Virtualization Engineer Lead / Specialist Engineer

Job Title: Virtualization Engineer Lead / Specialist Engineer
Location: Bentonville, Arkansas
Experience: 12+ Years
Employment Type: Contract
Interview Type: In-Person or Webcam

We are seeking a highly skilled Virtualization Engineer Lead / Specialist Engineer with extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing enterprise-level virtualization environments. The ideal candidate will have deep technical expertise in VMware and related virtualization technologies, strong leadership capabilities, and hands-on experience supporting large-scale infrastructure operations.

This role will work closely with cross-functional teams including Cloud, Network, Storage, DevOps, Security, and Application Engineering to deliver stable, scalable, and secure virtualization solutions. The position requires strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to manage complex infrastructure initiatives in a fast-paced and large enterprise environment.

• Lead the design, deployment, configuration, and optimization of VMware virtualization environments

• Manage and maintain VMware vSphere, ESXi clusters, vCenter Server, vSAN, and NSX environments

• Plan and execute migrations, upgrades, and capacity expansion activities

• Perform performance tuning, problem diagnosis, root cause analysis, and incident resolution

• Implement and enforce best practices, policies, and standards for virtualization, backup, and disaster recovery

• Collaborate with engineering and architecture teams to design scalable virtualization infrastructure solutions

• Provide direction and leadership for junior engineers and technical support teams

• Work on automation and scripting initiatives to streamline provisioning and operational tasks

• Integrate virtualization platforms with storage, networking, and cloud solutions

• Support planning and execution of DR drills and business continuity initiatives

• Maintain documentation including designs, SOPs, system diagrams, and configuration standards

• Minimum 12+ years of hands-on experience in virtualization engineering and infrastructure operations

• Strong expertise in VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, vSAN, and NSX-T

• Experience managing large enterprise VMware clusters and multi-site environments

• Proficiency in PowerCLI, PowerShell, or similar scripting tools

• Solid understanding of networking concepts including VLANs, TCP/IP, firewalls, load balancing, and routing

• Experience with backup and disaster recovery solutions (Veeam, Commvault, or similar)

• Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills for complex infrastructure issues

• Experience working with enterprise storage platforms such as NetApp, Dell EMC, Pure Storage, or HPE

• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional technical and leadership teams

• Excellent communication and documentation skills

• VMware certifications such as VCP, VCAP, or VCDX

• Experience with public cloud integrations (AWS, Azure, GCP)

• Kubernetes, container platforms, or Tanzu experience

• Experience with monitoring tools such as vRealize Suite, Dynatrace, Splunk, or SolarWinds

• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Ansible, or similar)

• Experience in retail or large-scale distributed enterprise environments