IT Infrastructure Platform Architect

Colt; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Colt in London is seeking a Senior Virtualisation Engineer to own, implement and optimise enterprise VMware-based platforms. You will deliver secure, automated virtualization solutions and partner with Architecture, Storage, Backup, Network and Security teams to ensure robust operations.

The role emphasises security, resilience and operability by design, driving consistency across the virtualization estate and enabling scalable platform services.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience engineering and supporting enterprise-scale virtualisation infrastructure.
• Strong technical expertise in VMware vSphere and related technologies.
• Experience with VMware HA/DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, and vDS.

Responsibilities

• Engineer, administer and support enterprise VMware vSphere environments.
• Manage cluster configuration including HA, DRS, vMotion and Storage vMotion.
• Maintain virtual infrastructure per availability, performance and security standards.
• Manage platform upgrades, patching and remediation using lifecycle tooling.
• Maintain standardised versions of hypervisor and management components.
• Coordinate with Storage, Network and Backup teams for integrated operations.

Skills

VMware vSphere

VDI

VMware HA & DRS

vMotion

Storage vMotion

VMware Distributed Switches

Lifecycle Manager

VMware Tools

Templates & Provisioning

Host Profiles

Fibre Channel

Multipathing

Tools

PowerShell

PowerCLI

REST APIs

Ansible

Job description

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Job id: 36983

Job location: London, GB

Why we need this role

The Senior Virtualisation Engineer is responsible for the engineering, implementation, optimisation and operational support of the organisation's enterprise virtualisation and compute platforms.

The role delivers secure, standardised, resilient and automated virtualisation solutions, translating architectural designs, standards and technology roadmaps into robust, scalable platform implementations and operational services.

Working as a senior technical expert within the infrastructure engineering team, the role collaborates with Architecture, Storage, Backup, Network, Security and Operations teams to ensure virtualisation solutions are effectively designed, integrated, protected and operated.

It embeds security, resilience, recoverability, automation and operability by design, driving consistency and optimisation across the virtualisation estate.

What you will do

Virtualisation Platforms

• Engineer, administer and support enterprise VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, clusters, virtual machines, templates and associated infrastructure.
• Manage VMware cluster configuration including HA, DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, resource pools and lifecycle management.
• Maintain virtual infrastructure in accordance with agreed availability, performance and security standards.
• Manage platform upgrades, patching and remediation using appropriate lifecycle management tooling.
• Maintain supported and standardised versions of hypervisor, management and supporting platform components.
• VDI built on VSAN

Compute & Hardware

• Support the physical compute infrastructure underpinning the virtualisation platform.
• Manage server firmware, BIOS, drivers and hardware compatibility as part of the overall platform lifecycle.
• Work with hardware vendors to diagnose and resolve complex platform issues.
• Ensure infrastructure remains within vendor-supported hardware and software lifecycle requirements.

Storage Integration

• Work closely with Storage Engineering teams to ensure reliable integration between VMware and enterprise storage platforms.
• Support FC SAN, NFS and VMware datastore connectivity where applicable.
• Manage datastore presentation, multipathing, datastore clusters and capacity.
• Support storage migrations and Storage vMotion activities.
• Troubleshoot complex storage and virtualisation integration issues.
• VSAN

Network Integration

• Manage and troubleshoot virtual networking including VMware Distributed Switches, Standard Switches, VLANs, NIC teaming and VMkernel networking.
• Work with Network Engineering teams on physical and virtual network connectivity.
• Support networking requirements for management, vMotion, storage and virtual machine traffic.

Backup, Recovery & Resilience

• Ensure virtual infrastructure is designed and operated with recoverability and resilience as core requirements.
• Work closely with Backup and Recovery teams to ensure virtual workloads are appropriately protected.
• Support backup platform integrations with VMware environments.
• Ensure appropriate controls around VMware snapshots and their lifecycle.
• Participate in recovery testing and disaster recovery exercises.
• Ensure critical infrastructure configuration is appropriately protected and recoverable.

Monitoring & Capacity Management

• Monitor availability, performance, capacity and health across virtualisation environments.
• Identify resource contention and capacity risks across CPU, memory, storage and network resources.
• Perform capacity planning and forecasting to support infrastructure growth.
• Develop actionable monitoring, alerting and operational dashboards.
• Proactively identify infrastructure risks before they affect production services.

Automation

• Develop and maintain automation for repetitive infrastructure administration activities.
• Use technologies such as PowerShell, PowerCLI, REST APIs and Ansible to automate platform operations.
• Support Infrastructure as Code principles where appropriate.
• Reduce manual configuration and configuration drift through standardisation

What we're looking for

Skills & Experience

Essential

Extensive experience engineering and supporting enterprise-scale virtualisation infrastructure.

Strong technical expertise in:

• VMware vSphere
• Virtual desktop infrastruture
• VMware HA and DRS
• vMotion and Storage vMotion
• VMware Distributed Switches
• VMware Lifecycle Manager
• VMware Tools and virtual hardware lifecycle
• Virtual machine templates and provisioning
• Host profiles and configuration standardisation
• Fibre Channel
• Multipathing