Senior Platform Engineer: VMware, VDI & Automation

National Physical Laboratory (NPL); Teddington; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to lead virtualisation and automation across critical infrastructure. You will design, deploy, and operate VMware, VDI, Windows Server, and related services to ensure resilience and security.

You will drive automation using scripting and IaC, contribute to security hardening and documentation, and support disaster recovery and business continuity. Occasional site travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Experience designing, deploying, administering, and supporting VMware environments, including ESXi, vCenter, and vSAN.
• Experience administering Windows Server in enterprise environments, including AD, Group Policy, and PKI.
• Experience supporting VDI environments.
• Strong scripting and automation skills using one or more of PowerShell, Ansible, Bash, Python, or Terraform.
• Experience designing, implementing, maintaining, and supporting secure, resilient, and highly available systems.
• Experience producing technical documentation, operational procedures/runbooks, and implementation plans.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, and engagement skills.
• Demonstrable experience in a senior infrastructure, platform engineering, systems administration, or technical consultancy role.
• Relevant certifications in VMware, Omnissa, Microsoft, or automation technologies are desirable.

Responsibilities

• Administering, maintaining, and optimising VMware vCenter and vSAN environments.
• Supporting and developing VDI platforms.
• Managing Windows Server environments, including Active Directory, Trusts, DNS, Group Policy, PKI, certificate services, and security hardening.
• Designing, implementing, and supporting resilient, highly available infrastructure solutions, while troubleshooting complex infrastructure, platform, and network issues.
• Delivering upgrades, migrations, patching, and lifecycle management activities.
• Developing automation and orchestration capabilities using scripting and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Supporting enterprise security initiatives, including privileged access management, monitoring, logging, and data protection.
• Producing technical documentation, operational procedures, and support runbooks.
• Contributing to disaster recovery, business continuity, and redundancy planning.
• Travelling to sites as required to support deployment, implementation, and operational activities.

Skills

VMware ESXi

vCenter

vSAN

Windows Server

VDI

Scripting

PowerShell

Ansible

Bash

Python

Terraform

Security

Documentation

Stakeholder mgmt

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to lead virtualisation and automation across critical infrastructure. You will design, deploy, and operate VMware, VDI, Windows Server, and related services to ensure resilience and security.

You will drive automation using scripting and IaC, contribute to security hardening and documentation, and support disaster recovery and business continuity. Occasional site travel may be required.