This job is with Colt Technology Services, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.
Why we need this role
The Senior Virtualisation Engineer is responsible for the engineering, implementation, optimisation and operational support of the organisation's enterprise virtualisation and compute platforms.
The role delivers secure, standardised, resilient and automated virtualisation solutions, translating architectural designs, standards and technology roadmaps into robust, scalable platform implementations and operational services.
Working as a senior technical expert within the infrastructure engineering team, the role collaborates with Architecture, Storage, Backup, Network, Security and Operations teams to ensure virtualisation solutions are effectively designed, integrated, protected and operated.
It embeds security, resilience, recoverability, automation and operability by design, driving consistency and optimisation across the virtualisation estate.
What you will do
Engineer, administer and support enterprise virtualisation platforms, ensuring infrastructure, tooling, integrations and configurations are secure, resilient, supportable, automated and operationally effective.
Virtualisation Platforms
• Engineer, administer and support enterprise VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, clusters, virtual machines, templates and associated infrastructure.
• Manage VMware cluster configuration including HA, DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, resource pools and lifecycle management.
• Maintain virtual infrastructure in accordance with agreed availability, performance and security standards.
• Manage platform upgrades, patching and remediation using appropriate lifecycle management tooling.
• Maintain supported and standardised versions of hypervisor, management and supporting platform components.
• VDI built on VSAN
Compute & Hardware
• Support the physical compute infrastructure underpinning the virtualisation platform.
• Manage server firmware, BIOS, drivers and hardware compatibility as part of the overall platform lifecycle.
• Work with hardware vendors to diagnose and resolve complex platform issues.
• Ensure infrastructure remains within vendor-supported hardware and software lifecycle requirements.
Storage Integration
• Work closely with Storage Engineering teams to ensure reliable integration between VMware and enterprise storage platforms.
• Support FC SAN, NFS and VMware datastore connectivity where applicable.
• Manage datastore presentation, multipathing, datastore clusters and capacity.
• Support storage migrations and Storage vMotion activities.
• Troubleshoot complex storage and virtualisation integration issues.
• VSAN
Network Integration
• Manage and troubleshoot virtual networking including VMware Distributed Switches, Standard Switches, VLANs, NIC teaming and VMkernel networking.
• Work with Network Engineering teams on physical and virtual network connectivity.
• Support networking requirements for management, vMotion, storage and virtual machine traffic.
Backup, Recovery & Resilience
• Ensure virtual infrastructure is designed and operated with recoverability and resilience as core requirements.
• Work closely with Backup and Recovery teams to ensure virtual workloads are appropriately protected.
• Support backup platform integrations with VMware environments.
• Ensure appropriate controls around VMware snapshots and their lifecycle.
• Participate in recovery testing and disaster recovery exercises.
• Ensure critical infrastructure configuration is appropriately protected and recoverable.
Monitoring & Capacity Management
• Monitor availability, performance, capacity and health across virtualisation environments.
• Identify resource contention and capacity risks across CPU, memory, storage and network resources.
• Perform capacity planning and forecasting to support infrastructure growth.
• Develop actionable monitoring, alerting and operational dashboards.
• Proactively identify infrastructure risks before they affect production services.
Automation
• Develop and maintain automation for repetitive infrastructure administration activities.
• Use technologies such as PowerShell, PowerCLI, REST APIs and Ansible to automate platform operations.
• Support Infrastructure as Code principles where appropriate.
• Reduce manual configuration and configuration drift through standardisation
What we're looking for
Skills & Experience
Essential
Extensive experience engineering and supporting enterprise-scale virtualisation infrastructure.
Strong technical expertise in:
• VMware vSphere
• Virtual desktop infrastruture
• VMware HA and DRS
• vMotion and Storage vMotion
• VMware Distributed Switches
• VMware Lifecycle Manager
• VMware Tools and virtual hardware lifecycle
• Virtual machine templates and provisioning
• Host profiles and configuration standardisation
• Fibre Channel
• Multipathing
• Enterprise networking concepts
• Infrastructure monitoring
• Capacity management
Strong experience troubleshooting complex problems involving virtualisation, compute, storage and networking.
Experience delivering infrastructure changes within controlled enterprise change-management environments.
Strong understanding of high availability, disaster recovery, backup and infrastructure resilience.
Experience working within large, business-critical enterprise environments.
Automation & Tooling
Experience with one or more of:
• VMware PowerCLI
• PowerShell
• Ansible
• REST APIs
• Infrastructure as Code
• Git/source control
• VMware Aria Operations or equivalent monitoring platforms
Candidates should demonstrate an ability to identify repeatable operational activities and convert them into standardised and automated processes.
Desirable
Experience with technologies such as:
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware NSX
• VMware Aria Operations
• HPE ProLiant
• Cisco UCS
• Pure Storage
• Cohesity
• Enterprise Fibre Channel SAN technologies such as Cisco MDS or Brocade
• Public cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure
Relevant VMware/Broadcom or infrastructure certifications are advantageous.
Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer (Virtualisation) employer: Colt Technology Services
Colt Technology Services is an exceptional employer that prioritises employee growth and development, offering a dynamic work culture where collaboration across teams is encouraged. Located in a vibrant tech hub, employees benefit from a supportive environment that fosters innovation and provides opportunities to engage with cutting-edge regulatory challenges, making it a rewarding place for those passionate about security compliance.
