Senior Cloud Platform Engineer – VMware Cloud Foundation

Role: Senior Cloud Platform Engineer VMware Cloud Foundation

Location: Dallas TX & Charlotte NC (Onsite)

Type: Contract

Position Summary

• 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.

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 advantages
• Active VMware certifications (VCP-DCV VCP-NV VCAP or VCIX).