Manager, IT - Virtualization

Role Summary:

The Manager of Virtualization provides leadership and operational management for the organization's virtualization platforms, overseeing a team responsible for administering, optimizing, and supporting a mixed environment of VMware (vSphere, ESXi, vSAN) and Nutanix (AHV, hyperconverged infrastructure) solutions. This role ensures high availability, performance, security, and efficient resource utilization across virtualized workloads, supporting enterprise applications, hybrid cloud strategies, and business continuity. The Manager partners closely with Cloud Delivery, Network Engineering, Storage, Security, Architecture, and Business stakeholders to maintain reliable virtualization services, drive standardization, automate routine tasks, and align infrastructure with organizational needs and cost objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the Virtualization team, including engineers and administrators responsible for day-to-day management, provisioning, monitoring, and support of VMware and Nutanix virtualization environments.
• Oversee operations, stability, and performance of virtualized infrastructure, including VM lifecycle management, resource allocation, high availability (HA), disaster recovery, and clustering across VMware vSphere/vSAN and Nutanix AHV clusters.
• Drive standardization of processes, configurations, best practices, governance, and security controls for both platforms (e.g., VM templates, patching, backup/recovery, access management).
• Manage platform upgrades, patching, feature evaluations, and migrations (e.g., VMware to Nutanix AHV conversions using tools like Nutanix Move, workload balancing between platforms).
• Coordinate hybrid/virtualization integrations, including storage (vSAN vs. Nutanix Files/Objects), networking (vDS, Nutanix Flow), compute resources, and connectivity to cloud/on-prem/colocation environments.
• Lead incident management, advanced troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and proactive improvements for virtualization-related issues, ensuring minimal downtime for critical workloads.
• Monitor and optimize virtualization resource utilization, capacity planning, performance tuning, licensing (VMware subscriptions, Nutanix licensing), and cost efficiency across the mixed environment.
• Define, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics for virtualization availability, VM performance, resource efficiency, compliance, and business impact.
• Lead modernization initiatives, such as automation of VM provisioning (e.g., via scripts, Ansible, or platform tools), adoption of container support where applicable, enhanced monitoring (e.g., VMware Aria Operations, Nutanix Prism), and strategies for reducing VMware dependency if aligned with org goals.
• Collaborate with Security and Risk teams to implement controls, vulnerability management, encryption, compliance (e.g., SOC2, regulatory requirements), and audit practices in virtualized environments.
• Mentor and coach team members; conduct technical reviews, knowledge sharing, and cross-training on VMware and Nutanix technologies to build team expertise.
• Act as the primary escalation point for VMware and Nutanix support issues, manage vendor/partner relationships, and contribute to virtualization strategy and roadmap discussions.
• Provide executive-level reporting on virtualization health, risks, cost trends, platform maturity, and recommendations for optimization or platform evolution.

Skills & Competencies:

• Proven leadership in managing virtualization or infrastructure teams in mixed/hybrid environments.
• Strong expertise in VMware vSphere/ESXi/vSAN (including administration, performance monitoring with Aria Operations) and Nutanix AHV/hyperconverged platforms (Prism management, cluster operations, migrations).
• Solid operational skills for virtualization stability, incident resolution, capacity/performance optimization, and troubleshooting complex multi-hypervisor issues.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to explain virtualization concepts to technical and non-technical audiences and drive cross-team alignment.
• Collaborative leader capable of mentoring engineers, implementing process improvements, and fostering expertise across VMware and Nutanix.
• Analytical mindset for resource/cost optimization, metrics-driven decision-making, and planning in a mixed platform landscape.
• Familiarity with virtualization security, compliance, disaster recovery, and trends in hypervisor choices (e.g., cost/licensing considerations for VMware vs. Nutanix AHV).

The ability to work outside normal hours, when needed, is expected, and participation in an on-call rotation is required for this position.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Leads multiple IT teams or disciplines, ensuring strategic alignment and effective execution
• Develops long-term plans for technology capabilities, staffing, and budget management
• Partners with senior business leaders to define and prioritize technology initiatives
• Establishes governance frameworks, standards, and metrics for performance and risk management
• Promotes innovation and adoption of emerging technologies to improve efficiency and scalability
• Builds and maintains a high-performing team culture focused on accountability and results