Information Technology Infrastructure Specialist

About the Role

AVALON Pharma is seeking an Information Technology Infrastructure Specialist to join their team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves administering, securing, and monitoring the company's enterprise IT infrastructure, ensuring high availability of IT services and compliance with industry standards and cybersecurity controls.

Role Purpose and Scope

The primary purpose of this position is to manage critical IT infrastructure components, including firewalls, LAN/WLAN, WAN/MPLS networks, servers, virtualization, backup, and disaster recovery systems. The specialist will also oversee Microsoft 365 and identity services, respond to security alerts in coordination with the SOC, and ensure all operations align with Digital Technology (DT) standards, GxP/SFDA data-integrity requirements, and NCA ECC cybersecurity controls across Head Office and plant sites.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer FortiGate firewalls, including security policies, NAT, VIPs, routing, IPsec/SSL VPN, and access controls.
• Monitor firewall health, traffic, and security events, and troubleshoot connectivity issues.
• Perform quarterly firewall rule reviews, remove unused or risky rules, and apply hardening baselines.
• Triage and investigate alerts escalated by the SOC and from the SIEM across network, endpoint, server, and cloud environments.
• Administer Privileged Access Management (PAM), including privileged account onboarding, session controls, and access reviews.
• Manage MPLS and internet links, coordinating with telecom providers on incidents, changes, and SLA performance.
• Administer Huawei NCE-Campus, network switches, wireless controllers, and access points, configuring SSIDs, ********** authentication, VLANs, and access policies.
• Administer VMware vCenter/ESXi, including VM provisioning, resource allocation, high availability, and performance.
• Maintain data center hardware, power, cooling, and rack infrastructure, supporting capacity planning and vendor support contracts.
• Administer Windows Server and Linux environments, managing Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, and DHCP.
• Perform monthly patching, security hardening, and server monitoring, supporting application and database servers, including GxP-validated systems.
• Administer Veeam Backup & Replication and Synology NAS infrastructure, performing backup verification, restore tests, and recovery operations.
• Administer Microsoft 365 services (Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive) and Microsoft Entra ID identities, groups, MFA, Conditional Access, and application SSO integration.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Network Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience: 5-7 years of experience in IT infrastructure and network operations, with at least 3 years hands-on experience with firewalls and network security.
• Required Certifications: Fortinet NSE 4 or equivalent.
• Preferred Certifications: VMware VCP-DCV, Veeam VMCE, Microsoft SC-300, Huawei HCIA/HCIP Datacom, CompTIA Security+, ITIL 4 Foundation.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, requiring active participation in maintaining the IT infrastructure across Head Office and plant sites.