VMware Virtualization SME

About the role

The VMware Virtualization SME provides expert level strategy, design, and 24 × 7 × 365 support for the Americas region virtualization platform. The role owns performance monitoring, automation, and continuous improvement of the VMware ecosystem—including VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9), Aria Operations, vRealize Log Insight (VRLI), vRealize Network Insight (VRNI), NSX T, and vSAN—while pioneering AI driven operational models and cost optimization initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the migration to VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9), ensuring zero downtime, compliance, and alignment with security baselines.
• Design and evolve the integrated VMware stack (vSphere, NSX T, vSAN, Aria Operations, VRLI, VRNI) to meet ultra-low latency and high availability requirements.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (Ansible, Terraform, PowerCLI) to automate provisioning, patching, and lifecycle management of the virtualization layer.
• Deploy agentic AI assistants (LLM powered chat ops) for ticket triage, predictive alerting, and automated root cause analysis within Aria Operations.
• Create self-healing playbooks that remediate common performance or capacity events without human intervention.
• Configure, fine tune, and maintain monitoring thresholds, alarms, and dashboards in Aria Operations, VRLI, and VRNI.
• Use AI driven anomaly detection to anticipate capacity bottlenecks and latency spikes before they affect production.
• Facilitate environment wide process improvement initiatives (change, release, and incident management) to increase efficiency and consistency.
• Ensure all deployments adhere to group standards, best practices, and security hardening guides (CIS, VMware Hardened Base Image).
• Interface with VMware, storage, networking, and hyper converged hardware vendors; coordinate with global IT teams to keep the platform aligned with enterprise standards.
• Participate in DR planning, testing, and execution for the virtualization environment; maintain RPO ≤ 5 seconds and RTO ≤ 15 minutes for critical workloads.
• Provide Tier 2/3 support for production workloads, including 24 × 7 on call rotation.
• Conduct thorough morning and end of day health checks using scripted tools and AI generated health scores.
• Perform OS and firmware upgrades, mandatory security patches, and storage system updates through automated pipelines.
• Liaise with application owners to gather requirements, design standards, and deploy consistent virtual infrastructure services.
• Maintain the service catalogue for internal business lines, regularly reviewing consumption, pricing, and performance metrics.
• Report to the Americas IT Infrastructure Virtualization Platform Manager; deliver executive dashboards on SLA compliance, cost savings, AI ops impact, and platform health.

Qualifications

• 10 years of IT experience
• 5-7 years of hands-on experience designing, deploying, and supporting large scale VMware environments (vSphere 8+, NSX T, vSAN)
• Demonstrated experience migrating legacy VMware sites to VMware Cloud Foundation 9 or newer cloud native stacks
• Strong automation background – expert level use of PowerCLI, vRealize Automation (vRA), Ansible, Terraform, and PowerShell/Python scripting
• Hands on experience with the Aria Operations suite (formerly vRealize Operations), VRLI, and VRNI for log analytics and network insight
• Solid understanding of enterprise storage (EMC/Isilon, Pure Storage, Dell/NetApp SAN, iSCSI), and how vSAN integrates with these platforms
• Deep networking knowledge – TCP/IP fundamentals, VLANs, routing, and NSX T concepts (micro segmentation, distributed firewalls)
• Experience applying AI ops concepts: predictive monitoring, automated RCA, LLM driven chat ops, and intelligent capacity forecasting
• Proven track record of cost optimisation (rights sizing VMs, leveraging spot/ephemeral instances, improving TCO)
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to influence senior stakeholders and mentor junior team members
• Strong project management skills focused on outcome-based results (Agile/ITIL preferred)