Senior Virtualization Engineer

Blackwatch International Corporation (Blackwatch), a small business founded in 2010, is dedicated to supporting Federal business and national security objectives. Based in McLean, VA, with offices in Sacramento, CA, Blackwatch invests in innovation and quality for our customers and staff, holding corporate-level ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 and CMMI Level 3 certifications. We are a leading provider of information technology (IT) infrastructure, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, data exploitation, and engineering services, specializing in large and complex projects. Blackwatch is dedicated to growth and offers a dynamic working environment with multiple opportunities for advancement. 

 

Position Title: Senior Virtualization Engineer

Position Location: Remote

Position Type: Full time 

Years of experience: 7+ years of hands-on experience, with 3 years leading small teams

Security Clearance: Must be able to obtain a Public Trust

US Citizenship Required: Yes, and must possess a Real ID or Passport

 

Summary/Objective  

Blackwatch International is seeking a Senior Virtualization Engineer to support a federal agency with several data centers containing physical and virtual servers with its journey to the cloud. This customer will migrate applications which have been refactored to leverage cloud-native services to AWS, while those legacy applications which have not been rearchitected will migrate to Azure using the Azure VMware Solution (AVS).  In order to successfully migrate workloads to Azure via AVS, the Senior Virtualization Engineer will lead a team to assess the current physical and virtual server infrastructure (in terms of interdependencies and service provision) and right sized (in terms of memory, CPU, and storage), and plan, schedule, and execute the migration to Azure to minimize impact to workloads and the application services provided by those workloads.

 

Responsibilities:

The Senior Virtualization Engineer will lead, mentor and manage a small team of engineers to plan, architect, migrate, and validate the workloads migrated to Azure via AVS. This individual will be a part of an integrated project team (IPT) that includes federal staff, colleagues, and other contract teams that specialize in networking, security, and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) management.  The candidate will architect and implement network extensions and service meshes using AVS and VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX), and migrate workloads to Azure via vMotion.  Concurrently, the candidate will plan and execute quality control and quality assurances processes to validate that fundamental infrastructure capabilities such as identity management, service communications, and server management (patching, monitoring, etc.) are fully functional during and after migrations.  The candidate will participate in the IPT to identify constraints, recommendations, and required activities across all support teams to ensure risks are mitigated and issues are avoided. The candidate must have experience planning and executing Physical to Virtual (P2V) server migrations (in preparation for migration via AVS) as well as VM rightsizing assessments and execution.

 

It is expected that the successful candidate is able to quickly integrate and assimilate into this IPT, coming up to speed rapidly, proactively building productive relationships, and prioritizing work to meet objectives in a fast-paced, fluid environment. Self-initiative should complement teamwork. The ability to succinctly report accomplishments, specify and estimate critical next steps and identify impediments/risks within deadlines.

 

Minimum Qualifications: 

Must have Information Technology degree or related disciplineMust have one or more active VMware certifications in data center virtualization, network virtualization, and/or Cloud Management and Automation)Must have at least 7 years of hands-on VMware engineering and administration experience.  At least 3 of those years should demonstrate senior-level leadership responsibilities directing the activities of other virtualization, network, server, and/or hardware engineersMust be experienced with Microsoft Azure and have a fundamental understanding of Azure cloud native services and be able to assess the utilization of those services to augment or replace existing on-premises capabilities.Must have experience performing P2V server migrations, as well as resource utilization assessments and right sizing.Must have exceptional written and verbal communication skills

 

Desired Qualifications (not required, but a huge plus): 

Experience with federal government program/projectsOne or more MS Azure certifications (Azure Administrator, Solutions Architect, Network Engineer) Experience and comfort with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS – current on-prem hardware platform)Ability to assimilate into an existing teamSelf-initiating and self-organizing