Senior Virtualization Engineer

KaylaTek•Joint Base Andrews, MD

3d•$140,000 - $142,000•Onsite

About The Position

KaylaTek is seeking a Senior Virtualization Engineer to provide operational support for VMware/Nutanix clusters supporting the Air Force District of Washington (AFDW) at Joint Base Andrews, MD. This candidate will serve as a key technical leader supporting mission-critical VMware and Nutanix infrastructure environments within a highly secure setting. The ideal candidate will be responsible for architecting, deploying, optimizing, and maintaining virtualization platforms while ensuring maximum performance, scalability, and compliance with federal cybersecurity standards. This role offers the opportunity to work with cutting-edge hyper-converged technologies, lead major migration initiatives, collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams, and directly support critical Air Force operations. The ideal professional will bring deep VMware and Nutanix expertise, a strong background in secure enterprise infrastructure, and a passion for delivering resilient, high-performing solutions in a complex defense environment.

Requirements

Requires a current 8140 IAT Level II (Intermediate or Advanced) certificate (CompTIA Security+).
Active VMware Certified Professional certification, version 6.0 or higher.
Active Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) or Nutanix Certified Systems Engineer (NCSE) certification.
Active DOD Secret clearance (final) at a minimum
Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of related experience, or a master's degree with 10+ years of experience. Additional relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of a degree.
Active DoD security clearance, Secret or Top Secret.
10+ years of infrastructure engineering experience with a strong focus on VMware and/or Nutanix environments.
Current DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification, such as CompTIA Security+.
Active VMware Certified Professional certification, version 6.0 or higher.
Active Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) or Nutanix Certified Systems Engineer (NCSE) certification.
Verifiable experience in a DoD or defense contractor environment, with a strong understanding of operational and security requirements.
Deep knowledge of virtualization technologies, including VMware and Nutanix.
Strong expertise in Nutanix AOS, AHV, Prism, and Flow.
Proficiency managing Windows Server and Linux environments.
Hands-on experience implementing and managing systems compliant with DISA STIGs and NIST SP 800-171.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
MUST BE A US CITIZEN

Nice To Haves

Experience with infrastructure automation tools such as Ansible or Terraform, and scripting languages such as Python or PowerShell.
Strong understanding of networking fundamentals, including switching, VLANs, firewalls, and micro-segmentation.
Experience working in air-gapped or classified network environments, such as SIPRNet.
Experience with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), including Omnissa.
Knowledge of Air Force, Pentagon, and/or AFNCR environments.
Experience working at the Pentagon, Joint Base Andrews (JBA), and Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB).

Responsibilities

Provide operational support for VMware and Nutanix clusters supporting the Air Force District of Washington (AFDW).
Designing, deploying, configuring, and maintaining VMware/Nutanix clusters; monitoring system metrics to ensure availability, scalability, and performance; and performing troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for complex technical issues.
Serve as the subject matter expert for VMware and Nutanix infrastructure, including mentoring and training other engineers on platform use, maintenance, and cluster analysis.
Maintain patches and upgrades for all hyper-converged software, applications, and underlying Nutanix and VMware hardware.
Lead and support projects involving the migration of virtual machines and applications from legacy platforms, including VMware, to the Nutanix platform.
Develop and maintain comprehensive virtualization documentation for system configurations, security plans, and operational procedures to support compliance audits and ensure system integrity.
Participate in weekly Internal Design Review (IDR) and Change Control Board (CCB) meetings.
Collaborate with engineers to monitor and maintain physical hosts, storage, network, and security infrastructure, and report issues or outages to management as needed.
Use VMware Aria Operations, formerly vRealize Operations Manager (vROPS), to monitor the vCenter environment and assess future virtualization capacity.
Work closely with cybersecurity personnel, network engineers, and application owners to deliver secure, robust, and efficient solutions that comply with DoD mandates, including DISA STIGs and NIST SP 800-171.
Support the on-call rotation.