Sr. VMWare/Linux Administrator

Key Responsibilities

• Lead vulnerability remediation activities across VMware ESXi clusters, vCenter, and associated virtualization components.
• Perform ESXi patching, upgrades, and lifecycle management using VMware Lifecycle Manager (vLCM).
• Execute remediation of critical vulnerabilities (CVEs) across hypervisors and supporting infrastructure within defined SLAs.
• Plan and implement rolling upgrades for ESXi hosts in clustered production environments with zero/minimal downtime.
• Perform RHEL (8.x, 9.x) and SUSE (12.x, 15.x) OS patching, upgrades, and migrations.
• Create, test, and maintain Ansible playbooks and workflows for Linux and ESXi remediation activities.
• Conduct root cause analysis for patching failures, performance degradation, and host instability issues.
• Perform firmware and BIOS upgrades for server hardware hosting ESXi (including HMC and CECs where applicable).
• Manage filesystem, user administration, kernel tuning, and performance troubleshooting in heterogeneous Linux/AIX environments.
• Cook up coordination with infrastructure, storage, and network teams to validate compatibility matrices before upgrades.
• Develop SOPs, remediation runbooks, rollback procedures, and audit documentation for compliance and governance.

Core Skills Required

• Strong hands-on expertise in VMware ESXi patching, upgrades, vCenter administration, and cluster management.
• Deep knowledge of vulnerability remediation in virtualized environments (Rapid7/Tenable integration preferred).
• Advanced RHEL administration (RHEL 8.x & 9.x) including YUM/DNF patching and kernel management.
• Experience with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for automated OS and hypervisor patching.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across Linux, ESXi, and underlying hardware/firmware layers.
• Proficiency in scripting (Bash, Shell, or Python) for automation and remediation activities.