VMware Engineer (Vulnerability Remediation)

Duration: 4 Months

Location: Manchester & remote (hybrid)

Rate: £532 per day

Start: ASAP

IR35 Status: Inside

Role Overview:

An experienced VMware Engineer is required for our higher education client to support a focused vulnerability assessment and remediation programme across a complex on-premises VMware estate.

This is a delivery-focused role requiring immediate impact and as the VMware Engineer you will take full ownership of identifying, analysing, and remediating security vulnerabilities across VMware vSphere, VMware ESXi, and VMware vCenter Server environments.

You will be expected to operate independently, manage challenging stakeholders, and drive remediation to completion within agreed timelines.

Essential Skills & Experience required:

As the VMware Engineer you will possess:

· Strong hands-on experience in enterprise on-prem VMware environments.

· Proven track record of delivering vulnerability remediation programmes.

 Possess a deep knowledge of:

 vSphere architecture and cluster design

 ESXi lifecycle and patch management

 vCenter upgrade paths and dependencies

HA, DRS, vMotion configurations

· Experience working with security scanning tools and interpreting CVEs.

· Strong understanding of infrastructure hardening and security best practices.

· Ability to operate autonomously with minimal supervision.

· Experience working in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.

Responsibilities include:

· Assess and validate vulnerability findings across the VMware estate.

· Remediate critical and high-risk vulnerabilities within defined SLA windows.

· Reduce overall risk exposure through patching, upgrades, configuration hardening, and compensating controls.

· Provide clear reporting on remediation status, risk acceptance, and outstanding actions.

· Support audit and compliance requirements where applicable.

Key Responsibilities

· Review and validate vulnerability scan outputs affecting ESXi hosts and vCenter components.

· Perform impact and risk assessments prior to remediation.

· Plan and execute:

ESXi patching and upgrades

vCenter updates

Security configuration hardening

Cluster remediation activities

Coordinate change management activities and maintenance windows.

Conduct root cause analysis on recurring vulnerabilities.

Engage directly with infrastructure, network, security, and application teams to resolve dependencies.

Challenge and influence stakeholders to ensure remediation actions are prioritised appropriately.

Provide clear technical documentation and executive-level status reporting.

Ensure remediation activities align with vendor advisories and industry security standards.

Clear ownership of assigned vulnerability backlog.

Strong stakeholder management skills.

Delivery-focused mindset with measurable outcomes.

Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.

Please Note: *You will be required to attend the client site in Manchester two days per week*

If this role is of interest please email your CV to: joanne.stanley@certes.co.uk

Senior VMware Engineer

Duration: 4 Months

Location: Manchester & remote (hybrid)

Rate: £570 per day

Start: ASAP

IR35 Status: Inside

Role Overview:

A Senior VMware Engineer is required to support our higher education client's virtual infrastructure modernisation and operational support initiatives.  You will  possess a minimum of 5 years hands-on experience provisioning and managing Linux and Windows virtual machines in enterprise VMware environments.  You will be proficient in providing advanced engineering expertise across VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) VMware ESXi, VMware vSphere and VMware NSX-T; ensuring stability, scalability and performance of mission critical academic and research systems.

Essential Skills & Experience required:

As the Senior VMware Engineer you will possess the following:

A minimum of  5+ years of enterprise VMware engineering experience.

A proven track record provisioning Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, etc.) and Windows Server VMs.

Strong hands-on expertise in VCF, ESXi, vSphere, and NSX-T.

Experience in higher education, research institutions, or large multi-tenant environments preferred.

Solid understanding of storage, networking, and security integration.

Automation and scripting skills (PowerCLI, PowerShell, Bash, Python).

Experience with vCenter administration and cluster design.

Strong troubleshooting and performance tuning capabilities.

Desirable Qualifications

VMware certifications (VCP-DCV, VCAP).

Experience with automation/orchestration (VMware Aria/vRealise, Ansible).

Hybrid cloud experience (Azure, AWS, VMware Cloud).

Experience supporting research computing or HPC workloads.

Familiarity with ITIL-based change management processes.

Responsibilities include:

• Provision, configure, and manage Linux and Windows VMs in enterprise clusters.
• Deploy and manage workloads within VMware Cloud Foundation environments.
• Install, configure, patch, and upgrade VMware ESXi hosts.
• Administer and optimise VMware vSphere clusters, including HA, DRS, and vMotion.
• Design and manage network virtualisation using VMware NSX-T.
• Perform VM lifecycle management (build, template creation, cloning, migration, decommissioning).
• Conduct performance monitoring, capacity planning, and resource optimisation.
• Support storage integration (SAN/NAS/vSAN) and ensure optimal IOPS performance.
• Implement and support backup, replication, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Provide advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
• Document architecture, configurations, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, security, networking, and research computing teams.

Deliverables

• Fully provisioned and optimised virtual machine environments.
• Updated and documented VMware architecture diagrams and configurations.
• Performance optimisation and capacity planning reports.
• Resolved infrastructure incidents within agreed SLAs.
• Knowledge transfer documentation and handover sessions (if required)

If this role is of interest please email  your CV to: joanne.stanley@certes.co.uk