Systems Engineer, Infrastructure Virtualization

Simplesense; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance

401k matching

Job summary

A leading technology firm is seeking an Infrastructure Virtualization Systems Engineer to support VMware virtualization within critical infrastructures. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in IT systems engineering, particularly in VMware vSphere environments, and is skilled in automation. This role offers a hybrid schedule based in Denver, Colorado, with a salary range of $135,000 to $160,000 based on experience.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in IT infrastructure or systems engineering.
• Strong experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
• Proficiency in scripting with Ansible or Python for automation.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement VMware vSphere environments.
• Automate VM provisioning and server configuration.
• Monitor the virtualization infrastructure for performance issues.

Skills

VMware vSphere administration

Infrastructure automation

Linux shell skills

Security compliance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Ansible

PowerCLI

Terraform

Job description

Overview

Simplesense builds, deploys, and sustains the Installation Resilience Platform that enables mission operators to rapidly adapt and respond. The Platform protects critical infrastructure from cyber attack while unlocking previously siloed information to monitor, diagnose, and improve response times to incidents. Our adversaries rapidly adopt the latest technology: we help defense users respond in kind. Simplesense is a non-traditional defense contractor and prime on the Air Force's Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control (IROC) program. We are expanding to five additional Air Force, Space Force, and Army installations from the prototype installation, Tyndall Air Force Base. Our team combines deep mission experience with technical expertise in DevSecOps, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure to design for scale and long-term sustainability.

Simplesense is looking for an Infrastructure Virtualization Systems Engineer to join our remote, US-based team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, deploying, and supporting VMware vSphere virtualization solutions within our Installation Resilience Platform and internal infrastructure. You will lead the implementation of small-to-medium scale vSphere environments on enterprise hardware to support mission-critical workloads and core services. This role is based in the Denver Metro area with a hybrid onsite schedule and potential travel for team meetings or on-site support.

Core Responsibilities

• Develop Virtualization Architecture: Create scalable and secure infrastructure designs that ensure high availability and performance, provide subject matter expert support, and document solutions for deployment teams.
• Deployment: Design, deploy and maintain small-to-medium scale VMware vSphere environments to support mission-critical workloads. Configure ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, virtual networks, and shared storage (vSAN or SAN) to create secure, highly available clusters that meet performance and capacity requirements.
• Infrastructure Automation: Develop and use Infrastructure-as-Code templates and automation scripts to manage the virtualization infrastructure. Use tools like Ansible (or PowerCLI/PowerShell) and Bash/Python scripting to automate VM provisioning, ESXi host configuration, patch management, and environment build-out.
• Monitoring & Reliability: Set up observability for the virtualization stack to track system performance, capacity, and failures. Implement monitoring and alerting for host and VM metrics and critical logs. Proactively tune resources and configurations to improve reliability and coordinate incident response for virtualization-related outages or performance issues.
• Security Hardening & Compliance: Implement security best practices and required compliance standards on all virtualization components. Apply DISA STIGs and other hardening guidelines to ESXi hosts and vCenter configurations. Ensure proper network segmentation, RBAC in vCenter, and encryption where applicable. Remediate vulnerabilities and maintain DoD cybersecurity compliance.
• Collaboration: Work with software engineers, vendor SMEs, system administrators, cybersecurity analysts, and operations teams to align virtualization infrastructure with application needs and security policies. Lead deployment of new virtualization solutions and document configurations, topology, and standard operating procedures. Provide knowledge transfer and training to the operations team.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in IT infrastructure or systems engineering, including hands-on design and management of virtualization environments in production.
• Strong experience deploying, administering, and maintaining VMware virtualization platforms (vSphere/ESXi and vCenter) in on-premises data centers. Ability to configure clusters (HA/DRS), virtual networking, and storage for high availability and performance.
• Familiarity with software-defined storage and hyperconverged infrastructure: experience with VMware vSAN or similar technologies for clustering storage.
• Experience with enterprise server hardware for virtualization (e.g., Cisco UCS, Dell VxRail/PowerEdge) and understanding of hardware provisioning, firmware management, and network/storage integration for hosts.
• Proficiency in infrastructure automation and scripting using Ansible, Bash, and/or Python to automate virtualization tasks.
• Demonstrated knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and version control (git) for infrastructure changes and integration into deployment workflows (e.g., GitHub Actions or Jenkins).
• Familiarity with infrastructure monitoring and logging tools; ability to analyze logs and metrics to troubleshoot virtualization environments.
• Strong Linux shell/CLI skills; basic Windows Server administration in virtual machines is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent work experience).
• Security certifications such as CompTIA Security+ or Cloud+ (or willingness to obtain within 30 days of hire).
• VMware certification (e.g., VCP-DCV) or related credentials are a plus.
• Experience with containerization and modern virtualization platforms is a plus (e.g., Tanzu, Docker/Kubernetes on vSphere).
• Must be a U.S. Citizen and able to obtain a DoD NIPR network account and CAC. Must have, or be able to obtain, a Secret Clearance.

Benefits and Compensation

Pay Range: $135,000-160,000 per year, depending on experience, skill, and location.

Our compensation ranges are developed using market benchmarking tools and regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with competitive pay practices. All employees are eligible for comprehensive benefits, in addition to base pay.

Benefits

• Equity
• Medical, Life, Short-Term Disability, and AD&D insurance
• Medical travel coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• 401k matching

Equal Opportunity

Simplesense is an equal opportunity employer committed to merit-based employment. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, performance, and business need. We comply with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws and government contracting requirements. If you need a reasonable accommodation, contact People Operations at [e-mail].