Computer World Services, Corp. (CWS) seeks a Senior Virtualization / Automation Engineer to design, operate, secure, automate, and modernize the virtualization and Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) platforms supporting the USMEPCOM ENLIST program, including VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, Site Recovery Manager (SRM), and associated Infrastructure as Code capabilities.
The role owns the hypervisor and SDDC platform layers across production, development, test, COOP, disaster-recovery, and hybrid-hosting environments; guest operating systems, applications, databases, and cloud workloads remain with their respective teams. The engineer also supports the transition of applicable services to centralized DISA-hosting platforms through discovery, migration planning, migration support, validation, and stabilization.
Key Tasks & Responsibilities
- Serve as senior engineering owner for the SDDC platform, establishing architecture, configuration standards, operational procedures, and engineering roadmaps.
- Build, configure, and optimize virtualization clusters, including vSphere HA, DRS, resource pools, hosts, datastores, and distributed switches, and manage ESXi and vCenter patching, upgrades, and certificates.
- Monitor platform capacity, availability, performance, and compliance, and recommend scaling, balancing, or remediation actions.
- Engineer vSAN clusters, storage policies, and fault domains, and troubleshoot vSAN performance, resynchronization, and policy-compliance issues.
- Engineer NSX segments, transport zones, gateways, routing, and distributed security controls, coordinating changes with network and cybersecurity teams.
- Administer SRM protection groups and recovery plans, develop and maintain automated failover and failback procedures, and support quarterly COOP exercises and continuity events.
- Design and implement infrastructure automation using Terraform, Ansible, PowerCLI, or APIs, with version control, peer review, testing, rollback, secrets protection, and drift detection.
- Coordinate with workload owners on resource requirements, placement, templates, and snapshots, preserving the division between platform and workload ownership.
- Provide Tier 4 engineering support for cross-platform incidents, isolate platform faults during outages, and conduct root-cause analyses and develop corrective actions.
- Maintain platform configuration backups, apply DISA STIGs and security baselines, and support RMF evidence, vulnerability remediation, and vendor-advisory reviews.
- Support technology refreshes and modernization; develop platform roadmaps, technical options, and rough-order cost estimates.
- Support DISA-hosting transitions through discovery, dependency documentation, readiness assessment, migration waves, test and rollback plans, cutover, and post-migration stabilization.
- Maintain architecture diagrams, as-built documentation, SOPs, and recovery procedures, and provide platform metrics and modernization status for program reporting.
Education & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience where permitted by the labor category.
- Minimum of eight (8) years of relevant experience in virtualization, systems engineering, data-center infrastructure, platform engineering, or infrastructure automation.
- Hands-on experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter and with vSAN, NSX, SRM, or comparable software-defined storage, network-virtualization, and disaster-recovery technologies.
- Experience developing or maintaining infrastructure-automation solutions and troubleshooting complex issues across compute, storage, network, virtualization, and automation layers.
- Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, backup and restoration, capacity management, and lifecycle practices.
- Strong written, verbal, analytical, and technical problem-solving skills.
- Formal Terraform and Ansible training.
- Experience with VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware Aria, and PowerCLI, PowerShell, Python, or REST APIs.
- Experience supporting federal or DoD virtualization environments and migrations to DISA enterprise-hosting platforms.
- Experience with DISA STIGs, RMF controls, vulnerability remediation, and configuration compliance.
- Experience developing Infrastructure as Code within CI/CD and Git workflows with automated testing and code scanning.
Required:
Preferred:
Certifications
- Required: None.
- Preferred: VMware Certified Professional, VMware Certified Advanced Professional, HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate, Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation, ITIL 4 Foundation, or relevant cloud, security, storage, or network certification.
Security Clearance
- Active Secret clearance or higher is required.
Other (Travel, Work Environment, DoD 8570 Requirements, Administrative Notes, etc.)
- Remote position; Chicago, IL–area candidates preferred.
- Occasional on-site support, after-hours maintenance, disaster-recovery exercises, incident response, and travel may be required.
Work Environment / Travel:
Administrative Notes:
Period of Performance: March 1, 2027 – February 28, 2033
Contract Start Date: March 1, 2027
Note: By applying to this position, the candidate acknowledges and consents to having their resume included in an active competitive Government contract bid.Computer World Services is an affirmative action and equal employment opportunity employer. Current employees and/or qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.
Computer World Services is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Computer World Services will ensure that individuals with disabilities (IWD) are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact Human Resources at [email protected].
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: McDonald’s, John Deere, Boeing, Morningstar
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, fintech, software, logistics technology
- Funding Landscape: $2.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Arch Venture Partners, MATH Venture Partners, Jump Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
