experience with AAP migration, modernization, or major-version upgrades; experience with OpenShift-based deployments is highly desirable.
• Strong expertise in Infrastructure as Code, Configuration as Code, platform engineering, DevOps, and automation governance.
• Hands-on experience with Terraform Enterprise and HashiCorp Vault, preferably in enterprise environments.
• Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines, source-control systems, automated testing, security scanning, and release management.
• Experience designing enterprise integrations involving identity and access management, LDAP, SAML, ITSM, secrets management, logging, and monitoring.
• Strong knowledge of platform security, risk management, auditability, compliance, backup and recovery, and operational resilience.
• Experience defining platform architectures, technical standards, governance frameworks, operating models, and reusable reference implementations.
• Proven track record working with complex enterprise infrastructure and automation platforms in regulated environments.

Consulting & Leadership Capabilities

• Ability to combine strategic architectural thinking with practical, hands-on technical expertise.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical topics into clear recommendations and decisions.
• Experience facilitating workshops, coaching engineering teams, and enabling knowledge transfer.
• Structured approach to risk assessment, problem-solving, documentation, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to work independently, prioritize effectively, and deliver tangible outcomes in a phased consulting engagement.
• Willingness and ability to collaborate in a hybrid setup, including on-site availability in Vienna and Bratislava.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Event-Driven Ansible and advanced automation orchestration.
• Experience with Grafana, observability frameworks, and service-level management.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and governed AI adoption in enterprise environments.
• Experience preparing organizations for source-code-management and CI/CD platform transitions.
• Relevant Red Hat, Kubernetes/OpenShift, HashiCorp, or cloud-native certifications.

Engagement Scope & Expected Outcomes

You will contribute to a structured, phased engagement focused on measurable improvements in platform stability, security, governance, modernization, and operational maturity.

Expected outcomes include:

• Architecture assessments, gap analyses, and target-state recommendations.
• AAP 2.5-to-2.7 migration and implementation plans.
• Risk assessments, mitigation plans, and validated operational controls.
• Platform governance frameworks, technical standards, and reference architectures.
• Improved automation development, deployment, testing, and lifecycle practices.
• Documented operating models, runbooks, ADRs, and operational procedures.
• Tested reference implementations and integration patterns.
• Recommendations for monitoring, SLOs, KPIs, and operational reporting.
• Workshops, coaching, and knowledge-transfer materials.
• Prioritized modernization and continuous improvement roadmaps.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) Consultant / Platform Architect to support the stabilization, modernization, governance, and strategic evolution of an enterprise automation platform landscape.

In this role, you will work closely with the Infrastructure Platform Team at Erste Digital and collaborate with internal engineering teams and stakeholders to strengthen platform capabilities, establish enterprise-wide standards, mitigate operational and security risks, and drive the migration from Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 to AAP 2.7 on OpenShift.

The engagement combines strategic architectural advisory, hands-on technical consulting, platform engineering, workshops, coaching, and knowledge transfer. A key objective is to build sustainable internal capabilities, improve operational maturity, and reduce long-term dependency on external support.