Core Infrastructure Engineer – Professional

Piper Sandler & Co.; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 150,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Piper Sandler & Co. is seeking a Core Infrastructure Engineer – Professional to join our Platform Engineering team in Minneapolis, MN.

You will help maintain on‑premises and cloud infrastructure, leading medium‑sized projects while improving monitoring, reliability, and security across VMware, Windows, Linux, and cloud environments. The role requires several years of hands‑on experience, a strong ability to work independently, and collaboration with security, networking, and application teams.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in systems administration, infrastructure engineering, cloud engineering, or a similar role.
• Hands‑on experience administering VMware technologies such as vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
• Strong knowledge of Windows Server and/or Linux administration.
• Experience with enterprise storage technologies and concepts, including SAN, NAS, RAID, snapshots, replication, and capacity planning.
• Working knowledge of at least one major cloud platform, preferably AWS or Microsoft Azure.
• Hands‑on experience with Datadog or a comparable monitoring and observability platform, including creating monitors, dashboards, alerts, and reports.

Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor, and troubleshoot VMware environments, including vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
• Support physical and virtual servers, Windows and/or Linux operating systems, enterprise storage, backup platforms, and related infrastructure.
• Maintain infrastructure across cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Use monitoring and observability tools such as Datadog to create and maintain monitors and dashboards.
• Configure actionable alerts, thresholds, notification routing, and escalation procedures.
• Lead selected infrastructure projects from requirements gathering to handoff and testing.
• Triage incidents, perform root‑cause analysis, and implement durable solutions.

Skills

VMware

Windows Server

Linux

Cloud (AWS/Azure)

Datadog monitoring

Scripting/Automation

On-call rotation

Infrastructure projects

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

PowerShell

Datadog API

Job description

Job Description: At Piper Sandler, we connect capital with opportunity to build a better future. We believe that diverse teams with unique backgrounds, skills and experiences yield more innovative solutions. This is reflected in our commitment to engage, hire, and retain bright, committed people to work in partnership within an inclusive environment that allows each person to achieve personal success and add value to our teams and communities. We are currently looking for a Core Infrastructure Engineer – Professional to join our Platform Engineering team in Minneapolis, MN.

About the Role

The Core Infrastructure Engineer – Professional will support and improve our on-premises and cloud infrastructure. This mid-level role is ideal for an engineer with several years of hands‑on experience who can work independently, contribute to technical decisions, lead small‑to‑medium infrastructure projects, and continue developing their technical expertise.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate will keep critical infrastructure reliable, observable, and secure; respond effectively to operational issues; complete patching and maintenance on schedule; and independently deliver infrastructure projects. They will improve Datadog monitoring coverage, build useful dashboards, and create actionable alerts that help teams identify and resolve issues quickly. Over time, this engineer will become a trusted contributor to the company’s infrastructure architecture and technology strategy.

Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor, and troubleshoot VMware environments, including vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
• Support physical and virtual servers, Windows and/or Linux operating systems, enterprise storage, backup platforms, and related infrastructure.
• Maintain infrastructure across cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Use monitoring and observability tools such as Datadog to:
• Create and maintain infrastructure and application monitors.
• Build operational, capacity, availability, and service-health dashboards.
• Configure actionable alerts, thresholds, notification routing, and escalation procedures.
• Analyze metrics, logs, events, and performance trends.
• Reduce alert noise and improve monitoring coverage.
• Perform operating system and infrastructure patching, upgrades, lifecycle management, and vulnerability remediation.
• Participate in a scheduled on‑call rotation and respond to infrastructure incidents outside normal business hours when required.
• Troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues, conduct root‑cause analysis, and implement durable solutions.
• Lead selected infrastructure projects, including requirements gathering, planning, implementation, testing, documentation, and operational handoff.
• Monitor and manage infrastructure capacity, performance, availability, reliability, and security.
• Maintain accurate technical documentation, operational procedures, asset information, and disaster‑recovery plans.
• Collaborate with security, networking, application, cloud, and business teams.
• Automate routine operational tasks using scripting, configuration‑management, and infrastructure‑as‑code tools.
• Assist infrastructure leadership with architecture planning, technology roadmaps, budgeting, risk management, and the company’s overall infrastructure and cloud strategy.
• Share technical knowledge and provide guidance to other team members.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in systems administration, infrastructure engineering, cloud engineering, or a similar role.
• Hands‑on experience administering VMware technologies such as vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
• Strong knowledge of Windows Server and/or Linux administration.
• Experience with enterprise storage technologies and concepts, including SAN, NAS, RAID, snapshots, replication, and capacity planning.
• Working knowledge of at least one major cloud platform, preferably AWS or Microsoft Azure.
• Hands‑on experience with Datadog or a comparable monitoring and observability platform, including creating monitors, dashboards, alerts, and reports.
• Ability to interpret infrastructure metrics, logs, events, performance data, and capacity trends.
• Experience with server patching, upgrades, vulnerability remediation, monitoring, backup, recovery, and incident response.
• Understanding of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, routing, firewalls, and load balancing.
• Demonstrated ability to lead infrastructure projects and coordinate work across technical teams.
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, communication, and organizational skills.
• Willingness to participate in a scheduled on‑call rotation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing Datadog configurations through APIs, Terraform, or other infrastructure‑as‑code tools.
• Experience with Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, or similar automation technologies.
• Familiarity with Active Directory, identity and access management, and Microsoft 365.
• Experience supporting hybrid‑cloud environments and cloud migrations.
• Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, business continuity, and security best practices.
• Relevant certifications such as VMware VCP, Microsoft Azure Administrator, AWS Solutions Architect, or equivalent.

Salary

The anticipated starting salary range for individuals expressing interest in this position is $150,000–$225,000 per year per year. Placement within this range is dependent upon level of experience, location and other factors. This position is eligible for annual incentive compensation which will be a part of the total compensation. Total compensation for this position will be competitive with the market.

Diversity & Inclusion

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran or status with regard to public assistance.

Company Culture & Benefits

Piper Sandler values a strong culture dedicated to the emotional and physical well‑being of our employees. Learn more about our commitment to our employee’s health, well‑being, our benefits program and how we are here for our employees and their families today, tomorrow and beyond here.

About the Firm

#LI-AH1 Explore the career possibilities at Piper Sandler. At Piper Sandler, we connect capital with opportunity to build a better future. As a leading investment bank, we enable growth, navigate complexities and support the success of our clients by delivering candid advice, deep sector expertise and a comprehensive set of products and capabilities. We transcend transactions to define possibilities—enabling clients to achieve their short‑term goals while realizing their long‑term vision. Founded in 1895, the firm is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices across the U.S. and in London, Aberdeen, Zurich, Munich, Abu Dhabi and Paris.