Senior VMWare/Virtualization Engineer (DevOps)

Senior VMware / Virtualization Engineer (DevOps)

Contract Duration: 8 months

Location: Englewood, Colorado

Work Arrangement: Primarily onsite at a required laboratory

Schedule: Monday–Friday, 8 hours per day, with some flexibility in daily start and end times

Security Clearance: Existing clearance preferred; ability to obtain and maintain a Secret clearance required for candidates selected under the applicable clearance pathway

Position Overview

We are seeking a senior, hands-on VMware / Virtualization Engineer to assess, optimize, upgrade, and improve an existing virtualized computing environment supporting an aircraft-based system.

Although this position is titled DevOps Engineer, the immediate priority is deep, practical VMware and ESXi expertise . The successful candidate will be able to evaluate the current infrastructure, make sound architecture and configuration recommendations, and personally implement the required improvements.

The environment operates in an air-gapped setting, disconnected from external networks. The initial assignment focuses on transitioning the current VMware environment from version 7 to version 9, subject to confirmation of the exact VMware products and upgrade path, and improving the reliability and long-term maintainability of approximately 12 virtual machines. These include virtual desktops supporting a custom user interface and other software components.

You will work with a team of approximately 10–12 systems engineers and three technical leads across two to three related programs. Reporting to a lead systems engineer, you will provide specialized VMware knowledge, technical direction, and hands-on execution while collaborating with engineers who bring existing system and program knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess the existing VMware virtualization environment, identify technical limitations, and recommend practical improvements.
• Design, configure, upgrade, optimize, and troubleshoot VMware and ESXi infrastructure.
• Support the planned transition from VMware version 7 to version 9, after validating the installed products, dependencies, compatibility, and approved migration path.
• Evaluate and optimize approximately 12 virtual machines, including virtual desktops and supporting software components.
• Improve system stability, performance, maintainability, and operational reliability.
• Develop and execute implementation plans, configuration changes, testing activities, and technical recommendations.
• Work within an air-gapped computing environment, accounting for restricted connectivity, software availability, update delivery, and security requirements.
• Provide technical leadership and practical guidance to systems engineers and technical leads.
• Independently investigate infrastructure problems, troubleshoot complex issues, and deliver working solutions.
• Document system configurations, architecture decisions, upgrade procedures, validation results, and operational recommendations.
• Collaborate with engineering stakeholders to maintain a consistent, supportable computing environment.
• As project scope evolves, contribute to evaluating a potential transition toward Red Hat KVM and Kubernetes-based infrastructure.
• Potentially support future software deployment architecture and DevSecOps initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field and at least eight years of DevOps or related experience, subject to the applicable education and experience substitution provisions.
• Candidates without a degree must have at least 12 years of related experience under the stated qualification criteria.
• Extensive hands-on VMware virtualization experience, including ESXi administration, infrastructure configuration, troubleshooting, and implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement virtualization solutions, not simply operate or monitor an existing environment.
• Experience assessing existing infrastructure and recommending and executing technical improvements.
• Experience managing virtual machines, virtualized workloads, and associated infrastructure components.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while collaborating with systems engineers and technical leads.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, documentation, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work regularly at the Englewood, Colorado laboratory, subject to an approved work arrangement.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance, if required for the assignment and applicable to the candidate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience planning and executing VMware upgrades or migrations between major platform versions.
• VMware vSphere and ESXi expertise, including relevant infrastructure architecture and compatibility considerations.
• Experience supporting air-gapped, disconnected, embedded, or specialized computing environments.
• Experience with VMware virtual desktops and complex application workloads.
• VMware certifications, including relevant VMware vSphere Foundation credentials.
• Hands-on experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), KVM, and virtualization migration planning.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and/or OpenShift.
• Experience with microservices, containerized workloads, and edge computing.
• Experience with GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, release engineering, and DevSecOps practices.
• Advanced Ansible automation and configuration management experience.
• Experience with aerospace, defense, embedded systems, or other security-sensitive environments.

Work Arrangement

The preferred arrangement is four to five days onsite each week at the Englewood laboratory. A hybrid arrangement of three days onsite and two days remote may be considered.

If local candidate availability is limited, the hiring manager may consider two onsite days per week, subject to approval. Relocating candidates may potentially begin remotely and travel onsite approximately monthly, subject to approval. These alternatives are conditional and are not guaranteed.

Security Clearance

An existing security clearance is preferred. Candidates who can obtain and maintain a Secret clearance may be considered. An interim Secret clearance may be sufficient for the initial start date, subject to confirmation of the program's security requirements and approval.

Contract Details

• Initial eight-month contract.
• Monday through Friday, eight hours per day.
• Some flexibility in daily working hours.
• Primary work location is the Englewood, Colorado laboratory.
• Work arrangement flexibility is subject to hiring manager approval.

Ideal candidate: A senior VMware / ESXi specialist who has personally designed, upgraded, configured, optimized, and troubleshot complex virtualized environments and can translate technical recommendations into a working solution.