Senior Desktop Infrastructure Engineer (AVD)

Job Description

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Desktop Infrastructure Engineer
Duration: 6 Months contract
Location: Chicago, IL - The ideal candidate will be onsite 2 days per month for this role.
Job Description:
Core Ownership Areas
Azure Virtual Desktop
Nerdio
Windows 11 Gold Images
FSLogix
Intune and Autopilot Integration
End User Compute Architecture
Azure Networking for AVD
Desktop Infrastructure Automation
Endpoint Security and Compliance

Primary Responsibilities
Azure Virtual Desktop Architecture & Operations Architect, implement, and maintain Azure Virtual Desktop environments.
Design and manage host pools, session hosts, image lifecycles, and deployment pipelines.
Develop scalability, resiliency, and disaster recovery strategies.
Optimize user experience, performance, and Azure consumption costs.
Establish operational standards and platform governance.

AVD Networking & Infrastructure Engineering
Design and troubleshoot AVD network connectivity across Azure and on-premises environments.
Serve as the primary escalation point for network-related virtual desktop issues.
Diagnose and resolve DNS, routing, firewall, latency, authentication, and connectivity problems.
Partner with Network Engineering on ExpressRoute, VPN, segmentation, and hybrid connectivity solutions.
Optimize network paths and client connectivity performance for virtual desktop workloads.
Troubleshoot FSLogix profile performance, storage connectivity, and authentication issues.
Analyze packet captures, connection diagnostics, and performance metrics to identify root causes.
Support private endpoint, storage account, Azure Files, and Entra ID integration requirements.

Nerdio Engineering & Automation
Administer and optimize Nerdio Manager.
Develop automated provisioning and image management workflows.
Configure autoscaling and cost optimization strategies.
Build operational automation using PowerShell and Azure services.
Windows 11 Platform Engineering, Lead design and engineering of the Bank's Windows 11 desktop platform.
Own gold image architecture and standards.
Establish image testing, validation, and release processes.
Define desktop lifecycle management strategy.

Technical Leadership
Provide technical leadership for desktop engineering initiatives.
Mentor engineers and contractors.
Establish engineering standards and operational practices.
Evaluate vendors and technical solutions.
Lead major incident response and root cause investigations.

Required Skills
Expert-Level Experience
Azure Virtual Desktop
Azure Networking
Nerdio
Microsoft Entra ID
Active Directory
Windows Desktop Engineering
Windows 11 Image Engineering
PowerShell Automation
Root Cause Analysis and Troubleshooting

Strong Experience
FSLogix
Azure Files
DNS
TCP/IP Networking
Firewalls and Network Security
Intune
Autopilot
Group Policy

Preferred Experience
EXPRESSROUTE
Azure Virtual WAN
Infrastructure as Code
Ansible
Liquidware
ProfileUnity
VMware Horizon or Citrix
Terraform