Principal Engineer, Virtualization Infrastructure

Principal Engineer, Virtualization InfrastructureLocation: Juno Beach, FL Duration: 12 Months Pay Range: $45.50 - $50.50/hr SummaryOur client is seeking a Principal Engineer, Virtualization Infrastructure to provide senior-level engineering leadership for enterprise virtualization platforms, including VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and Azure Local. This role focuses on platform standards, automation, lifecycle strategy, and complex infrastructure delivery rather than day-to-day virtualization administration, and will help define the strategy, roadmap, standards, and service model for virtualization infrastructure. Job ResponsibilitiesIn this role, you will manage and support a variety of projects within the Infrastructure Engineering department. Key responsibilities include: Leading the design, engineering, and implementation of enterprise virtualization infrastructure solutions across VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and Azure LocalActing as technical product owner for virtualization infrastructure services, including standards, roadmap development, lifecycle planning, and platform improvement opportunitiesDeveloping and maintaining virtualization platform standards, cluster design patterns, configuration baselines, security standards, and operational support modelsDefining and implementing virtualization automation using PowerCLI, Terraform, Ansible, Python, Git, and CI/CD practicesPartnering with the virtualization architect, project teams, and infrastructure teams to standardize solution designsDefining virtualization lifecycle, patching, upgrade, and maintenance standards, including cadence, prioritization, and exception handlingPartnering with FinOps and infrastructure teams on capacity planning, utilization analysis, forecasting, and hardware lifecycle planningProviding advanced troubleshooting for virtualization platform performance, stability, availability, security, and operational issuesDefining standard virtualization hosting patterns for enterprise workloads, including configuration, monitoring, backup, recovery, security, networking, storage, and support requirementsDefining monitoring standards, alerting requirements, operational thresholds, service catalog offerings, knowledge management, and CMDB standardsPartnering with network, storage, cloud, security, backup, resiliency, application, infrastructure, and operations teams on cross-functional projectsParticipating in architecture reviews, design reviews, change planning, and technical governance processes; creating technical documentation, implementation plans, diagrams, and executive-ready materialsLeading technical workstreams, providing direction to indirect project resources, and working with vendors or managed service providers to resolve complex issuesEssential Job Duties and Job FunctionsSupport VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, VMware Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and Azure Local as core virtualization platformsProvide hands-on solution design and implementation across infrastructure, cloud, network, storage, security, operations, FinOps, application, resiliency, and project teamsReport to infrastructure leadership and provide technical direction to indirect project resourcesKnowledge and SkillsRequired: 10+ years of infrastructure engineering experience, including 5+ years of hands-on virtualization engineering in enterprise environmentsDeep technical experience with VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, cluster design, host configuration, patching, upgrades, hardening, lifecycle management, and operational supportExperience with VMware Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and VMware OperationsExperience with Azure Local or similar hyperconverged infrastructure platformsAdvanced troubleshooting experience with virtualization performance, resource contention, storage integration, networking integration, availability, host stability, and workload placementStrong PowerCLI and Python scripting experienceExperience with infrastructure-as-code patterns for virtualization provisioning and configuration using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Git, and CI/CD practicesExperience developing and maintaining virtualization platform standards, configuration baselines, operational procedures, and lifecycle roadmapsExperience with virtualization security hardening, vulnerability remediation, configuration compliance, and enterprise security standardsExperience with capacity planning, utilization analysis, forecasting, lifecycle planning, and working with FinOps or financial governance teamsExperience defining monitoring requirements, alert thresholds, operational metrics, service catalog offerings, knowledge management, CMDB standards, and related ServiceNow processesExperience leading technical workstreams, working with indirect project resources, and communicating with technical teams, stakeholders, vendors, and senior leadershipPreferred: Experience with VMware NSX and VMware automation toolsExperience with VMware HorizonExperience with Azure cloud infrastructure and hybrid/cloud-adjacent virtualization modelsExperience with enterprise backup, recovery, and disaster recovery patterns for virtualized workloadsExperience with enterprise monitoring platforms and observability toolsExperience working in regulated or security-focused enterprise environmentsEducation and ExperienceBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experienceRelevant virtualization, automation, cloud, security, or infrastructure certifications preferred (e.g., VMware VCP/VCAP, Microsoft Azure, Terraform, Ansible, ITIL, or related security/infrastructure certifications) ...