Senior System Engineer

HAN Staffing; New Jersey; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

HAN Staffing is seeking a Senior IT VMware Systems Engineer to manage real-time capacity, replace aging servers, and deploy production-grade virtualization with an emphasis on reliability and security. The role drives the shift to a Follow the Sun model, enabling scalable capacity planning and proactive resilience.

The candidate will own performance monitoring, automation, and AI-driven optimization across VMware components, aiming to minimize downtime and maximize cost efficiency in an

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in computer science or related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on VMware design, deployment, and support experience.
• Experience migrating legacy VMware sites to modern stacks.
• Strong automation background with PowerCLI, vRA, Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell/Python.

Responsibilities

• Lead migration to VMware Cloud Foundation 9 with zero downtime and security alignment.
• Design and evolve VMware stack (vSphere, NSX T, vSAN, Aria Operations) for ultra-low latency and high availability.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (Ansible, Terraform, PowerCLI) for provisioning and lifecycle management.
• Develop AI-enabled operations (LLM chat ops) for ticket triage and root-cause analysis.
• Configure and tune monitoring dashboards in Aria Operations, VRLI, and VRNI.
• Facilitate change, release, and incident management; ensure CIS and Hardened Base compliance.

Skills

VMware

Automation

PowerCLI

Ansible

Terraform

Python scripting

vRealize Operations

NSX T

vSAN

AI ops

ITIL

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field

Tools

PowerCLI

vRA

Ansible

Terraform

PowerShell

Python

Aria Operations

Job description

Job Title: IT VMware Systems Engineer

Location: New Jersey (5 days onsite)

Job Type: Long Term

Senior IT VMware Systems Engineer

Resource will be handling real time capacity monitoring for our environment, reviewing all incoming RITMs by validating, challenging, and reviewing before approving the requests for Capacity increases. Also, this resource will be driving the replacement of aging servers that have reached end of life with its deployment and placing it in production. The refresh is essential to eliminate the risk of hardware failures that could impact service continuity. This is to manage additional work required due to onboarding of "Follow the Sun Model" (FTS), Hardware and Software Obsolescence and BAU activities.

Job Description:

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.

Core 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.

Automation & AI Enabled Operations

• 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.

Performance Monitoring & Capacity Management

• 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.

Process Improvement & Standardisation

• 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).

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

Participate in DR planning, testing, and execution for the virtualization environment; maintain RPO ≤ 5 seconds and RTO ≤ 15 minutes for critical workloads.

Operational Support

• 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.

Stakeholder & Service Management

• 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.

Reporting & Governance

Report to the Americas IT Infrastructure Virtualization Platform Manager; deliver executive dashboards on SLA compliance, cost savings, AI ops impact, and platform health.

Required Experience & Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems or a related field (or equivalent professional 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).

Desired Certifications & Skills:

• VMware Certified Professional – Cloud Management and Automation (VCP CMA)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Cloud Foundation (VCAP CF)
• ITIL Foundation / Managing Professional.
• Experience with Aria Operations and related APIs for custom automation.