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Systems Engineer, Infrastructure Virtualization

Denver

Simplesense builds, deploys, and sustains the Installation Resilience Platform that enables mission operators to rapidly adapt and respond. The Platform protects critical infrastructure from cyber attack while unlocking previously siloed information to monitor, diagnose, and improve response times to incidents. Our adversaries rapidly adopt the latest technology: we help defense users respond in kind.

Simplesense is a non-traditional defense contractor and prime on the Air Force's Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control (IROC) program, which is now expanding to five additional Air Force, Space Force, and Army installations from the one prototype installation, Tyndall Air Force Base.

Our team combines over 100 years of direct mission experience solving hard problems with 50 years technical expertise deploying DevSecOps, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure, giving us a deep appreciation for our customers’ mission and end users’ priorities. We build for scale, architecting and prioritizing technical work for long term sustainability.

Simplesense's engineering team drives innovation by developing and integrating advanced technologies to deliver real-time solutions that enhance security, operational efficiency, and data fusion into mission critical systems. We design and implement secure infrastructure systems, including operational technology (OT) gateways, cloud-based analytics, and automated monitoring, to streamline data flow and enable actionable insights. By focusing on resilience, scalability, and continuous improvement, our engineering team creates robust platforms that empower decision-making and mission success. Collaboration across public and private systems ensures our solutions bridge critical gaps, optimize resource use, and meet the demands of our customers.

Simplesense is looking for an Infrastructure Virtualization Systems Engineer to join our remote, US-based team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, deploying, and supporting VMware vSphere virtualization solutions within our Installation Resilience Platform and internal infrastructure. You will lead the implementation of small-to-medium scale vSphere environments on enterprise hardware to support mission-critical workloads and core services. This includes automating infrastructure provisioning and configuration through code as part of our DevSecOps workflows. Based in the Denver Metro area, this hybrid role provides an opportunity to work with a unique blend of advanced virtualization technology and real-world secure systems. Employees are typically expected to be onsite 3 days per week. Occasional travel will be required for team meetings or dedicated on-site support.

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of professional experience in IT infrastructure or systems engineering, including hands-on design and management of virtualization environments in production.
  • Strong experience deploying, administering, and maintaining VMware virtualization platforms (vSphere/ESXi and vCenter) in on-premises data centers. Ability to configure clusters (HA/DRS), virtual networking, and storage for high availability and performance.
  • Familiarity with software-defined storage and hyperconverged infrastructure: experience with VMware vSAN or similar technologies for clustering storage is desired.
  • Experience working with enterprise server hardware for virtualization – for example, deploying ESXi on Cisco UCS systems, Dell VxRail or PowerEdge servers, or comparable on-premises infrastructure. Understanding of hardware provisioning, firmware management, and network/storage integration for hosts.
  • Proficiency in infrastructure automation and scripting. Experience using tools like Ansible, Bash and/or Python to automate virtualization tasks ( VM provisioning, configuration management, patching, etc).
  • Demonstrated knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and version control (git) for infrastructure changes. Comfortable integrating infrastructure automation into deployment workflows (ex. using GitHub Actions or Jenkins to run scripts/playbooks on infrastructure updates).
  • Familiarity with infrastructure monitoring and logging tools to ensure system health and performance. Ability to analyze system logs (e.g., vCenter/ESXi logs, OS logs) and metrics to troubleshoot and resolve issues in virtualized environments.
  • Comfortable performing basic administrative operations on Linux environments (strong shell/CLI skills). Basic Windows Server administration experience in virtual machines is a plus.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).
  • Security certifications such as CompTIA Security+ or Cloud+ (or willingness to obtain one within 30 days of hire).
  • VMware certification (e.g., VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization) or related credentials are a plus.
  • Experience with containerization and modern virtualization platforms is a plus (ex. familiarity with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid or deploying Docker/Kubernetes on vSphere).
  • Must be a U.S. Citizen and able to obtain a DoD NIPR network account and Common Access Card (CAC).
  • Must have, or be able to obtain, a Secret Clearance.

Core Responsibilities

  • Develop Virtualization Architecture: Create scalable and secure infrastructure designs that ensure high availability and performance, provide subject matter expert support, and document solutions for deployment teams. 
  • Deployment: Design, Deploy and maintain small-to-medium scale VMware vSphere environments to support mission-critical workloads. This includes configuring ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, virtual networks, and shared storage (vSAN or SAN) to create secure, highly available clusters that meet performance and capacity requirements.
  • Infrastructure Automation: Develop and use Infrastructure-as-Code templates and automation scripts to manage the virtualization infrastructure. Use tools like Ansible (or PowerCLI/PowerShell, as needed) and Bash/Python scripting to automate tasks such as VM provisioning, ESXi host configuration, patch management, and environment build-out.
  • Monitoring & Reliability: Set up observability for the virtualization stack to track system performance, capacity, and failures. Implement monitoring and alerting for host and VM metrics (CPU, memory, storage utilization, network throughput) and critical logs. Proactively tune resources and configurations to improve reliability, and coordinate incident response for any virtualization-related outages or performance issues – performing root cause analysis and applying preventative measures.
  • Security Hardening & Compliance: Implement security best practices and required compliance standards on all virtualization components. Apply DISA STIGs and other hardening guidelines to ESXi hosts and vCenter configurations. Ensure proper network segmentation, access controls (RBAC in vCenter), and encryption where applicable. Continuously remediate vulnerabilities and keep the virtualization environment in compliance with DoD cybersecurity requirements.
  • Collaboration: Work closely with software engineers, vendor SMEs, system administrators, cybersecurity analysts, and operations teams to align the virtualization infrastructure with application needs and security policies. Lead the deployment of new virtualization solutions and document configurations, topology, and standard operating procedures. Provide knowledge transfer and training to the operations team to scale the maintenance of production virtualization solutions

Pay Range: $135,000-160,000 per year, depending on your experience, skill, and location.

Our compensation ranges are developed using market benchmarking tools and regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with competitive pay practices and internal equity. In addition to base pay, all employees are eligible for comprehensive benefits.

Competitive Benefits

  • Equity
  • Medical, Life, Short-Term Disability, and AD&D insurance
  • Medical travel coverage
  • Dental coverage
  • Vision coverage
  • 401k matching

Our Typical Hiring Process

  1. Find Your Fit: Your journey starts here. Explore and apply to our open positions to find the right role for your skills.
  2. Initial Chat: A brief call with our recruiting team to learn about your background and answer your initial questions about Simplesense.
  3. Values & Vision: A conversation with a hiring manager to discuss how your aspirations align with our mission and goals of the team.
  4. Show Your Skills: Complete a technical assessment that reflects the work you’d be doing.
  5. Team Interview: Interview with the team to discuss your experience and see if we’re a great match.
  6. Final Handshake: A final conversation to ensure we’ve answered all your questions before making a decision.
  7. Welcome to Simplesense!

 

Simplesense is an equal opportunity employer committed to a policy of merit-based employment. All employment decisions—including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, and termination—are made based on individual qualifications, performance, and business needs. We strictly prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind on the basis of protected characteristics as recognized by federal, state, or local law. As a U.S. government contractor, Simplesense complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the application or take part in the interview process, please contact People Operations at careers@simplesense.io. 

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