Senior Cloud Platform Engineer - VMware vSphere

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer

We are seeking a Senior Cloud Platform Engineer to design, build, and maintain our next-generation private cloud infrastructure based on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9. As a key technical driver within one of the top financial institutions in the United States, you will ensure our virtualized services deliver maximum availability, exceptional performance, and unyielding security. You will be responsible for transitioning traditional virtualization workloads into a highly automated, API-driven private cloud platform. The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in the VMware ecosystem, robust system administration fundamentals, strong infrastructure automation skills, and a rigorous approach to meeting strict financial regulatory standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Design & Architecture: Architect, deploy, and manage private cloud environments utilizing VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, ensuring optimal resource allocation and scalability.
• Infrastructure Automation & Orchestration: Design and implement automated workflows for VM lifecycle management, day-two operations, and event-driven triggers. Develop API services to integrate virtualization platforms with internal catalogs and deployment pipelines.
• Systems & Network Management: Oversee the foundational OS and network layer supporting the virtualized environment, ensuring seamless integration of core IP services and reliable guest OS performance.
• High Availability & Optimization: Monitor enterprise infrastructure to ensure maximum uptime for mission-critical internal banking applications. Proactively tune CPU, memory, and storage configurations for performance and cost-efficiency.
• Security & Regulatory Compliance: Implement and enforce strict security policies, micro-segmentation, and role-based access controls (RBAC) to adhere to US banking regulations and internal audit standards.
• Modernization & Mentorship: Drive the evolution of platform engineering practice by incorporating infrastructure-as-code (IaC) principles. Provide technical guidance and escalation support for junior administrators and operational teams.

Required Qualifications & Skills

Core Virtualization & Cloud Platforms: 8 years hands-on experience designing and administering VMware vSphere (ESXi and vCenter) at an enterprise scale. Proven ability to deploy and manage software-defined networking and security using VMware NSX. Strong operational knowledge of the VMware Aria (formerly vRealize) Suite, particularly Aria Automation and Aria Operations. Solid understanding of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) architecture and lifecycle management (SDDC Manager).

Systems Administration & Core Networking: Proficiency in basic system administration, configuration, and troubleshooting for both Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Windows Server environments. Solid foundation in TCP/IP networking protocols and enterprise routing/switching principles. Hands-on experience managing and integrating core infrastructure services, specifically DNS, DHCP, and IPAM.

Automation & Scripting: Proficiency in writing and maintaining automation playbooks using Ansible. Strong scripting skills in Python for building custom API endpoints, interacting with VMware REST APIs, and automating complex infrastructure tasks. 5 years experience with Terraform for infrastructure provisioning and state management. Familiarity with version control systems (Git) and modern CI/CD practices.

Enterprise IT & Financial Compliance: Deep understanding of enterprise storage (SAN/NAS, vSAN) and compute hardware design. Experience operating within highly regulated environments, with a strong grasp of data privacy, compliance frameworks, and disaster recovery architectures.

Preferred Qualifications

At least 8 to 10 years' experience integrating virtualization infrastructure, experience with modern cloud-native technologies, such as container orchestration platforms (e.g., Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu), and public cloud experiences are added advantage. Active VMware certifications (VCP-DCV, VCP-NV, VCAP, or VCIX).