VMware Operations Lead

Role : VMware Operations Lead

Location : Mumbai/ Navi Mumbai

Years of experience : 9+

ROLE PURPOSE:

Lead the VMware virtualization and private-cloud operations function, ensuring availability, performance, capacity, security, compliance, lifecycle health and service continuity across Production, Disaster Recovery, UAT and other managed environments. The role combines hands-on technical depth with people leadership, operational governance and platform modernization. Critical success profile: A hands-on leader who can independently diagnose complex cross-domain issues across compute, storage, networking, backup, operating systems and platform integrations, while guiding the team through restoration and permanent resolution.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

VMware Platform Operations:

1. Own day-to-day operations of enterprise VMware environments comprising ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, clusters and virtual machines.
2. Ensure platform availability, reliability, performance, capacity, resiliency and compliance across Production, DR and non-production environments.
3. Lead installation, configuration, hardening, patching, upgrades, lifecycle management, technology refresh and decommissioning activities.
4. Perform proactive health checks, trend analysis, capacity reviews and performance optimization; translate findings into prioritized remediation plans.
5. Act as the senior technical escalation point for critical incidents and coordinate timely service restoration.

Troubleshooting & Problem Management :

1. Demonstrate strong hands-on troubleshooting across VMware compute, memory, storage, networking, guest operating systems, backup and hardware layers.
2. Use logs, metrics, events and dependency analysis to isolate root cause, validate hypotheses and implement sustainable fixes.
3. Lead major-incident technical bridges, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, and knowledge transfer.
4. Troubleshoot complex cross-domain issues without depending solely on OEM or vendor support.

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF):

1. Operate and support VMware Cloud Foundation, including SDDC Manager, vSphere, vCenter, NSX, vSAN and relevant VMware Aria components.
2. Manage VCF workload domains, platform health, certificate/password lifecycle, patching, upgrades and configuration compliance.
3. Contribute to private-cloud standardization, modernization and operational-readiness initiatives.

Virtualization Networking:

1. Operate and troubleshoot vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS), port groups, uplinks, teaming, VLANs and virtual network policies.
2. Apply working knowledge of NSX concepts including segments, gateways, routing, distributed firewall, micro-segmentation, overlay/underlay networking and service connectivity.
3. Understand and support NSX VPC concepts, tenant isolation and policy-driven networking where deployed.
4. Coordinate with network and security teams for end-to-end connectivity, firewall and performance troubleshooting.

Automation & Platform Engineering:

1. Identify repetitive operational activities and convert them into controlled, reusable automation.
2. Use or guide automation through PowerCLI, PowerShell, Python, REST APIs, VMware Aria Automation, Aria Orchestrator and relevant Infrastructure-as-Code practices.
3. Promote automated provisioning, Day-2 operations, compliance validation, reporting and evidence generation.
4. Apply version control, peer review, testing, rollback and documentation practices to production automation.

Storage, Backup & Disaster Recovery:

1. Work with storage teams on SAN, NAS, vSAN, datastore performance, multipathing, capacity and storage-policy issues.
2. Operate or support integration with enterprise VM backup and recovery tool like Veeam or equivale
3. Participate in recovery validation, DR drills, runbook maintenance and closure of identified gaps.

Team Leadership & Service Management:

1. Lead, mentor and develop VMware administrators and engineers; allocate work and strengthen technical depth within the team.
2. Govern Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Capacity, Availability and Configuration Management processes in line with defined SLAs/OLAs.
3. Coordinate with application, network, security, storage, database, backup, monitoring, hardware and project teams.
4. Manage OEM/vendor escalations and ensure clear ownership, evidence, follow-up and closure.

Documentation, Risk & Compliance:

1. Create, review and maintain SOPs, runbooks, support matrices, architecture diagrams, build standards, troubleshooting guides and knowledge articles.
2. Ensure changes, approvals, technical evidence and operational records remain traceable and audit-ready.
3. Support security hardening, vulnerability remediation, access review, audit requests and policy compliance.
4. Identify platform risks, lifecycle constraints, capacity concerns and single points of failure; drive treatment plans to closure.

MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

1. 10+ years of hands-on experience working in VMware-based enterprise virtualization environments.
2. Minimum 4 years of experience managing or technically leading a VMware administration/operations team.
3. Strong and demonstrable knowledge of VMware vSphere fundamentals, including ESXi, vCenter, HA, DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, resource management, permissions and lifecycle operations.
4. Practical experience in large VMware environments across multiple deployment models and criticality tiers.
5. End-to-end managed-environment lifecycle experience covering installation, configuration, hardening, monitoring, support, troubleshooting, upgrades and decommissioning.
6. Hands-on working knowledge of vSphere networking, vDS and NSX; understanding of NSX VPC concepts is required or expected to be developed quickly.
7. Working experience with VMware Cloud Foundation and understanding of SDDC Manager and core VCF components. VMware Operations LeadThis is a Confidential document. VMware Operations Lead.
8. Practical knowledge of x86 rack/blade server hardware and associated firmware, BIOS, management-controller and hardware diagnostic concepts.
9. Basic knowledge of enterprise storage, Windows and Linux operating systems.
10. Good understanding of IT service delivery, Incidents, Problems, Changes, Requests and SLAs.
11. Ability to communicate clearly with technical teams, management, vendors and business stakeholders.

CORE TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

Working knowledge:

• Server Hardware - x86 blade/rack servers, firmware, diagnostics and vendor coordination
• OS Platforms - Windows and Linux administration and troubleshooting fundamentals
• Backup & Recovery - VM backup integration, recovery validation and failure troubleshooting

Advanced / hands-on:

• VMware vSphere - Fundamentals, administration, performance, lifecycle and troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting - Cross-domain fault isolation, root cause analysis and resolution leadership

Strong working knowledge/ Strong aptitude:

• VCF / SDDC Manager - Workload domains, lifecycle, health and component integration
• vDS , NSX / NSX VPC - Virtual networking, segmentation, routing, firewall and tenant isolation concepts
• VMware Aria Suite - Operations, Automation, Orchestrator and Logs / log analytics
• Automation - PowerCLI, scripting, APIs, orchestration and controlled automation practices

PREFERRED / ADDED ADVANTAGE:

• Understanding of Kubernetes fundamentals; exposure to VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS), Tanzu or another enterprise container platform is preferred.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code, configuration management or automation frameworks such as Terraform and Ansible.

• Exposure to hybrid-cloud, private-cloud operating models, DevOps practices and CI/CD concepts.

• Experience with HCX, SRM or equivalent migration and disaster-recovery technologies.

• Experience in BFSI, financial services or another highly regulated enterprise environment.

• Relevant VMware certifications such as VCP-DCV, VCP-VCF, VCAP or NSX certification.

LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES:

• Provides calm, structured and accountable leadership during critical incidents.

• Balances operational stability with modernization and automation objectives.

• Challenges assumptions through evidence and communicates risk in business-relevant language.

• Develops team capability through coaching, delegation, reviews and knowledge sharing.

• Collaborates effectively across infrastructure, application, security, audit and vendor teams.

• Demonstrates ownership, integrity, customer focus and disciplined follow-through.