Cloud Systems Engineer II

Virginia Tech•Blacksburg, VA

About The Position

The Enterprise Solutions & Enabling Technologies (ESET) unit within the Division of IT at Virginia Tech is working to ensure that faculty, staff, and students at the university have access to robust tools and environments to empower innovation and collaboration at all levels. To support this mission, ESET is seeking a Cloud Systems Engineer II to join the team. This position supports Virginia Tech’s enterprise generative AI platform and provides cloud systems administration and operational support through ESET’s Collaborative Computing Solutions (CCS) department, including support for CCS-managed services and approved external partners. About CCS: CCS directly manages the following services for Virginia Tech University Email Services (Gmail and Exchange Online) VT SaaS Offerings (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Slack) Cloud Accounts and Services (AWS, Azure, and GCP) Secure Virtual Environments (Azure Local) VT Active Directory\Azure Active Directory

Requirements

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, IT related field or a combination of education, training, and work experience that equates to a master's degree.
Ability to utilize cloud-based scripting technologies and techniques to automate cloud provisioning and tasks. Such as Azure ARM, Azure Bicep, AWS CDK, or Terraform
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals or higher certification
Familiarity with Azure-based AI or data services (e.g., Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, or similar managed AI services), including configuration, access control, monitoring, and cost management within a cloud environment
Experience with 3rd-party cloud solutions such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS developing cloud-based infrastructure and networking between cloud and on-prem solutions.

Nice To Haves

Working knowledge of data encryption technologies
Knowledge of authentication protocols and other methods of providing security for passwords and network communication, including Multi-Factor Authentication
Strong skills in preparing reports/documents and presenting information
Relevant professional certifications such as Microsoft/AWS Certified: DevOps Engineer or Microsoft/AWS Certified: Solutions Architect

Responsibilities

Architecting geographically redundant, scalable, and highly available systems for CCS.
Ability to design a hybrid architecture using key Azure technologies as well as a continuous integration and deployment process
Design and plan improvements to CCS virtualized on-prem and cloud-based environments to support compliance requirements, performance optimization, and scalability
Leading configuration, deployment, and management of on-prem and cloud-based network infrastructure components, including firewalls, switches, host servers, and storage systems
Participate in vendor-supported maintenance, upgrades, and issue resolution activities, including documenting changes, assisting with testing in non-production environments, and supporting change and release management processes.
Support day-to-day operations of a university-managed generative AI platform hosted in Microsoft Azure, including monitoring service health, availability, and usage trends, and assisting with incident response and vendor escalation as needed.
Support monitoring, logging, and reporting for cloud-hosted platforms, including assisting with usage analysis, cost visibility, and operational dashboards to support service sustainability and chargeback models.
Create and maintain up-to-date documentation of services and functions. Consisting of, but not limited to, network diagrams and architectural blueprints
Follow established policies, procedures, and best practices to ensure operational excellence and efficient workflow
Consult with faculty, staff, researchers, and IT partners to advise them on best practice strategies for using and integrating with Cloud solutions at Virginia Tech