Platform Engineering Senior Engineer

Job title: Platform Engineering Senior Engineer

Location: Rotunda Center, Dearborn, MI

Work model: Hybrid, 4 days onsite

Duration: 12 months (365 days)

Role Overview

This engineer owns the global virtualization hosting platform, covering VMware and OpenShift Virtualization (OSV), for Ford’s line-of-business and third-party applications. The work spans the full technology lifecycle: design, deployment, patching, upgrades, and retirement. Day to day, expect heavy automation, capacity forecasting, observability, root cause analysis, and consulting with application teams on custom OSV and VM builds. The role also includes L1-L3 support participation and monthly after-hours and weekend work. Hard-to-find skill: production OpenShift Virtualization experience alongside deep VMware expertise.

Key Responsibilities

Engineer, deploy, secure, and administer VMware and OpenShift Virtualization environments at global scale, including vulnerability patching and upgrades.

Build automation (scripts and playbooks) for recurring tasks such as configuration changes, VM management, auditing, remediation, and ticketing integration.

Forecast and model capacity across compute, memory, storage, and network, and recommend scaling or consolidation.

Implement end-to-end observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) using tools like Dynatrace, RHACM, and Prometheus/Grafana, including Event Driven Architecture for real-time response.

Lead deep-dive root cause analysis and proactively monitor VM health and unusual activity across the global environment.

Apply SRE practices, RBAC deployment and auditing, and namespace and resource quota management.

Consult with application teams and design dedicated OSV clusters for complex or specialized workloads.

Write internal and customer-facing documentation, and support HPE Synergy/ProLiant iLO and firmware field testing.

Participate in L1-L3 operations support, including monthly after-hours and weekend coverage.

Required Qualifications

Experience:

10+ years in IT, including 8+ years in development

Practical skill in two coding languages, or advanced skill in one

Linux administration and networking fundamentals

Experience with monitoring and logging tools

Complex troubleshooting across multiple layers of the stack

Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps methodologies

Strong communication and collaboration skills; self-starter mindset

Education: Associate degree (see clarification items)

Technical Skills:

VMware, including ESX servers

Kubernetes concepts

Virtualization technologies (e.g., KVM, VMware)

Scripting and automation

GitHub and Tekton

Root cause analysis and troubleshooting

Cloud architecture and infrastructure

Change management

5. Preferred Qualifications

Ansible

Python and PowerShell

GCP

Dynatrace

Information security and access controls

AI / expert systems experience

Bachelor’s degree or certification program

OpenShift / RHACM hands-on experience (adjacent)

Red Hat or VMware certifications such as VCP or RHCE (adjacent)

Terraform or other infrastructure-as-code (adjacent)