Principal VMware Platform Engineer

Role: Principal VMware Platform Engineer

Location: Dallas, TX (Hybrid)

Type: Contract

Description:

• 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
• Extensive, 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.
• 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.
• Required Qualifications
• At least 8 to 10 years' of relevant 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 experices are added advantage
• Active VMware certifications (VCP-DCV, VCP-NV, VCAP, or VCIX).