Sr. Infrastructure Solutions Engineer (Compute & Storage)

Cloudera•US-Texas-Remote, TX

4d•Remote

About The Position

Cloudera is seeking a Sr. Infrastructure Solutions Engineer (Compute & Storage) for its Technical Operations organization. The role serves as the team’s subject matter expert on server and storage hardware, consulting with internal software engineering teams to understand workload requirements and translate them into suitable compute, storage, GPU, and networking configurations. Working closely with Sr. Platform Operations Engineers, the engineer owns the hardware layer of Cloudera’s internal platform, from requirements gathering, sizing, and vendor engagement through deployment, lifecycle management, and troubleshooting. Dell is the primary hardware OEM, but the role calls for a vendor-neutral approach to selecting solutions. The position covers enterprise server and storage design and administration, hardware lifecycle ownership, integration with provisioning and Infrastructure-as-Code workflows, hardware automation and security, complex troubleshooting, documentation, and operational improvement. It also serves as a technical SME across IT Systems, CloudOps, Security, and Engineering, includes mentoring junior team members, and participates in a shared on-call rotation supporting mission-critical IT services. The role requires a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or at least 8 years of equivalent experience in a large-scale enterprise environment, along with substantial hands-on experience in enterprise hardware, storage, Linux, scripting, virtualization or bare-metal platforms, networking, and secure infrastructure. This role is not eligible for immigration support or relocation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or 8+ years of equivalent experience in a large-scale enterprise environment.
Deep hands-on expertise in enterprise server hardware, including CPU architectures, memory configuration, PCIe topology, RAID/HBA controllers, NVMe/SAS/SATA drives, NICs, and power and thermal considerations.
Extensive experience with Dell PowerEdge servers and management tools such as iDRAC, Lifecycle Controller, OpenManage, and racadm.
Working knowledge of at least one other server platform, such as HPE ProLiant/iLO, Lenovo ThinkSystem/XClarity, Supermicro, Cisco UCS, or OCP/ODM hardware.
Hands-on experience administering enterprise storage arrays; ideally Dell PowerStore and Pure Storage FlashArray, including provisioning, performance tuning, upgrades, and troubleshooting.
Solid understanding of storage architectures and protocols, including block, file, object, SAN/NAS, software-defined storage, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, NVMe-oF, NFS, SMB, and S3.
Ability to consult with engineering stakeholders, translate workload characteristics into hardware specifications, present cost/performance/risk trade-offs, and document recommendations.
Strong Linux systems administration experience, including hardware validation, driver and firmware management, and OS-level performance diagnostics.
Strong Python and shell scripting skills for hardware automation, fleet inventory, and integration with management APIs such as Redfish.
Experience with on-premise virtualization and bare-metal platforms such as VMware, KVM, or OpenStack.
Strong networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, and firewalls, with data center networking experience involving server NICs, 10/25/100GbE or faster, link aggregation, VLANs, cabling, optics, and storage networking.
Security-first mindset and experience designing, building, and operating secure infrastructure, including firmware, BMC, and hardware root-of-trust controls.

Nice To Haves

Certifications such as Dell Technologies (PowerEdge, PowerStore), Pure Storage, NVIDIA, CompTIA Server+, or Red Hat (RHCE).
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or Ansible, version control such as GitHub/Git, and bare-metal provisioning tools such as Foreman, MaaS, or PXE.
Experience with GPU and accelerator platforms for AI/ML and high-performance workloads, such as NVIDIA HGX/DGX, InfiniBand or RoCE fabrics, high-density power, and liquid cooling.
Knowledge of data center facilities planning, including power, cooling, rack elevations, and DCIM tools.
Experience with vendor management, total cost of ownership analysis, and hardware budgeting.
Knowledge of enterprise security principles, cryptography, PKI, and operational security practices.
Experience in regulated, high-governance, or compliance environments such as FedRAMP, PCI, ISO27001, or SOC2.
Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools, including hardware telemetry and alerting.
Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes).
Project management experience.
Previous experience mentoring junior team members.

Responsibilities

Consult with internal software engineering teams to gather and analyze workload requirements, then translate them into cost-effective server and storage configurations.
Design, document, and maintain standard hardware configurations for workload profiles such as build/CI, virtualization, big data and analytics, databases, and GPU/AI/ML.
Serve as the primary technical contact with Dell and other OEMs, resellers, and component vendors; validate configurations, review quotes and bills of materials, evaluate roadmaps, and assess platforms through proof-of-concept and benchmark testing.
Own the lifecycle of on-premise compute and storage hardware, including capacity planning, procurement support, rack/power/cooling planning, deployment, firmware/BIOS/BMC updates, warranty and support cases, refresh, and decommissioning.
Design, implement, and administer enterprise storage platforms, including Dell PowerStore and Pure Storage arrays.
Partner with Sr. Platform Operations Engineers to integrate new hardware into bare-metal provisioning, virtualization, and Infrastructure-as-Code workflows.
Automate hardware management, health monitoring, and fleet inventory using out-of-band management tools, APIs, and scripting.
Implement hardware- and firmware-level security best practices, including BMC/iDRAC hardening, Secure Boot, TPM, firmware patching, and supply-chain integrity.
Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for complex hardware, firmware, and storage performance issues, working with OEM support to resolve them.
Serve as a technical SME and collaborate with IT Systems, CloudOps, Security, and Engineering teams on robust, scalable solutions.
Participate in a shared on-call rotation supporting mission-critical IT services.
Create and maintain documentation for hardware standards, configurations, asset inventory, operational audits, and compliance.
Identify and drive improvements in hardware performance, utilization, monitoring, and operational processes through automation and observability.
Mentor junior team members.