Senior Virtualization Engineer

Trillium Staffing; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 61,000 - 87,000; Full time

Job summary

Trillium Professional in Richmond, VA is seeking a Senior Virtualization Engineer to support and advance the enterprise virtualization environment. You will design, deploy, and maintain VMware vSphere environments, optimize performance, and ensure security across compute, storage, and networking layers.

The role requires 8+ years in VMware vSphere and Windows Server, plus strong automation and disaster recovery experience.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on experience administering VMware vSphere environments and Windows Server operating systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a closely related field; equivalent technical certification accepted.
• Strong proficiency with ESXi, vCenter Server, and virtual networking concepts.
• Experience with VMware clustering, HA/DRS, snapshots, templates, and VM lifecycle management.
• Solid understanding of storage technologies such as SAN, NAS, iSCSI, NFS, and/or vSAN.
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals as they apply to virtualization: VLANs, trunking, LACP, jumbo frames, and network segmentation.
• Familiarity with Windows and/or Linux server administration in enterprise environments.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex issues across compute, storage, and network layers.
• Experience with Ansible, PowerCLI, Terraform or similar scripting languages for automation.
• Working knowledge of backup and disaster recovery solutions for virtual environments.
• Understanding of security best practices, RBAC, certificates, and VMware hardening guidelines.
• Hands-on experience administering enterprise server hardware platforms (Dell, Cisco UCS, HPE, etc.).
• Strong documentation, communication, and change-management skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi hosts and vCenter Server.
• Perform capacity planning, performance tuning, and resource optimization across virtual infrastructures.
• Manage virtual networking (vSwitches, distributed switches) and storage configurations (VMFS, NFS, vSAN).
• Implement and maintain high-availability, fault-tolerance, clustering, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Oversee patching, upgrades, and lifecycle management for VMware components and related hardware.
• Troubleshoot complex virtualization issues involving compute, storage, and networking layers.
• Create and enforce VM standards, policies, templates, and provisioning strategies.
• Monitor infrastructure health.
• Ensure security compliance by managing roles, permissions, certificates, and hardening VMware environments.
• Automate administrative tasks when possible.
• Collaborate with systems, network, and security teams on cross-functional infrastructure initiatives.
• Document architecture, configurations, procedures, and change management activities.
• Provide advanced support for production issues and mentor junior team members.

Skills

VMware vSphere administration

Windows Server administration

Networking fundamentals

Documentation & change management

Leadership / mentoring

Automation scripting

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or IT

Equivalent technical certification

Tools

ESXi

vCenter Server

VMFS

NFS

vSAN

vSwitches / dvSwitch

PowerCLI

Ansible

Terraform

GitOps workflows

Job description

Trillium Professional is now seeking a Senior Virtualization Engineer in Richmond, VA!

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Virtualization Engineer to support and advance the enterprise virtualization environment. This contingent worker position will play a key role in ensuring the reliability, performance, and security of critical systems and infrastructure. The selected candidate will report to the Manager of the Systems and Operations Management team and will collaborate closely with technical staff to design, implement, and maintain virtualization solutions that meet organizational needs.

In addition to other occasional tasks, the candidate’s key responsibilities will be the following:

• Design, deploy, and maintain VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi hosts and vCenter Server.
• Perform capacity planning, performance tuning, and resource optimization across virtual infrastructures.
• Manage virtual networking (vSwitches, distributed switches) and storage configurations (VMFS, NFS, vSAN).
• Implement and maintain high-availability, fault-tolerance, clustering, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Oversee patching, upgrades, and lifecycle management for VMware components and related hardware.
• Troubleshoot complex virtualization issues involving compute, storage, and networking layers.
• Create and enforce VM standards, policies, templates, and provisioning strategies.
• Monitor infrastructure health.
• Ensure security compliance by managing roles, permissions, certificates, and hardening VMware environments.
• Automate administrative tasks when possible.
• Collaborate with systems, network, and security teams on cross-functional infrastructure initiatives.
• Document architecture, configurations, procedures, and change management activities.
• Provide advanced support for production issues and mentor junior team members.

Pay is$54.00 an hour and up (commensurate with experience).

Qualifications

• -8+ years of hands-on experience administering VMware vSphere environments and Windows Server operating systems.
• -Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a closely related field;equivalent technical certification accepted.
• -Strong proficiency with ESXi, vCenter Server, and virtual networking concepts.
• -Experience with VMware clustering, HA/DRS, snapshots, templates, and VM lifecycle management.
• -Solid understanding of storage technologies such as SAN, NAS, iSCSI, NFS, and/or vSAN.
• -Working knowledge of networking fundamentals as they apply to virtualization: VLANs, trunking, LACP, jumbo frames, and network segmentation.
• -Familiarity with Windows and/or Linux server administration in enterprise environments.
• -Ability to troubleshoot complex issues across compute, storage, and network layers.
• -Experience with Ansible, PowerCLI, Terraform or similar scripting languages for automation.
• -Working knowledge of backup and disaster recovery solutions for virtual environments.
• -An Understanding of security best practices, RBAC, certificates, and VMware hardening guidelines. Hands?on experience administering enterprise server hardware platforms (Dell, Cisco UCS, HPE, etc.).
• -Some data center experience or the willingness to learn.
• -Strong documentation, communication, and change-management skills.

Preferred qualifications

• -12+ years of hands-on experience administering VMware vSphere environments and Windows Server operating systems.
• -Master’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a closely related field.
• -Deep hands-on experience designing, scaling, and optimizing enterprise VMware environments.
• -Strong understanding of virtual networking (vDS, VLANs, LACP) and storage performance concepts.
• -Background in infrastructure architecture, capacity planning, and performance engineering.
• -Demonstrated ability to lead infrastructure projects and mentor other engineers.
• -Experience implementing infrastructure automation pipelines, such as GitOps workflows, CI/CD-driven configuration deployments, or infrastructur-as-code standards across teams.
• -VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or equivalent real-world experience.
• -Hands on experience administering Linux operating systems (RHEL, SUSE, Alma, etc.).
• -Vendor certifications beyond VCP, such as VCIX / VCAP, MCSA/MCSE, RHCSA/RHCE, or storage-focused certifications that enhance cross-domain expertise.
• -Experience with other virtualization technologies and platforms (OpenShift, Hyper-V, ProxMox, etc.).
• -Experience with out-of-band management technologies like iDRAC, iLO, CIMC, XClarity, etc.
• -2+ years data center experience.
• -Provision, configure, and harden Windows Server and other virtual server operating systems according to organizational standards and security best practices.
• -Manage Active Directory related server functions, including domain joins, OU placement, Group Policy application, and coordination with identity teams.
• -Configure and maintain core Windows Server roles such as DNS, DHCP, file/print services, IIS, RDS, and certificate services depending on environment needs.
• -Automate and standardize server builds using templates, unattended installation files, and configuration management tools to ensure consistent deployments.
• -Perform OS?level patching, updates, and lifecycle management for Windows virtual servers, ensuring compliance with security and operational policies.
• -Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and snapshot strategies for Windows and other servers.

Trillium has been recruiting and placing professionals for over 30 years. From Fortune 100 companies to small businesses, our philosophy remains the same: to achieve excellence by providing quality employees and an uncompromising level of service. We believe in honesty, integrity, and a simple philosophy of providing value to our customers and our employees. We strive to be unsurpassed in the recruitment and placement of quality and skilled professionals. Trillium is an Equal Opportunity Employer.