Senior Backup Engineer - Cyber Resiliency & Cloud Automation

Spectraforce Technologies; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectraforce Technologies in Chicago, IL is seeking a Senior Backup Engineer to design, implement, and automate enterprise backup, cyber recovery, and data protection across hybrid cloud and on‑prem environments. The role emphasizes IaC, immutable air‑gapped architectures, and rigorous recovery testing.

The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in enterprise backup technologies, cloud infrastructure, Terraform development, scripting, and large‑scale recovery validation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise backup engineering experience.
• 5+ years designing enterprise backup architectures.
• Experience supporting Fortune 500 or highly regulated environments.
• Extensive experience with hybrid cloud infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of cyber resiliency principles.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, administer, and optimize enterprise backup and recovery platforms across physical, virtual, cloud, and containerized workloads.
• Lead the architecture and operational management of immutable and air-gapped backup environments to defend against ransomware and destructive cyber events.
• Develop enterprise backup standards, engineering patterns, and operational procedures.
• Perform capacity planning, lifecycle management, performance tuning, and storage optimization.
• Ensure backup solutions consistently meet enterprise RTO, RPO, security, and compliance requirements.
• Design and engineer logically and physically isolated cyber recovery environments.
• Implement immutable backup strategies utilizing modern cyber vault technologies.
• Validate secure backup replication into isolated environments.
• Build automated processes for backup validation and malware-free recovery verification.
• Partner with Cyber Security teams to support ransomware recovery strategies and cyber resilience initiatives.
• Develop reusable Terraform modules for deploying backup infrastructure across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Automate backup deployments using Infrastructure as Code principles.
• Create automation utilizing PowerShell, Python, Bash, REST APIs, JSON/YAML.
• Build self-service deployment capabilities and standardized backup patterns.
• Integrate automation into enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
• Build and maintain dedicated backup testing and validation environments.
• Design automated recovery validation frameworks.
• Lead enterprise recovery exercises including backup restore validation, bare metal, database, file, VM, cloud workload recoveries.
• Continuously improve testing automation to increase confidence in recoverability.
• Engineer backup solutions supporting AWS, Microsoft Azure, Private Cloud, VMware, Hyper‑V, Kubernetes/OpenShift, traditional on‑prem infrastructure.
• Support cloud-native backup strategies including immutable object storage and cloud disaster recovery.
• Build engineering standards and reusable automation frameworks.
• Evaluate emerging backup and cyber recovery technologies.
• Optimize backup performance and reduce operational complexity.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Participate in architecture reviews and enterprise resiliency initiatives.

Skills

Technical leadership

Enterprise backup expertise

Regulatory compliance understanding

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or equivalent

Tools

Cohesity

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager

Dell Cyber Recovery Vault

Rubrik

Veeam

Commvault

Veritas NetBackup

Job description

Job Title: Senior Backup Engineer - Cyber Resiliency & Cloud Automation

Duration: 9+ months, (Potential Contract-to-Hire)

Location: Chicago, IL - onsite 3 days per week| open to Tempe, AZ or other NT locations where a candidate could go into a local NT office

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly technical Senior Backup Engineer to assist with designing, implementing, automating, and continuously improve enterprise backup, cyber recovery, and data protection platforms across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments along with a DTE (Dedicated Testing Environment). This role will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for modernizing backup infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, immutable air-gapped architectures, and recovery testing.

The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in enterprise backup technologies, cyber resiliency, cloud infrastructure, Terraform development, scripting, and large-scale recovery validation. They should be comfortable architecting secure solutions while driving automation and operational excellence within a highly regulated enterprise.

Experience Level: 3 - Senior

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise backup engineering experience.
• 5+ years designing enterprise backup architectures.
• Experience supporting Fortune 500 or highly regulated environments.
• Extensive experience with hybrid cloud infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of cyber resiliency principles.

Required Technical Skills

Backup Technologies

• Cohesity
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
• Dell Cyber Recovery Vault
• Rubrik
• Veeam
• Commvault
• Veritas NetBackup

Air‑Gap & Immutable Backup

• Immutable backup repositories
• Air-gapped backup solutions
• Cyber recovery vaults
• Secure recovery environments
• Clean room recovery concepts
• Ransomware recovery strategies

Cloud Platforms

• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Azure Local
• VMware Cloud
• Kubernetes/OpenShift

Infrastructure as Code

• Terraform
• Terraform Modules
• GitHub
• Git-based workflows
• CI/CD pipelines

Scripting

• PowerShell
• Python
• Bash
• REST APIs
• JSON/YAML

Operating Systems

• Windows Server
• Linux (RHEL preferred)
• VMware ESXi

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing enterprise cyber recovery architectures.
• Knowledge of NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST SP 800-209, and ransomware recovery best practices.
• Experience integrating backup platforms with SIEM, monitoring, and automation tools.
• Familiarity with enterprise observability platforms such as Dynatrace or Splunk.
• Experience with storage technologies including Dell PowerStore, PowerScale, NetApp, or Pure Storage.
• Experience supporting financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Relevant certifications (AWS, Azure, VMware, HashiCorp Terraform, Cohesity, Dell Technologies, Veeam, or similar).

Leadership Competencies

• Exceptional troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• Strong automation-first mindset.
• Ability to simplify complex technical problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative leader capable of influencing cross-functional engineering teams.
• Passion for continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Ability to mentor engineers while driving engineering standards and best practices.

Tasks & Responsibilities

Enterprise Backup & Recovery

• Design, implement, administer, and optimize enterprise backup and recovery platforms across physical, virtual, cloud, and containerized workloads.
• Lead the architecture and operational management of immutable and air-gapped backup environments to defend against ransomware and destructive cyber events.
• Develop enterprise backup standards, engineering patterns, and operational procedures.
• Perform capacity planning, lifecycle management, performance tuning, and storage optimization.
• Ensure backup solutions consistently meet enterprise RTO, RPO, security, and compliance requirements.

Air‑Gapped Cyber Recovery

• Design and engineer logically and physically isolated cyber recovery environments.
• Implement immutable backup strategies utilizing modern cyber vault technologies.
• Validate secure backup replication into isolated environments.
• Build automated processes for backup validation and malware-free recovery verification.
• Partner with Cyber Security teams to support ransomware recovery strategies and cyber resilience initiatives.

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Develop reusable Terraform modules for deploying backup infrastructure across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Automate backup deployments using Infrastructure as Code principles.
• Create automation utilizing:
• PowerShell
• Python
• Bash
• REST APIs
• Build self-service deployment capabilities and standardized backup patterns.
• Integrate automation into enterprise CI/CD pipelines.

Recovery Testing & Engineering

• Build and maintain dedicated backup testing and validation environments.
• Design automated recovery validation frameworks.
• Lead enterprise recovery exercises including:
• Backup restore validation
• Bare metal recovery testing
• Database recovery
• File recovery
• VM recovery
• Cloud workload recovery
• Cyber recovery scenario testing
• Continuously improve testing automation to increase confidence in recoverability.

Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure

• Engineer backup solutions supporting:
• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Private Cloud
• VMware
• Hyper‑V
• Kubernetes/OpenShift
• Traditional on-prem infrastructure

Support cloud-native backup strategies including immutable object storage and cloud disaster recovery.

Engineering & Continuous Improvement

• Build engineering standards and reusable automation frameworks.
• Evaluate emerging backup and cyber recovery technologies.
• Optimize backup performance and reduce operational complexity.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Participate in architecture reviews and enterprise resiliency initiatives.