Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer

Wilson Elser - Business & Legal Professionals•New York, NY

4d•$120,000 - $165,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Infrastructure Operations Engineer will work as part of a dynamic team to provide high quality engineering, implementation, and support across all areas of the Windows platform, virtualization, storage, SQL Server, and cloud infrastructure — both on premises and in Azure. This role serves as the senior technical escalation point for the Infrastructure Operations team, accountable for the design, resilience, and documented recoverability of the firm’s virtualization, storage, SQL, and cloud platforms. This role provides expert guidance during complex incidents that exceed the team's standard support capabilities. This role is also the firm’s designated Operations SQL SME, providing technical leadership for SQL Server operational support, availability, performance, maintenance, and recovery. The individual must be a great communicator, work well within a team, and be a self-starter able to own and independently lead projects from planning through completion. Critically, this individual is to strengthen the overall capability of the Infrastructure Operations team by eliminating single points of failure. This includes creating and maintaining high-quality operational documentation, developing repeatable procedures that other engineers can confidently execute, and actively cross-training teammates. The objective is to build a resilient, knowledge-sharing organization where critical expertise is institutionalized rather than dependent on any one individual.

Requirements

Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server (2014 through 2022) — required.
Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft-driven server OS technologies Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022, including in-place upgrades and failover-cluster methodologies.
Hands-on experience with Azure, PaaS, IaaS, and workload migrations to Azure — required.
Administration experience of the Virtualization (Azure and on-prem VMware) environment across multiple sites — required.
Strong hands-on experience with Active Directory (Group Policies, ACL management, etc.), PowerShell scripting.
Strong hands-on experience with Office 365; EOL as well as Exchange on-prem with experience implementing and migrating to Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.
Broad hands-on knowledge of Server Infrastructure and Cloud technologies and other industry-standard techniques and best practices.
Knowledge of applicable practices and laws relating to data privacy and protection.
Ability to conduct research into new technologies and products as required.
High level of analytical and problem-solving abilities.
Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
Highly self-motivated and directed.
Solid project management skills.
Excellent listening skills.
Ability to work within a team-oriented, collaborative environment and independently when applicable.
Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communications skills.
Strategic and creative thinking.
Strong documentation required.
Communicate with management, peers, and office administrators, and demonstrate strong customer service skills.
College or University degree in a related field or 10+ years equivalent work experience.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; a minimum of 7 years of hands-on infrastructure engineering experience, including at least 3 years in a senior or escalation capacity.
Broad hands-on knowledge of server infrastructure, SQL Server, and cloud technologies, and other industry-standard techniques and best practices.
Demonstrated ability to act as a final technical escalation point — calm, methodical, and decisive under major-incident pressure.
Ability to produce documentation another engineer can execute without assistance.

Nice To Haves

HyperV experience a plus.
1Password, Barracuda, Atlassian Jira project and issue management for daily work, LanSweeper, Dell hardware, OpenManage Enterprise, Intune, Pure Storage, SolarWinds, Varonis, Veeam experience a plus.
Visio diagram experience a plus.
Certifications in ITIL, Agile, and/or other technical acumen (Microsoft, Azure, O365) a plus.
Relevant certifications preferred: Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or Azure Solutions Architect (AZ-305); Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate (DP-300) or equivalent SQL Server credential; VMware VCP-DCV; ITIL Foundation.

Responsibilities

Administer, and support the firm’s Azure estate, including Landing Zone, IaaS/PaaS, Entra ID / AAD Connect synchronization, SSO, Conditional Access, and MFA; lead workload migrations from on-premises to Azure.
Plan and execute SQL version upgrades and failover-cluster node-evict/rebuild procedures, and to distinguish platform-owned SQL work from application-owned SQL work.
Own the SQL Server platform end to end — installation, patching, and version/edition upgrades; Always On Availability Groups, failover clustering, and DR runbooks; backups, restores, and validated recovery testing; Serve as first-touch triage for all SQL tickets entering the Operations queue and route application-owned SQL work to the appropriate application team.
Administer vSphere/vCenter across multiple sites; own DR replication and recovery plans in Site Recovery Manager, including scheduled failover testing and validated recovery documentation.
Administer Pure Storage and HPE 3PAR arrays — provisioning, capacity and performance management, firmware lifecycle, and replication.
Administer Dell server hardware (Dell OpenManage and Dell blade chassis) — firmware lifecycle, hardware fault remediation, and vendor RMA coordination.
Administer SolarWinds — node coverage accuracy, alert tuning, and reduction of alert noise so that alerts are trusted and actioned.
Manage the full lifecycle of enterprise application certificates, maintain a renewal calendar, and prevent expiry-driven outages.
Provide depth behind existing primary owners for Active Directory and Exchange On-Premises.
Serve as the senior technical escalation for the Infrastructure Operations team; take ownership of major incidents, drive root cause to closure, and publish a written RCA.
Participate in a weekly on-call rotation that begins at 8 AM Mondays and rotates with the team every 4-5 weeks.