VMware Engineer (Remote)

Position: VMware Engineer

Location: Remote (Bay area candidates only)

Duration: 11 months

Role Overview:

Seeking an experienced VMware Engineer to manage, maintain, and optimize our vSphere environment. The role focuses on host and firmware lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, capacity and performance monitoring, disaster recovery orchestration, and working with Dell and HPE server platforms. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience with vSphere, SRM, vRealize Operations (vROps), and VxRail appliances.

Key Responsibilities:

• Maintain and administer VMware vSphere infrastructure (ESXi, vCenter) and associated components.
• Plan and execute regular patching and security updates for ESXi hosts, vCenter, and management components with minimal production impact.
• Perform host firmware and BIOS upgrades in coordination with Dell and HPE server management tools (iDRAC, iLO, OMSA, OneView).
• Execute major host and cluster upgrades (vSphere version upgrades, vCenter migrations) and validate post-upgrade stability.
• Provision, configure, and manage VxRail nodes and clusters; perform lifecycle management using VxRail Manager.
• Implement and support VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for DR orchestration, runbooks, and failover testing.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and tune environment performance using vRealize Operations (vROps); create dashboards and capacity planning reports.
• Manage storage and networking integrations with VMware (vSAN, SAN, NFS, VLANs, distributed switches).
• Develop, document, and test disaster recovery and business continuity procedures.
• Work with server hardware teams and vendors (Dell, HPE) to coordinate firmware updates, hardware replacements, and escalations.
• Create and maintain runbooks, technical documentation, change requests, and maintenance windows.
• Automate repetitive tasks using PowerCLI, scripts, or orchestration tools.
• Assist architecture and capacity planning for growth, new projects, and migrations.
• Support incident response, root cause analysis, and post-incident remediation.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 7+ years hands-on experience administering VMware vSphere environments (ESXi, vCenter).
• Strong experience with patching strategies, host lifecycle management, and vSphere upgrades.
• Hands-on experience with VxRail deployment and lifecycle management.
• Practical experience with Dell and HPE server platforms, including iDRAC, iLO, OMSA, OneView, or similar tools.
• Experience deploying and managing VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM).
• Proficient with vRealize Operations (vROps) for monitoring, capacity planning, and performance tuning.
• Experience with vSAN, datastores, SAN integration, and VMware networking (vDS, NSX knowledge is a plus).
• Scripting/automation experience (PowerCLI, PowerShell, Python, or similar).
• Strong troubleshooting skills for compute, storage, and network-related issues.
• Solid documentation skills and change control experience.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate with cross-functional teams and vendors.

Preferred Qualifications:

• VMware certifications (VCP, VCAP) or VxRail-specific certifications.
• Experience with NSX, vRealize Suite, or other SDDC components.
• Familiarity with configuration management or orchestration tools (Ansible, Terraform, vRealize Automation).
• Experience in large-scale enterprise or retail environments.