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IoT / OT Infrastructure Engineer

The Client and Programme

Client — The engagement is with their global IoT and Smart Buildings programme, which is migrating every non-PC device in their offices worldwide onto a dedicated network fabric fully segregated from the corporate network.

Devices in scope include air quality sensors, occupancy sensors, smart lighting, CCTV cameras, BMS systems, and printers. The programme is already live across Singapore and North America, with London and further global sites in progress.

The team is small and senior — an IoT Solutions Architect leads the technical delivery alongside an operations lead. This is not a large team with layers of support. The person hired will be expected to own problems independently.

Locations: New York (One New York Plaza, downtown) and London (25 Cabot Square). We are currently focused on filling the New York role as priority.

What Has Been Tried and What We've Learned

This role has been open for some time. Previous vendors attempted to fill it and failed. WWT won the engagement and has been running a structured screening process since.

We have screened and presented multiple candidates. Every rejection has come back with the same feedback — candidates are strong on infrastructure, Linux, or networking, but are not deep enough at the IoT and OT application layer. The team is not hiring a network engineer or a Windows admin. They have been very explicit about this.

The most important thing to understand: the job title is misleading. The role was originally called Infrastructure Server Engineer. Client have confirmed this title is not accurate to the skillset. We are now calling it IoT / OT Infrastructure Engineer for all advertising and candidate-facing purposes.

The Role in Plain Language

The engineer sits between IoT devices, the Linux and Windows servers those devices communicate with, and the internal teams responsible for networking, security, proxy, and firewall. Their job is to onboard devices, configure and manage them at the device level, troubleshoot when data stops flowing, and own the resolution across whatever teams need to be involved.

This is not about building network infrastructure. It is about understanding how a device communicates to an application server, how that server is administered, and how the data flows all the way through to a cloud platform or dashboard.

The Updated Skillset — What We Need

Essential

• IoT device experience at the application layer — the candidate must understand how IoT devices communicate to application servers. Occupancy sensors, air quality monitors, smart lighting, CCTV — and crucially, what happens on the server side when those devices send data. Protocol knowledge matters here: MQTT is the most important. Candidates who only understand the network side (VLANs, firewall rules, MAC registration) will be rejected
  
• MQTT broker knowledge — the candidate should be able to describe the publisher/broker/subscriber model, name a broker (Mosquitto, EMQX), explain how to check whether a broker is running and healthy, and verify a device is publishing messages to it
  
• IoT endpoint management — firmware updates, certificate management, device configuration and lifecycle from onboarding through decommission. This has been a consistent gap across rejected candidates
  
• Regulated environment awareness — financial services change control, security architecture review processes, and multi-team approval workflows. Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, government agencies — any regulated environment counts
  
• Networking fundamentals at the right level — DNS, DHCP, NTP, proxy awareness, firewall concepts. Enough to engage the right team with the right question. Not a network engineering specialism
  

Important

• Linux server administration — daily hands-on Linux at the application layer, not just OS administration. Ability to troubleshoot services receiving IoT device data, check broker logs, diagnose why data has stopped flowing. Commands like systemctl, journalctl, tail, ss
  
• Windows Server — working knowledge in a mixed environment. Not the primary focus
  
• Security and identity — SAML and OIDC. The team asks about this at every interview. Candidates must be able to explain the difference clearly and confidently
  

Desirable

• Python, PowerShell, or Bash scripting for automation tasks
  
• AWS or Azure cloud exposure
  
• Experience with IoT device management platforms — Claroty, AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Cisco Catalyst Center
  

Who We Are Looking For

The best way to describe the ideal background: someone who has worked in smart building technology, facilities technology, OT systems, or IoT infrastructure as a primary career focus — not an infrastructure engineer who has touched IoT adjacently.

Career backgrounds that tend to produce the right profile:

• Smart building or facilities technology companies
  
• Building automation or BMS integration firms
  
• OT/IT convergence roles in manufacturing, utilities, or critical infrastructure
  
• IoT platform or managed services providers focused on device and application layer
  

Career backgrounds that consistently do not pass the panel:

• Traditional Windows or Linux server administrators
  
• Network engineers with IoT exposure at the connectivity layer
  
• Infrastructure generalists who have onboarded devices to networks without working at the application layer
  

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Virtual: Technical interview with two senior engineers from the Client IoT team. Heavy focus on IoT application layer, MQTT broker knowledge, Linux troubleshooting, and endpoint management. A scenario question is asked at every interview — a device has an IP address but the dashboard shows no data, walk through the diagnostic approach. Candidates who lead with network troubleshooting rather than the application server and MQTT broker fail this question.

Stage 2 — In Person: Onsite at One New York Plaza with the hiring manager (in person) and the IoT Solutions Architect (via Zoom from London). More conversational — fit, ownership, communication, and broader technical scenarios.

Working Arrangements

• 3 days per week on-site at One New York Plaza — non-negotiable
  
• Occasional weekend work during active building migrations — candidates must be flexible