"Enterprise Platform Engineer"

Job Details

Benefits: All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefits, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.

Unit: Technology Services MBU

Department: Network Services

Duties & Responsibilities:

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is seeking a skilled and experienced Enterprise Platform Engineer to join our Infrastructure Services team. This role is critical to supporting the University’s mission by ensuring the performance, availability, and security of VCU’s enterprise platforms and infrastructure.

The successful candidate will be responsible for installing, configuring, maintaining, upgrading, and supporting mission-critical systems across VCU’s robust private data center environment, which spans multiple enterprise data center facilities.

This position is eligible for a Flexible Work Arrangement as a privilege contingent upon satisfactory job performance and other factors, enabling a mix of both remote and on-site work at VCU campus locations in downtown Richmond, Virginia. Although many responsibilities can be performed remotely, the ability to be present on-site, as necessary, is essential to supporting platforms and infrastructure in this enterprise data center environment.

All full-time University staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes: comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefit, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.

VCU is also committed to hiring veterans! The University will include a veteran’s period(s) of military service in calculations of annual leave accrual rate. This may provide veterans with an increased leave accrual.

Learn more about VCU’s benefits here.

Key Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Management. Participate in the design, implementation, and management of scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure solutions to support mission-critical University applications and services.
• Server Virtualization and Storage. Design, implement, and maintain server virtualization platforms, enterprise storage area networks (SAN), and network-attached storage (NAS) while ensuring data integrity, availability, and security.
• System Administration. Perform advanced system administration tasks, including installation and configuration of hypervisors, storage appliances, and fibre channel network switches.
• Monitoring and Performance Tuning. Participate in the implementation of monitoring solutions to proactively identify and resolve performance issues, enabling maximal uptime and optimal system performance.
• Security Compliance. Collaborate with the University Information Security team and support VCU security policies and industry best practices, including regular security assessments and vulnerability management / remediation.
• Disaster Recovery. Assist with crafting and contributing to the continuous development and maintenance of disaster recovery plans and procedures to ensure continuity of University operations. Support the testing and successful execution of these plans when called upon to do so.
• Technical Support and Assistance. Provide consultative and technical support to the user community to ensure problem resolution, system / data access, and optimal system performance. Provide technical advice and expertise to customer departments.
• Collaboration. Build strong professional relationships and work closely with cross-functional teams, including application developers, system owners, server operating system and data center network engineers, and information security analysts, to deliver integrated solutions.
• Technical Knowledge Expertise and Training. Maintain a current level of knowledge on topics within the computer industry, including but not limited to attending classes, seminars and vendor presentations, reading manuals and trade journals, use of the Internet, and conversing with peers. Provide training and documentation to transfer this knowledge to other team members.
• Documentation. Create, maintain, and adhere to comprehensive documentation for infrastructure configurations, processes, and procedures. Utilize established VCU Technology Services, Infrastructure Services, and Enterprise Platform team processes and tools for project management, technology change management, incident reporting, and more as an integral part of all support activities.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications

• Education. Prefer Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be substituted.
• Experience. Minimum of 1-3 years of experience supporting an enterprise server virtualization environment and/or data center storage in a platform engineering, site reliability engineering, system administration, or related role.
• Technical Skills
  • Proficiency in provisioning, supporting, maintaining, and troubleshooting enterprise server virtualization, and/or data center storage (SAN and NAS) platforms (e.g., VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, Pure Storage, Dell PowerScale / Isilon, OpenStack, Nutanix, Hyper-V, Proxmox, Azure Stack, Dell VxRail, Dell PowerStore).
  • ​​Proficiency in Linux and/or Windows server administration.
  • Strong scripting skills in one or more languages (e.g., Python, BASH, PowerShell).
  • Familiarity with team communication, collaboration, and video conferencing tools (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, Zoom, Cisco WebEx).
  • Understanding of Ethernet and fibre channel networking concepts and protocols.
• Soft Skills
  • Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
  • Strong written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
  • Ability to effectively perform independently and as part of a team in distributed, remote, and in-person environments, with minimal supervision.
  • Detail-oriented, with a commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
  • An understanding of and willingness to embrace the responsibilities of supporting enterprise technology platforms and infrastructure in a 24x7 environment, including responding to emergencies and supporting / implementing changes outside of regular University operating hours as needed, both on-site and remotely.
  • A cheerful eagerness to welcome change, explore alternatives, tactfully ask difficult questions of self and others, and otherwise challenge the status quo as a member of a team that strives to always be innovating, while maintaining an unwavering focus on the goals and best interests of the VCU community.
  • Demonstrated experience working in and fostering an environment of respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from various backgrounds and experiences, or a commitment to do so as a staff member at VCU.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience working in a 24x7 enterprise data center environment, including within the higher education sector
• Proficiency with provisioning, supporting, maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing rack server hardware (e.g., Dell PowerEdge, Cisco UCS) and Cisco Fabric Interconnect switches. Experience with Dell CloudIQ, Dell Secure Connect Gateway, Dell OpenManage Enterprise, and/or Cisco Intersight a plus.
• Experience with the Superna suite of products for Dell storage environments (e.g., Superna Eyeglass, Ransomware Defender, Smart AirGap).
• Familiarity with one or more enterprise data protection platforms (e.g., Cohesity DataProtect, Dell Networker, Rubrik, Veeam, Commvault, etc.).

Job Slotting: Sr. IT Systems Analyst 1 (24244N) - Sr. IT Systems Analyst 2 (24245N)

Salary Range: $95,000 - $120,000

FLSA Exemption Status: Exempt

Hours per Week: 40

Restricted Position: No

ORP Eligible: No

Flexible Work Arrangement: Hybrid