OpenShift Virtualization Engineer

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:

o Ansible Automation Platform

o GitOps methodologies

o Terraform

o OpenShift Operators

o 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.

• 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:

o Windows Server

o Linux platforms

o Tier-1 business applications

o 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.