Riiash

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 

• Platform Architecture & Migration 
• 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). 
• Vendor & Global Team Collaboration 
• Interface with VMware, storage, networking, and hyper converged hardware vendors; coordinate with global IT teams to keep the platform aligned with enterprise standards. 
• 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.