Lead Infrastructure Automation Engineer

Role Overview:

Develops the core technical platform, capabilities, and services that support business processes and data. Creates technical platforms, capabilities, and services. Maps relationships between platform components. Assesses cost and return on investment (ROI) for platform and infrastructure alternatives Provides specific functional expertise that is theoretical and conceptual in nature. This expertise is typically acquired through a combination of university education and experience within a field. May have responsibility for supervising others in the capacity of a “player coach” but primary focus is individual expertise. Particularly at higher levels, sophisticated subject matter expertise is a requirement for success. Requires specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise in own job discipline or field. Interprets business challenges and recommends best practices. Leads others to solve complex problems. Works independently, with guidance in only the most complex situations. May lead functional teams or projects. Technology Advising/Consulting

• Exceeds customers’ expectations by listening for unexpressed needs; connects customer needs to relevant service offerings and new technology.

• Leads others in resolving technical issues in a timely manner; follows up with customers to ensure satisfaction.

• Partners with the business to integrate new technologies into business solutions; creates and communicates a vision of the technology requirements for the future state of the business. Architecture Design Leads projects designing and developing IT architecture solutions to business problems that meet user requirements. System and Technology Integration Interprets internal/external business challenges and recommends integration of the appropriate systems, applications and technology to provide a fully functional solution to a business problem. IT Network Management Plans and determines resources for network management projects and provides suggestions to enhance capabilities and performance. Technical Communication/Presentation

• Creatively develops tools, visual aids and other original content to support the understanding/education of complex and technical information

(e.g., legal, operational risk, and regulatory data).

• Guides others on the best practices and approaches for creating clear, concise and organized communication materials to convey technical concepts in a user-friendly way.

• Challenges others to bring fresh and creative perspective to differentiating technical communications and ensuring comprehension and ease-of-use for various audiences. Emerging

Technology Trends and Practices Applies knowledge of emerging technology trends and best practices to show the potential business application of technology improvements

Daily Responsibilities:

Build and Manage Virtual Machines (VMs):

              • Deploy and maintain VM builds across all UPS datacenter machines using Broadcom virtualization technology

              • Identify issues in a build, then execute solution.

              • Work with any UPS team to resolve daily issues that arise

Develop and maintain automation for VM provisioning

Own and Support VRA Platform

              • Manage VRA (Broadcom's VM automation tool within VCF), including support, development, and enhancements

              • Maintain ownership of the customized UPS-specific VRA system

                             ○ This complex system requires a detail-oriented skillset and a deep understanding of VM technologies and the UPS infrastructure

Handle vendor communication and support ticket resolution related to VRA

Ensure Security Compliance

Stay current with UPS security policies and implement security changes as they are introduced

System Patching and Vendor Coordination

              • Oversee patching of the VM datacenter environment in alignment with UPS security standards

                             ○ Provides guidance to team to take action as well as develop automation the enhance process flows 

Collaborate with vendors to apply patches and enhancements on a regular cadence

Datacenter Architecture and Design

              • Architect and uphold the highest design standards for the UPS datacenter

                             ○ Sit on Arb reviews to ensure new onboarding applications are designed properly

              • Review and validate VM build requests, workloads, and applications to ensure compliance with UPS standards

              • Lead the development of future improvements and enhancements to optimize the environment

Drive and develop automation in the datacenter virtualization space to optimize existing processes

Vendor Relationship Management

              • Maintain and foster vendor relationships to support ongoing improvements aligned with UPS’s strategic goals

Define VM Strategy and Vision

              • Set and guide the vision and strategic direction for UPS virtual machine architecture

Conduct Market Research

              • Stay informed of emerging technologies to ensure UPS leverages cutting-edge solutions

              • Drive innovation, automation, and improvements across the VM environment

Datacenter Maintenance and Optimization

              • Conduct regular audits of the datacenter

              • Create automation to improve this process

              • Identify and decommission unused or obsolete machines to maintain a clean and efficient environment

Next-Generation Platform Strategy

Design, evaluate, and architect the next-generation datacenter virtualization platform and long-term strategy to align with UPS technology goals

Off hours Support, Off hours planned work -frequency, hours, etc.

Weekend and off hours deployments (Frequency is dependent on vendor patch workload, typically 1 weekend per month but could increase as needed)

24/7 availability for 3rd level support engagement

Required Qualifications:

• Must have Scripting Experience– Powershell and Python to interface with vCenter, vROPS, vRA and Infoblox APIs to execute automated tasks such as:

              • Scan the environment daily to run automated morning status report

              • Snapshot identification and removal

              • Cross-vcenter VMotion

              • VM virtual hardware configuration

              • ESXI host configuration

• Must have SQL Server Database administration, SQL programming and/or ETL configuration experience:

              • Disparate data sources are imported and merged to provide a holistic view of the environment

              • The inventory database provides a one-stop-shop for reports, augmenting the functionality found in vROPS and Log Insight

              • Historical trending and performance metric reporting

• Must have .Net Programming experience

              • Private Cloud Administration System (PCAS) – Exposes various tasks to end-users for general maintenance, including VM power management

              • ASP.Net, SQL Server, VCenter/vROPS API interfaces

• Must have Ansible for infrastructure automation

• Experience with Virtualization platform

              • In-depth expertise with Broadcom/VMware virtualization (e.g., ESXi, vCenter, VCF)

              • Experience with VRA (VMware vRealize Automation) or similar VM automation tools

              • Familiarity with next-generation datacenter technologies (containers, OpenShift, hyperconverged infrastructure

• System Administration & Engineering Experience

              • Strong background in server builds, OS management, and data center operations (Windows and Linux)

              • Experience with system patching, configuration management, and performance tuning

Nice to have skills

              • Experience managing projects

              • Full stack programming skills (Application development experience)

              • Containerization and Kubernetes

              • RedHat Container and virtualization experience

              • Hybrid Cloud integration and migration (Microsoft & Google)

              • Strong understanding of infrastructure as code

              • Problem identification, resolution and communication

              • Project management

              • Root Cause Analysis

              • Strong communication skills, verbal and written

              • Collaboration with cross-functional teams (security, storage, network, application, etc..)

              • Leadership skills (Mentoring, team building, leading developers or small team of engineers)

              • Executive presentation skills

              • Bachelor’s Degree or International equivalent in Computer Science or a related field - Preferred

              • Enterprise Architecture training and certification