Virtualization/Automation Engineer – Journeyman

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Illinois.

📋 Description

• Configure, manage, maintain, troubleshoot, and enhance enterprise hypervisor and Software-Defined Data Center platforms.

• Provide support for VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, Site Recovery Manager, and related platform management capabilities.

• Maintain virtualization clusters that support production, development, testing, COOP, and disaster-recovery environments.

• Set up and support high availability, resource scheduling, resource pools, clusters, hosts, datastores, distributed switches, and associated platform services.

• Install, configure, patch, upgrade, and maintain ESXi hosts and vCenter systems.

• Monitor platform capacity, availability, performance, utilization, health, and compliance with configuration standards.

• Configure and troubleshoot vSAN clusters and NSX network virtualization functionalities.

• Manage Site Recovery Manager protection groups, mappings, recovery plans, failover, and failback processes.

• Carry out and document recovery plan tests, COOP exercises, disaster recovery testing, backup restoration, and continuity events.

• Create and uphold infrastructure automation using Terraform, Ansible, PowerCLI, APIs, or similar tools.

• Develop reusable modules, playbooks, scripts, templates, and workflows for provisioning, configuration, validation, patching, compliance, and recovery.

• Maintain automation code in approved version control repositories and adhere to peer review, testing, approval, release, rollback, and documentation procedures.

• Support automated configuration baseline checks and identify configuration drift.

• Collaborate with system, storage, network, cloud, application, database, cybersecurity, vendor, and Government teams.

• Provide advanced engineering support, outage response, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and technical status updates.

• Implement security baselines, patches, hardening settings, DISA STIGs, vulnerability directives, and Risk Management Framework controls.

• Assist with technology refreshes, modernization, capacity assessments, technical-debt reviews, security gap assessments, and lifecycle planning.

• Aid in migration discovery, readiness assessments, test plans, implementation, rollback, cutover, validation, and post-migration stabilization for centralized DISA-hosting platforms.

• Create architecture diagrams, as-built documentation, configuration baselines, standard operating procedures, automation documentation, and recovery procedures.

• Provide platform metrics, capacity data, accomplishments, risks, issues, and modernization status for program reporting.

⛳️ Requirements

• Active Secret clearance or higher.

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience where applicable.

• A minimum of six years of relevant experience in virtualization, systems engineering, data center infrastructure, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, or related technical disciplines.

• Hands-on experience in administering enterprise hypervisor or Software-Defined Data Center platforms.

• Experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter in an enterprise setting.

• Familiarity with vSAN, NSX, Site Recovery Manager, or similar software-defined storage, network virtualization, and disaster recovery technologies.

• Experience in developing, executing, or maintaining infrastructure automation solutions.

• Proficient in troubleshooting issues across virtualization, compute, storage, network, and automation layers.

• Knowledgeable in high availability, disaster recovery, backup, restoration, capacity management, performance monitoring, and infrastructure lifecycle practices.

• Capable of creating and maintaining technical procedures, automation documentation, configuration records, architecture diagrams, and recovery documentation.

• Ability to support after-hours maintenance, disaster recovery exercises, and critical incident response as needed.

• Strong written, verbal, analytical, and technical problem-solving abilities.

• Formal training in Terraform is preferred.

• Formal training in Ansible is preferred.

• VMware Certified Professional certification is preferred.

• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate certification is preferred.

• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation or a comparable automation certification is preferred.

• Experience with VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware Aria automation and operations capabilities is preferred.

• Proficiency in PowerCLI, PowerShell, Python, REST APIs, or comparable scripting technologies is preferred.

• Experience in supporting federal or Department of Defense virtualization environments is preferred.

• Experience in supporting DISA-hosted services or migrations to DISA enterprise hosting platforms is preferred.

• Familiarity with DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides, Risk Management Framework controls, vulnerability remediation, and configuration compliance is preferred.

• Experience in integrating virtualization platforms with hybrid cloud, COOP, or disaster recovery environments is preferred.

• Experience in developing Infrastructure as Code within controlled version control and CI/CD workflows is preferred.

• Knowledge of Git, automated testing, peer review, code scanning, and configuration drift detection is preferred.

• Experience in supporting data center modernization, platform migrations, or hosting transitions is preferred.

• ITIL v4 Foundation certification is preferred.

• Relevant cloud, security, storage, or network certifications are preferred.

🏝️ Benefits

• Remote work arrangement.

• Occasional on-site support, after-hours maintenance, incident response, and travel may be required.

• Opportunity to assist with technology refreshes and modernization activities.

• Chance to support infrastructure and service transitions to centralized DISA-hosting platforms.