Lead OS / Infrastructure Administrator

Responsibilities

• Plan, schedule, and execute ESXi host upgrades across development, test, and production environments with minimal business disruption.
• Apply driver updates, firmware patches, and VMware Tools refreshes in accordance with VMware compatibility matrices.
• Conduct thorough post‑upgrade host validation including v Sphere cluster health checks, datastore integrity, and network connectivity verification.
• Maintain upgrade documentation, change records, and rollback procedures for all ESXi lifecycle activities.
• Monitor ESXi host performance, resource utilisation, and HA/DRS configurations to ensure optimal virtualisation efficiency.
• Lead end‑to‑end migration of virtual machines from VMware v Sphere to Microsoft Hyper‑V, covering planning, execution, validation, and hypercare.
• Perform VM hardware version upgrades and compatibility assessments prior to migration, ensuring alignment with target Hyper‑V environment requirements.
• Execute VMware Tools removal and replacement with Hyper‑V Integration Services as part of the migration workflow.
• Develop and maintain detailed migration runbooks covering pre‑migration checks, execution steps, rollback procedures, and post‑migration validation scripts.
• Conduct compatibility validation of applications, network configurations, and storage mappings after migration to Hyper‑V.
• Design and deliver Hyper‑V administration training sessions for internal IT team members, building in‑house capability and reducing dependency on external support.
• Produce knowledge‑transfer documentation covering Hyper‑V architecture, VM lifecycle management, checkpoints, and networking configuration.
• Plan and execute in‑place upgrades and clean installations of Windows Server operating systems (2016 / 2019 / 2022), including pre‑upgrade assessment and compatibility review.
• Manage patch lifecycle for all Windows Server environments ensuring compliance with security and operational baselines.
• Administer Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and file services in support of enterprise infrastructure.
• Coordinate server decommissions, consolidations, and role migrations as part of infrastructure refresh programmes.
• Maintain server hardening configurations and contribute to security compliance activities.
• Design, implement, and manage enterprise backup strategies covering physical servers, virtual machines, and cloud workloads.
• Administer backup solutions (e. g. Veeam, Veritas Net Backup, Azure Backup) ensuring scheduled jobs, retention policies, and offsite replication are operational.
• Plan and conduct regular recovery drills, validating RTO and RPO targets across critical systems.
• Respond to and manage recovery scenarios including full server restores, file‑level recoveries, and VM rollbacks.
• Maintain backup inventory, reporting dashboards, and escalation procedures for backup failures.
• Lead infrastructure migration projects as the primary technical authority, from scoping and planning through execution and post‑migration support.
• Develop project plans, risk registers, migration runbooks, and stakeholder communication packs.
• Coordinate with application teams, network engineers, security, and business stakeholders to align migration windows and minimise impact.
• Chair migration readiness reviews, cutover planning sessions, and post‑migration retrospectives.
• Maintain hands‑on delivery participation throughout all project phases — not limited to oversight only.
• Provide infrastructure support and operational oversight for AWS environments including EC2, VPC, S3, IAM, Cloud Watch, and related services.
• Contribute to hybrid cloud architecture discussions, supporting workload placement decisions across on‑premises and AWS.
• Apply AWS best practices for security, cost optimisation, and high availability in line with organisational cloud governance.
• Support cloud migration assessments and lift‑and‑shift activities where applicable.

Requirements

• 10 – 12 Years of hands‑on experience in OS administration, virtualisation, and infrastructure projects — with demonstrated lead‑level ownership of migration programmes.
• Hands‑on proficiency in ESXi upgrade procedures, including SUM/VUM‑based upgrades, offline bundle upgrades, and driver/firmware update workflows.
• Demonstrated experience in VMware to Hyper‑V migrations at scale, including hardware version upgrades, compatibility validation, and runbook authorship.
• Strong Windows Server administration skills across 2016, 2019, and 2022 — in‑place upgrades, role migrations, and security baseline management.
• Proven experience designing and managing enterprise backup solutions with validated recovery testing.
• Working knowledge of AWS core services: EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, Cloud Watch, Route 53, and related infrastructure services.
• Experience developing migration runbooks, cutover plans, and post‑migration validation checklists.
• Ability to design and deliver technical training material for team capability uplift.
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