VMware Lead Engineer

Job Title: VMware Lead Engineer
Location: UK (Remote-first with occasional travel to Sheffield, approx. 1-2 days/month)
Contract: Inside IR35 – 6 months
End Client: Financial Services

Position Summary

Our client is seeking a VMware Lead Engineer to drive the evolution and support of a large-scale, enterprise-grade VMware estate. This is a strategic and technically hands-on role within a global financial services infrastructure team, requiring UK working hours and periodic out-of-hours support (with time off in lieu).

The Lead Engineer will provide technical leadership across VMware platforms with a focus on deployment coordination, design validation, and operational excellence. Initially aligned to infrastructure support, you will complete an eight-week onboarding period before transitioning into a leadership role within the Virtualisation team, guiding engineers supporting the Load Balancer ESXi platform and broader vSphere environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership:
  Lead the engineering capability across VMware platforms, setting standards for design, deployment, and operational management.

• Design & Architecture:
  Review, validate, and contribute to high-level and low-level designs, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and scalability goals.

• Deployment Oversight:
  Own and coordinate deployment schedules, resource allocation, and rollout planning across virtualisation initiatives.

• Environment Stewardship:
  Maintain and enhance VMware infrastructure in line with defined virtualisation strategy, covering ESXi life cycle management, capacity planning, patching, and optimization.

• Vendor & Stakeholder Engagement:
  Act as a technical escalation point; collaborate with Broadcom (VMware) and other third parties to resolve complex incidents and ensure appliance certification.

• Documentation & Standards:
  Produce and approve documentation including logical/physical designs, implementation plans, and support runbooks.

• Team Mentorship:
  Guide engineers through best practices in virtualisation, Scripting, monitoring, and automation-fostering knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Required Skills & Experience

• VMware Platform Expertise:

  • 5+ years of hands-on experience in enterprise VMware environments.

  • Deep expertise in ESXi, vCenter, NUMA/vNUMA, DRS, HA, Content Libraries, and Distributed Switches.

  • Strong knowledge of ESXi life cycle and performance tuning.

• Design & Documentation:

  • Proven ability to create and critique detailed design documents, architecture blueprints, and implementation plans.

• Automation & Scripting:

  • Strong PowerCLI and PowerShell skills; familiarity with Terraform and Jenkins for infrastructure automation.

• Broad Infrastructure Knowledge:

  • Strong understanding of networking, storage, and server architecture.

• Collaboration & Communication:

  • Comfortable leading cross-functional discussions and documenting technical outcomes clearly for operational teams.

Desirable Skills

• Understanding of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) principles.

• Familiarity with F5 LTM, DNS, VMware NSX (including DFW and micro-segmentation).

• Experience with Agile methodologies and tools (eg, Jira, Confluence).

Certifications

• Mandatory: VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

• Preferred: VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP)