Sr. Data Center Engineer

OpenText; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenText is hiring a Datacenter Engineer in Sacramento, CA to manage a diverse hardware laboratory environment. Responsibilities include server installations and lifecycle management across vendors like Dell and HPE.

This role requires five years of experience in a datacenter or similar environment, strong skills in server and network configuration, and familiarity with IT service management workflows.

Qualifications

• Minimum of five (5) years of professional experience in a datacenter or technical operations environment.
• Hands-on experience with multi-vendor hardware including Dell, HPE, and Cisco.
• Capability to navigate command-line interfaces for diagnostics and validation.

Responsibilities

• Support installation and operation of diverse hardware in a datacenter environment.
• Conduct structured audits for connectivity validation and provide lifecycle support.
• Manage vendor relationships and coordinate hardware evaluation programs.

Skills

Server installation and configuration

Linux command-line proficiency

Networking fundamentals

Virtualization technologies

Tools

Dell PowerEdge

HPE ProLiant

VMware vSphere

Wireshark

Job description

Opentext – The Information Company

OpenText is a global leader in information management, leveraging innovation, creativity, and collaboration to partner with leading companies worldwide, tackle complex issues, and shape the future of digital transformation.

At OpenText, AI is at the heart of everything we do—powering innovation, transforming work, and empowering digital knowledge workers. We are hiring talent that AI can't replace to shape the future of information management.

Your Impact

We are seeking a versatile and detail-oriented Datacenter Engineer to support the installation, lifecycle, monitoring, and triage of a diverse, multi-vendor hardware laboratory. The position is onsite in Sacramento, CA. The lab environment comprises compute platforms (Dell, HPE, Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Supermicro), enterprise storage networks (NetApp, HPE 3PAR, Dell EMC), virtualization clusters, and a layered stack of monitoring, logging, security, and IT service management platforms.

The role is broader than a traditional rack-and-stack position. The engineer operates as the operational backbone of the lab: deploying servers, provisioning operating systems, validating connectivity, automating firmware updates, supporting virtualization and monitoring platforms, and coordinating vendor lifecycle activities. A strong foundation in cross‑domain troubleshooting is essential to determine whether a fault originates in the hardware, the storage fabric, the network, the hypervisor or the operating system layer, and to execute baseline remediation before escalating to the corresponding specialist.

• Installation and Physical Infrastructure
• Multi‑vendor deployment: precision rack‑and‑stack, structured cabling (copper and fiber) and hardware verification for servers across Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Cisco UCS, Oracle, IBM and Supermicro platforms.
• Power and environmental management: calculate rack power density, safely distribute loads across three‑phase PDUs, ensure proper airflow and thermal management within the datacenter footprint.
• Hardware component lifecycle: bare‑metal diagnostics, physical component replacement (RAID controllers, cache memory, system boards, SFP transceivers, power supplies, drives) using vendor out‑of‑band management tooling such as iDRAC, iLO, CIMC and IPMI.
• Operating System Deployment and Lifecycle
• Bare‑metal provisioning: deploy and configure operating systems (Linux distributions and Unix variants) on lab servers, including network, storage and time service post‑deployment validation.
• Deployment automation: operate and maintain provisioning and deployment automation platforms; manage access permissions, deployer role assignments and image lifecycle.
• Connectivity validation: conduct structured reachability audits (ICMP, SSH, port checks) and document host status against the lab inventory.
• Storage and Fabric Operations
• Storage provisioning support: assist in provisioning of storage arrays (NetApp, HPE 3PAR, Dell PowerVault); validate underlying physical and Fibre Channel connections.
• Storage pathing and connectivity: verify host bus adapters (HBAs), Fibre Channel zoning, SAS and iSCSI cabling, and multipath visibility from the host side; reconcile mismatches between fabric configuration and operating system view.
• Virtualization Platform Support
• Hypervisor operations: support the lifecycle of VMware vSphere environments — hypervisor hosts, clusters, datastores, virtual networking and lifecycle patching.
• Validation activities: perform post‑change validation, including hypervisor host health checks, datastore visibility and workload mobility verification after maintenance windows.
• Firmware Lifecycle Automation
• Scripted firmware deployment: plan, stage and execute firmware updates (BIOS, BMC, RAID controllers, network adapters) across multi‑node server fleets using vendor command‑line interfaces and scripted lifecycle management toolchains.
• Pre‑ and post‑update validation: verify versions, capture rollback baselines, document update windows and validate component health following each update.
• Vendor toolchain proficiency: work fluently with vendor lifecycle utilities and CLI‑based firmware deployment tools across Dell, HPE and Cisco hardware platforms.
• Network Triage and Time Synchronization
• Connectivity isolation: verify physical link status, inspect port LED indicators, confirm VLAN assignments on local access switches and run packet captures with Wireshark to isolate connectivity issues.
• Baseline operating system triage: inspect interface state, route tables, storage visibility and console output (boot screens, panic logs, hardware console messages) to determine whether a fault is hardware‑ or software‑related before escalation.
• Monitoring Platforms and Service Management
• Monitoring platform hygiene: maintain network and infrastructure monitoring platforms by removing decommissioned devices, cleaning stale entries and reducing false‑positive alerts to preserve alert signal‑to‑noise ratio.
• Log and security platform support: provide lab‑tier operational support for centralized logging and security monitoring infrastructure (configuration validation, console access, basic troubleshooting).
• ITSM workflow execution: operate within IT service management (ITSM) ticketing systems; document actions, change records and resolutions; coordinate with cross‑functional operations teams (network, cloud, security).
• Vendor and Asset Lifecycle Management
• Evaluation programs: coordinate hardware evaluation programs (such as try‑and‑buy or proof‑of‑concept engagements) — racking, testing, return logistics and swap workflows.
• RMA workflows: manage return merchandise authorization (RMA) processes for failed components across multiple vendors.
• Asset accuracy: maintain accurate asset inventory, location tags, serial number records and deployment status in the inventory of record.

Experience

Minimum of five (5) years of professional experience in a datacenter, enterprise lab or hands‑on technical operations environment involving multi‑vendor hardware and platform support.

Technical Skills

• Hardware fluency: hands‑on experience installing, configuring and replacing components across Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Cisco UCS, Oracle, IBM and Supermicro server lines.
• Out‑of‑band management: working knowledge of iDRAC, iLO, CIMC and IPMI for remote console access, diagnostics and firmware operations.
• Operating systems: comfortable navigating command‑line interfaces in Linux distributions and Unix variants for diagnostic activities, interface inspection, storage visibility checks and log review.
• Virtualization: operational familiarity with VMware vSphere, OpenStack — hosts, clusters, datastores, virtual networking and standard maintenance procedures.
• Storage and fabric basics: understanding of Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SAS, HBAs, multipathing and basic SAN fabric concepts.
• Networking fundamentals: knowledge of L2 concepts (VLANs, trunking, link aggregation), Ethernet troubleshooting and packet capture analysis using Wireshark.