Virtualization Engineer - VMware (Hybrid Remote)

Job Description

This position allows for 2 days per week remote / work from home.

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Compensation: $50-56/hr - 6 month contract with rolling extensions

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A leading enterprise technology organization is seeking a Senior VMware Infrastructure Engineer to oversee, modernize, and maintain its mission-critical SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center) footprint. In this contract-based position, you will serve as the core technical subject matter expert for the VMware virtualization ecosystem—working alongside Systems Operations leadership to ensure high availability, optimal hypervisor performance, strict security posture, and seamless workload delivery across physical and virtual compute estates.

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You will collaborate directly with cross-functional IT, network, storage, and cloud engineering teams to architect, automate, and manage robust VMware vSphere environments aligned with modern enterprise operational standards.

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Key Responsibilities

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• Architect, deploy, and administer multi-site VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi hypervisor hosts (v7.x/v8.x) and high-availability vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) instances.

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• Perform ongoing capacity planning, cluster resource balancing, NUMA optimization, and compute/memory overcommit management to ensure peak infrastructure efficiency.

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• Oversee full lifecycle management for hypervisor assets—executing vCenter/ESXi upgrades, driver/firmware alignment (via vSphere Lifecycle Manager / vLCM), host profiles, and zero-downtime rolling patch updates.

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• Define and enforce VMware baseline configurations, deployment templates, vApp topologies, and automated VM provisioning workflows.

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• Design and manage VMware virtual networking topologies using vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS), custom port groups, private VLANs, MTU jumbo frames, LACP bonding, and network IO Control (NIOC).

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• Configure, optimize, and maintain vSphere storage architectures across SAN, NAS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NFS datastores, as well as software-defined storage solutions like VMware vSAN.

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• Architect and tune Storage DRS (SDRS), Storage I/O Control (SIOC), datastore clusters, multi-pathing policies (PSP/ALUA), and VM storage policies (SPBM).

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• Implement, test, and manage core vSphere resiliency features, including VMware High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), Fault Tolerance (FT), and Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC).

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• Operationalize enterprise backup, snapshot, and disaster recovery strategies using tools such as VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), Veeam, or Zerto.

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• Conduct regular disaster recovery failover simulations and orchestrate automated workload migration plans.

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• Automate routine administrative tasks, environment health checks, and VM lifecycle operations using VMware PowerCLI, PowerShell, Ansible, and Terraform.

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• Enforce security best practices by implementing VMware vSphere Hardening Guidelines, role-based access control (RBAC), vCenter SSO/Active Directory integration, KMS key management, ESXi lockdown mode, and SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle management.

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• Monitor SDDC health and performance baselines using VMware vRealize / Aria Operations (vROps), log aggregators, and enterprise monitoring platforms to proactively prevent system bottlenecks.

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• Provide Tier-3 escalation engineering support to diagnose complex, cross-domain failures spanning ESXi kernel panics, vMotion stalls, storage latency, and network dropouts.

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• Author detailed technical documentation, vSphere infrastructure topology diagrams, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and formal change management records.

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• Mentor and guide junior systems admins and operational staff on VMware troubleshooting, administration best practices, and virtualization trends.

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Minimum Qualifications

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• B.S. in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or equivalent practical experience / industry certifications.

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• 8+ years of hands-on experience administering enterprise VMware vSphere / ESXi environments in mission-critical data center settings.

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• Deep technical command of vSphere core components: ESXi, vCenter Server, vDS, HA, DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, and vLCM.

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• Comprehensive understanding of enterprise storage platforms (SAN/NAS/vSAN) and virtual storage integration (VMFS, NFS, VVols).

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• Solid grasp of core networking principles within VMware environments (VLANs, vDS configuration, trunking, MTU, NSX concepts, and traffic shaping).

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• Hands-on scripting proficiency with PowerCLI, PowerShell, or Ansible for bulk vSphere administration and automation.

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• Experience managing tier-1 enterprise compute hardware platforms (Dell PowerEdge, Cisco UCS, HPE ProLiant) and hypervisor host lifecycle tools.

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• Practical experience implementing VMware security hardening, RBAC policies, PKI certificates, and compliance auditing.

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• Proven ability to troubleshoot complex interaction issues across compute hypervisors, storage fabrics, and physical network infrastructure.

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