Senior Virtual Desktop Engineering Contractor

Job Description

Job Description

The ideal consultant will have at least seven years of experience designing, managing, and supporting enterprise virtual desktop environments. The Senior Virtual Desktop Engineering Consultant will contribute to the strategy, architecture, design, implementation, and ongoing management of the firm's virtual desktop infrastructure across on-premises and cloud platforms.

This engagement will also help shape the firm’s future end-user computing strategy by evaluating, recommending, and implementing technologies that support business objectives, including the migration from Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) on-premises to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Citrix DaaS.

The successful consultant will be an enthusiastic problem solver who is comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and can quickly become productive within a complex enterprise infrastructure. Strong communication and collaboration skills, sound judgment, and a positive approach toward team members and internal customers are essential to success in this engagement.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a senior consulting engineer within the virtual desktop architecture team, helping ensure the performance, reliability, security, and continuous improvement of the environment.
• Provide immediate full-time engineering and operational support for active Citrix and AVD ticket queues, escalations, platform migrations, and improvement initiatives.
• Actively manage and work operational ticket queues, including incidents, service requests, problems, and escalations related to Citrix, Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows, user profiles, application delivery, and associated end-user computing technologies.
• Prioritize and resolve operational tickets within established service-level expectations while balancing project, engineering, and platform-improvement responsibilities.
• Partner closely with the Senior Manager and internal engineering teams to lead the architecture, design, implementation, and optimization of virtual desktop environments, with a focus on scalability, performance, resiliency, and security.
• Support the strategy and execution of the migration from Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) on-premises to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Citrix DaaS, while minimizing business disruption and maintaining an optimal user experience.
• Evaluate and implement end-user computing technologies, including Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix DaaS, FSLogix, Citrix User Profile Management, and related profile, personalization, and application-control solutions.
• Rapidly assess the current virtual desktop environment, active initiatives, technical risks, and operational priorities.
• Take ownership of assigned operational and engineering workstreams and deliver agreed-upon milestones during the engagement.
• Work closely with Infrastructure, Network, Security, Application, Service Delivery, and other IT teams to design and deliver integrated enterprise solutions.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues involving virtual desktops, user profiles, application delivery, authentication, networking, performance, and end-user computing technologies.
• Provide advanced engineering support for escalated issues involving virtual desktop platforms, Windows operating systems, enterprise applications, and related endpoint technologies.
• Develop and maintain PowerShell scripts and other automation solutions to improve operational efficiency, consistency, monitoring, and reporting.
• Create and maintain technical documentation, architectural diagrams, operational procedures, implementation standards, and documented recommendations.
• Provide effective knowledge transfer to internal engineering and support teams throughout the engagement.
• Participate in system upgrades, platform migrations, disaster recovery testing, maintenance activities, and other scheduled work outside normal business hours when required.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers and support teams.
• Communicate progress, risks, dependencies, and deliverable status clearly and regularly to management and project stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field required, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
• Minimum of seven years of experience designing, managing, and supporting large-scale enterprise virtual desktop environments.
• Strong experience with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, including the architecture, administration, performance optimization, and troubleshooting of on-premises CVAD environments.
• Experience with Azure Virtual Desktop and Citrix DaaS, including host pools, session hosts, application groups, workspaces, Cloud Connectors, resource locations, Machine Creation Services, application and desktop delivery, and hybrid deployments.
• Strong knowledge of Azure Virtual Desktop, including host pools, session hosts, application groups, workspaces, image management, scaling, identity, networking, and profile integration.
• Experience planning or executing migrations from Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on-premises to Azure Virtual Desktop and Citrix DaaS.
• Strong knowledge of profile management and user-personalization technologies, including FSLogix, Citrix User Profile Management, and Ivanti Workspace Control, formerly AppSense.
• Experience with application-control and endpoint-security technologies, including Ivanti Application Control and Windows Defender Application Control.
• Familiarity with Nerdio Manager for Enterprise or similar management and automation platforms for Azure Virtual Desktop.
• Extensive experience with Windows desktop and server operating systems, Active Directory, Group Policy, PowerShell, and enterprise automation.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Hyper-V and experience managing and optimizing virtualized infrastructure.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Azure and other cloud or virtualization platforms, including AWS and VMware.
• Experience with Citrix ADC, Citrix Gateway, StoreFront, Delivery Controllers, Machine Creation Services, Provisioning Services, and Citrix Cloud integrations.
• Demonstrated experience working enterprise operational support queues and independently troubleshooting, managing, documenting, and resolving incidents, service requests, problems, and escalations.
• Ability to balance day-to-day operational responsibilities with concurrent engineering projects, platform enhancements, and strategic initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to enter complex enterprise environments and become productive quickly.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple workstreams, and deliver results with limited supervision.
• Strong documentation, knowledge-transfer, and stakeholder-communication skills.
• Prior consulting or contract experience in a large enterprise environment is preferred.
• Availability to begin the engagement on short notice is highly desirable.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, organizational, documentation, and communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively both independently and as part of a collaborative team.
• Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop and Citrix certifications, including CCP-V or CCE-V, are highly regarded.

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