Title : OpenShift Engineer

Location : California Preferred (Remote is also fine)

Senior OpenShift Virtualization Engineer

(VMware Migration & Platform Modernization)

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior OpenShift Virtualization Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and operationalization of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization as a strategic virtualization platform. This role will serve as a technical leader for evaluating, migrating, and modernizing enterprise virtual infrastructure, with a primary focus on transitioning workloads from VMware vSphere/ESXi environments to OpenShift Virtualization.

The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in KVM-based virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift, KubeVirt (optional), enterprise infrastructure, and large-scale VMware migration programs. The engineer will be responsible for designing migration strategies, automating deployment processes, validating platform readiness, and ensuring production-grade operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Engineering

  • Architect, deploy, and maintain highly available OpenShift Virtualization clusters.
  • Design scalable virtualization platforms supporting both virtual machine and container workloads.
  • Configure and optimize storage, networking, security, monitoring, and backup solutions within OpenShift environments.
  • Develop standards, reference architectures, operational procedures, and platform governance models.

VMware Migration Leadership

  • Lead migrations from VMware ESXi/vSphere to OpenShift Virtualization.
  • Assess existing VMware environments and create migration roadmaps.
  • Define migration waves, dependency mapping, rollback plans, and validation procedures.
  • Utilize Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV/Forklift) to automate workload migrations. Migration tooling is a key capability highlighted in vendor documentation.
  • Execute proof-of-concept, pilot, and production migration activities.
  • Validate workload performance, functionality, availability, and disaster recovery after migration.

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

  • Develop automation using:
    • Ansible Automation Platform
    • GitOps methodologies
    • Terraform
    • OpenShift Operators
    • CI/CD pipelines
  • Automate cluster deployment, lifecycle operations, VM provisioning, and configuration management.

Storage & Data Services

  • Engineer storage integrations using enterprise storage platforms.
  • Implement CSI-based storage solutions and persistent storage strategies.
  • Design migration procedures for VMDK-to-PVC conversion, storage class mapping, and data movement workflows. These capabilities are central to VMware-to-OpenShift migration processes documented by Red Hat and NetApp.

Operations & Reliability

  • Establish monitoring, logging, alerting, capacity planning, and performance management practices.
  • Support high availability, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity requirements.
  • Develop operational runbooks and troubleshooting guides.
  • Participate in architecture reviews and strategic infrastructure planning.

Technical Leadership

  • Provide mentorship to infrastructure, virtualization, and platform engineering teams.
  • Serve as a subject matter expert for OpenShift Virtualization and KubeVirt (optional).
  • Collaborate with application owners, security teams, storage engineers, and cloud platform teams.
  • Present technical recommendations to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

Experience

  • 8+ years of enterprise infrastructure engineering experience.
  • 5+ years supporting VMware vSphere and ESXi environments.
  • 3+ years of hands-on Red Hat OpenShift administration and engineering experience.
  • Proven experience leading VMware-to-OpenShift Virtualization migration initiatives.
  • Experience migrating production workloads involving:
    • Windows Server
    • Linux platforms
    • Tier-1 business applications
    • Enterprise databases

Technical Skills

OpenShift

  • Red Hat OpenShift Platform
  • OpenShift Virtualization
  • Operators and Operator Lifecycle Management

VMware

  • VMware ESXi
  • VMware vSphere
  • VMware vCenter
  • VM lifecycle management
  • Datastore and networking architecture
  • vMotion and migration planning

Migration Technologies

  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV/Forklift)
  • Workload discovery and assessment
  • Migration planning and execution
  • Cutover and rollback procedures
  • VM conversion methodologies

Automation

  • Ansible
  • Terraform
  • Git
  • GitOps frameworks
  • Python, Bash, or PowerShell

Storage & Networking

  • CSI storage integrations
  • SAN/NAS technologies
  • Enterprise storage platforms
  • Software-defined networking
  • VLANs, load balancing, DNS, and identity integration

Preferred Qualifications

  • Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration
  • Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
  • VMware VCP or VCAP certification
  • Experience with NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell PowerFlex, or similar enterprise storage platforms
  • Experience supporting environments with 1,000+ virtual machines
  • Experience implementing hybrid cloud and platform modernization strategies

Desired Leadership Characteristics

  • Strategic thinker with strong architecture skills.
  • Demonstrated success leading large-scale infrastructure transformation programs.
  • Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
  • Proven ability to influence technical direction and drive adoption of new platforms.
  • Ability to balance operational stability with modernization objectives.

Success Metrics

  • Successful migration of VMware workloads to OpenShift Virtualization.
  • Reduction in operational complexity through automation.
  • Achievement of platform performance and availability targets.
  • Delivery of repeatable migration frameworks and processes.
  • Adoption of OpenShift Virtualization as a strategic enterprise platform.
  • Improved infrastructure agility through convergence of VM and container workloads.

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