Senior Virtualization Engineer

Western National Group & Umialik Insurance • Edina, MN

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

Western National Insurance Group is a private mutual insurance company with over 120 years of experience serving customers' property-and-casualty insurance needs in the Midwestern, Northwestern, and Southwestern United States. Known as “The Relationship Company®,” we define success as a measure of the relationships we’ve built over time. In everything that we do, we know that delivering a friendly and helpful interaction makes for a better experience for everyone involved. That’s the power of “nice”. At Western National, nice is something we work to bring to every person and organization with whom we partner and serve.

Western National is seeking a Systems Engineer III to join our team!

The individual in this role will have the opportunity to ensure that assigned systems are working at optimal levels and support the development of new technologies and system requirements.

Requirements

• Demonstrated aptitude toward problem identification and resolution.
• Proven aptitude for technical decision-ownership, project planning, and providing project / team direction.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, test, and support software applications.
• Proven ability to communicate clearly and effectively both verbally and in writing to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Proficient use of various core systems, office and computer equipment, and software packages.
• At least seven years of experience in enterprise infrastructure or virtualization engineering.
• Deep expertise with Citrix virtual applications and desktops.
• Strong hands-on experience with VMware vSphere.
• Experience supporting pure storage environments.
• Advanced PowerShell scripting (e.g., automation, functions, modules, error handling).
• Solid understanding of Windows server, networking fundamentals, and storage concepts.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science; experience in lieu of degree acceptable.

Nice To Haves

• Ability to identify system weaknesses and use various tools to mitigate the weakness.
• Proven ability to work in a team environment and collaborate / contribute to cross-functional teams.
• Flexibility and availability to support business projects and meet business needs.
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of the principles, practices, and standards of IT infrastructure.
• Ability to effectively coach and mentor team members.
• Experience in regulated or high-availability environments.
• Experience with NetScaler ADC administration and troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with PKI design and automation certification.
• Experience supporting large-scale Active Directory environments.
• Citrix, VMware, or Microsoft certifications are preferred.

Responsibilities

• Architects, engineers, and supports Citrix environments, including virtual apps and desktops, NetScaler, StoreFront, and PVS / MCS.
• Designs and maintains highly available, scalable Citrix infrastructure that supports enterprise workloads.
• Leads upgrades, migrations, performance tuning, and lifecycle management of all Citrix platforms.
• Troubleshoots complex Citrix and virtualization issues across networking, storage, and compute layers.
• Designs, deploys, and maintains VMware vSphere environments, including ESXi, vCenter, clusters, HA / DRS, and SRM Site Recovery Manager.
• Optimizes VM performance, capacity planning, and resource utilization.
• Supports Windows server infrastructure that is hosted on VMware.
• Collaborates with backup, disaster recovery, and security teams to ensure resilient systems.
• Engineers and supports pure storage arrays that are integrated with VMware.
• Manages storage provisioning, performance tuning, snapshots, and replication.
• Partners with infrastructure teams to ensure optimal storage design and performance.
• Makes decisions automatically on routine issues.
• Oversees responsibility for developing improvements and innovations to enhance performance.
• Recognizes problems or situations that are new or without clear precedent.
• Creates and maintains comprehensive documentation as it relates to server topology, equipment, and configurations.
• Participates in the creation, maintenance, testing, and execution of the disaster recovery plan and oversees system backups and recovery plans.
• Assists in capacity planning activities, including creating and presenting technical specifications and requirements for purchasing new servers.
• Functions as a subject matter expert on projects to implement or enhance enterprise systems and infrastructure.
• Performs complex configuration, change management, and testing activities to support designed architecture and integration between all systems and infrastructure.
• Identifies solutions using a systematic, multi-step approach.
• Makes recommendations and solves complex problems.
• Consistently act according to our customer experience standards, including responding quickly, maintaining a positive attitude, building rapport, demonstrating empathy, managing the customer’s expectations, using the proper communication channel for the situation, and taking ownership to ensure the customer’s issue is resolved.
• Performs special projects and other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Medical insurance plan options and other standard employee benefits, including dental insurance, vision benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, and more!
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) Plan (participants are eligible for 100% matching on the first 6% of their contributions)
• Wellbeing Program, including onsite fitness studio
• Paid Time Off – including holiday, vacation, and volunteer
• 100% company-paid tuition reimbursement for approved job-relevant coursework and access to The Institutes (Risk and insurance education)
• Paid parental leave
• Bonus opportunities
• Western National believes in supporting balance between work and life by providing a flexible work environment, which includes a variety of hybrid and remote work arrangements designed to balance individual, job, department, and company needs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees