Data Center Engineer

Digital Consultants•Hampton, VA

13h

About The Position

Digital Consultants is seeking a seasoned data center professional to lead the planning, design, and execution of large-scale data center migration projects. The role develops migration strategies that reduce risk and downtime while supporting scalability, performance, and security. It involves designing end-to-end migrations—including on-premises transitions, consolidations, and hybrid or cloud-adjacent migrations—and assessing existing environments, dependencies, and risks to create roadmaps and execution plans. The position architects target-state environments aligned with business objectives, security standards, and compliance requirements; coordinates work across infrastructure, network, storage, security, and application teams; and establishes standards and architectural frameworks for operations and future growth. It also guides technical decisions across virtualization, storage, networking, backup, and disaster recovery; oversees cutovers, validation, and post-migration optimization; and addresses performance, availability, data integrity, and security risks. Documentation, technical leadership, mentorship, customer liaison, and support for business development are also part of the role. Additional systems-engineering work includes evaluating company services and competing solutions; monitoring hardware and software developments; deriving and verifying requirements; translating high-level strategies into network and system specifications; coordinating standards and procedures; integrating network and system elements; evaluating technical performance; and coordinating equipment planning, design, and installation. The role participates in conceptual design and documentation and designs and builds network services, equipment, and devices.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 12+ years of experience.
Top Secret/SCI clearance.
DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification, such as Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, CySA+, or CND.
Deep expertise in data center infrastructure, including compute, storage, and networking.
Strong understanding of virtualization platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM.
Proficiency in designing and executing large-scale data center migrations.
Knowledge of cloud platforms and hybrid or cloud-adjacent architectures.
Experience with SAN, NAS, and object storage architectures.
Advanced networking knowledge, including routing, switching, firewalls, and load balancing.
Familiarity with backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies.
Strong understanding of security frameworks, compliance requirements, and risk mitigation.
Ability to develop architectural standards, frameworks, and documentation.
Experience with automation and orchestration tools such as PowerShell and Ansible.
Proficiency in dependency mapping, workload analysis, and capacity planning.

Nice To Haves

Strong problem-solving, analytical, and troubleshooting skills.
Excellent communication and cross-team collaboration skills.
Ability to lead technical teams and provide mentorship.
Experience with DoD networks, including NIPR, SIPR, and JWICS.
Experience in fast-paced, transformation-driven environments.

Responsibilities

Design and lead end-to-end data center migration strategies, including on-premises transitions, consolidations, and hybrid or cloud-adjacent migrations.
Assess data center environments, dependencies, and risks and develop migration roadmaps and execution plans.
Architect target-state data center designs that align with business objectives, security standards, and compliance requirements.
Coordinate migration activities with infrastructure, network, storage, security, and application teams.
Establish architectural standards, best practices, frameworks, procedures, and practices for ongoing operations and future scalability.
Lead technical decisions involving virtualization platforms, storage, networking, backup, and disaster recovery.
Oversee migration execution, including cutover planning, validation, and post-migration optimization.
Identify and mitigate performance, availability, data integrity, and security risks throughout the migration lifecycle.
Prepare architecture diagrams, runbooks, migration plans, and operational handoff documentation.
Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to engineering and operations teams.
Investigate company services and competing equipment or solutions, and stay current with hardware and software developments.
Generate quantifiable requirements from customer descriptions and system planning and design, and verify compliance using formal methods.
Translate high-level product development strategies into network and system requirements and collaborate with other engineering disciplines on detailed implementation requirements.
Coordinate development of network and system standards, practices, and procedures.
Design interfaces and integrate network and system elements into a cohesive whole.
Assess performance using evaluation criteria and technical performance measures.
Provide customer liaison and support business development activities to understand and shape requirements.
Coordinate planning, design, and installation of equipment using engineering and programming knowledge and sophisticated instruments and computers.
Participate in system conceptual design and document design concepts.
Design, create, and build network services, equipment, and devices.