Data Protection Engineer

The Data Protection Engineer is responsible for managing and safeguarding data protection platforms across Cloud and On-Premises environments. This role involves overseeing backup operations globally, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, and collaborating with vendors to maintain the latest technology solutions. The engineer will drive the standardization, modernization, and life cycle management of backup systems to support business continuity and operational efficiency.

What You Will Do

• Data Protection Platform Management
  • Design, implement, and manage backup and recovery solutions ensuring compliance with data protection standards.
  • Engage with vendors to conduct periodic health checks of the platform and implement best practice recommendations.
  • Modernize cloud backup platforms to extend data protection coverage to modern workloads.
  • Standardize backup solutions across regions to improve operational efficiency and reduce reliance on business users for tape management.
  • Manage the full life cycle of the NetBackup platform, including hardware and software.
  • Prepare plans to upgrade master and media servers to the latest version ensuring seamless transitions.
• Data Protection Operations Administration
  • Ensure overall availability, performance, security and business continuity of the data protection platform.
  • Engage with application stakeholders to define and enforce backup retention policies according to business, legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Review backed-up data with application owners periodically adjusting SLP as necessary.
  • Produce backup reports assess system success or failure and implement corrective actions as needed.
• Data Life Cycle Management
  • Manage life cycle of backed-up data from retention to expiry and conduct regular reviews of expired and orphan images to optimize storage.
  • Ensure long-term retention backups are migrated to archival storage in the Cloud and On-Prem tapes are securely vaulted offsite.
  • Maintain detailed records of retired media and oversee their secure disposal in compliance with Data Disposal Policy.
• Backup Testing and Restoration
  • Perform periodic tests to verify backup data integrity and reliability.
  • Verify processes meet defined Recovery Time Objectives RTO and Recovery Point Objectives RPO correcting discrepancies if identified.
  • Responsible for data recovery in cases of failure or disaster ensuring quick restoration.
  • Document and practice steps required for restoring data from backups.
• Continuous Monitoring and Improvement
  • Monitor effectiveness of backup solutions and adjust lifecycle policies as necessary.
  • Track storage consumption and backup storage growth ensuring adequate capacity availability.
• Security Compliance
  • Secure the backup platforms and hardware appliances by applying the latest security patches and implementing mitigation measures to minimize risks.
  • Implement end-to-end encryption of backup data during storage and retrieval.
  • Ensure all backup data is stored on immutable storage to safeguard against unauthorized modifications and ransomware attacks.

Required Skills

• Hands-on experience with backup and recovery of PaaS workloads including Azure SQL Database and other managed services.
• Experience with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and containerized applications backup.
• Strong understanding of disaster recovery, cyber resilience, backup architecture, and data lifecycle management.
• Ability to engage with stakeholders to enforce compliant backup policies based on legal and regulatory requirements.

What Qualifies You For The Role

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering or related discipline.
• Enterprise backup certification (e.g., Cohesity, Veritas NetBackup, Veeam) and a Microsoft Azure certification (AZ-104 or higher) are required.
• Minimum of 5+ years hands-on experience in enterprise backup, recovery, and data protection technologies.
• At least 3 years of experience administering enterprise backup solutions such as Cohesity, Veritas NetBackup, or Veeam Software.

We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our Values of Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, and Excellence.