Virtualization, Automation Engineer – Journeyman

Computer World Services

. Configure, administer, and maintain virtualization clusters, including vSphere HA, DRS, resource pools, hosts, datastores, and distributed switches .

Posted 10/27/2026full-timeNorth Chicago • Illinois • United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $115,000 - $145,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in virtualization technologies, including VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter, along with strong capabilities in infrastructure automation using Terraform and Ansible. Proficient in managing disaster recovery, compliance, and security standards within federal or DoD environments.

Highest-signal resume keywords

VMware vSphere AdministrationInfrastructure Automation with TerraformDisaster Recovery ManagementCompliance with DISA STIGsTechnical Problem-Solving Skills

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

VMware vSphereESXiVCenterVSANNSXSRMInfrastructure AutomationCapacity ManagementDisaster RecoveryConfiguration Compliance

Soft Skills

Analytical SkillsWritten CommunicationVerbal CommunicationTechnical Problem-Solving

Tools & Technologies

TerraformAnsiblePowerCLIPowerShellPythonREST APIsVMware Cloud FoundationVMware Aria

Certifications & Qualifications

VMware Certified ProfessionalHashiCorp Certified: Terraform AssociateRed Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible AutomationITIL 4 Foundation

Industry Keywords

DISA STIGsRMF ControlsVulnerability RemediationFederal Virtualization EnvironmentsDoD Migrations

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AnsibleCloudCyber SecurityPythonTerraformVMware

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Configure, administer, and maintain virtualization clusters, including vSphere HA, DRS, resource pools, hosts, datastores, and distributed switches
Manage ESXi and vCenter patching, upgrades, and certificates
Monitor platform capacity, availability, performance, and compliance, and recommend scaling, balancing, or remediation actions
Configure and support vSAN clusters, storage policies, and fault domains; troubleshoot vSAN performance, resynchronization, and policy-compliance issues
Configure and support NSX segments, transport zones, gateways, routing, and distributed security controls, coordinating changes with network and cybersecurity teams
Administer SRM protection groups and recovery plans; execute and document failover and failback tests and support quarterly COOP exercises and continuity events
Develop and maintain infrastructure automation using Terraform, Ansible, PowerCLI, or APIs, with version control, peer review, testing, rollback, secrets protection, and drift detection
Coordinate with workload owners on resource requirements, placement, templates, and snapshots while preserving platform and workload ownership boundaries
Provide advanced engineering support for cross-platform incidents, isolate platform faults during outages, collect evidence for root-cause analysis, and implement corrective actions
Maintain platform configuration backups, apply DISA STIGs and security baselines, and support RMF evidence, vulnerability remediation, and vendor-advisory reviews
Support technology refreshes and modernization, including capacity, lifecycle, and modernization assessments
Support DISA-hosting transitions through discovery, dependency documentation, readiness assessment, test and rollback plans, cutover, and post-migration stabilization
Maintain architecture diagrams, as-built documentation, SOPs, and recovery procedures; provide platform metrics and modernization status for program reporting

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience where permitted by the labor category
Minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience in virtualization, systems engineering, data-center infrastructure, platform engineering, or infrastructure automation
Hands-on experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter and with vSAN, NSX, SRM, or comparable software-defined storage, network-virtualization, and disaster-recovery technologies
Experience developing or maintaining infrastructure-automation solutions and troubleshooting issues across compute, storage, network, virtualization, and automation layers
Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, backup and restoration, capacity management, and lifecycle practices
Strong written, verbal, analytical, and technical problem-solving skills
Active Secret clearance or higher is required
Chicago, IL–area candidates preferred
Formal Terraform and Ansible training preferred
Experience with VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware Aria, and PowerCLI, PowerShell, Python, or REST APIs preferred
Experience supporting federal or DoD virtualization environments and migrations to DISA enterprise-hosting platforms preferred
Experience with DISA STIGs, RMF controls, vulnerability remediation, and configuration compliance preferred
Experience developing Infrastructure as Code within CI/CD and Git workflows with automated testing and code scanning preferred
Preferred certifications include VMware Certified Professional, HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate, Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation, ITIL 4 Foundation, or relevant cloud, security, storage, or network certification

Benefits

Comp & perks

Remote position
Occasional on-site support, after-hours maintenance, disaster-recovery exercises, incident response, and travel may be required