Senior Windows Server & VMware Infrastructure Architect

Location: New York City, NY — Onsite
Project: Bureau of Wastewater Treatment (BWT)
Work Sites: 26th Ward and North River facilities
Engagement Type: 1099 Contract
Compensation: $80-$90/hr

Initial Duration: Approximately 30–60 days at full-time hours
Ongoing Support: Up to 20 hours per week following the initial project phase

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Windows Server & VMware Infrastructure Architect to support a critical infrastructure initiative for the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment (BWT) in New York City.

This is a hands-on consulting engagement focused on assessing, stabilizing, designing, and improving enterprise Windows Server, VMware virtualization, network, storage, backup, and disaster recovery environments across multiple onsite facilities.

The selected consultant should be comfortable operating independently in complex production environments, identifying infrastructure risks, developing practical solutions, and performing hands-on implementation work. This is not a purely advisory architecture position; the consultant will be expected to actively configure, troubleshoot, document, and optimize servers, virtualization platforms, backups, storage, and network components.

The engagement is expected to begin with approximately 30–60 days of full-time project work, followed by an ongoing support requirement of no more than approximately 20 hours per week.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess the current Windows Server, VMware, storage, network, and backup infrastructure across designated BWT facilities.

• Design, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot enterprise Windows Server environments, including Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022.

• Manage and optimize VMware infrastructure, including VMware ESXi, vSphere, and vCenter.

• Build, configure, migrate, and troubleshoot virtual machines and supporting VMware infrastructure.

• Review and optimize server disk configurations, storage volumes, partitions, datastores, and available capacity.

• Evaluate existing backup configurations and develop reliable backup and recovery strategies.

• Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot enterprise backup technologies such as Veeam, Commvault, Backup Exec, Cohesity, or comparable platforms.

• Perform and validate backup restores to confirm recoverability and business continuity.

• Assist with disaster recovery planning, testing, documentation, and implementation.

• Troubleshoot complex server, storage, virtualization, and network performance issues.

• Configure and support Microsoft Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, and related Windows infrastructure services.

• Design and support secure network segmentation using VLANs, subnets, routing, switching, and firewall technologies.

• Review VMware networking configurations, virtual switches, VLAN assignments, and connectivity between virtual and physical environments.

• Support physical and virtual server deployments, migrations, upgrades, and infrastructure refresh efforts.

• Perform server and infrastructure capacity planning and recommend hardware, software, and storage improvements.

• Identify outdated, unsupported, or high-risk infrastructure components and provide remediation recommendations.

• Coordinate infrastructure changes while minimizing production downtime.

• Work closely with internal technical teams, facility personnel, vendors, and project stakeholders.

• Develop and maintain technical documentation, including server inventories, network diagrams, backup procedures, system configurations, recovery procedures, and SOPs.

• Provide knowledge transfer and technical guidance to internal IT personnel.

• Transition completed project work into an ongoing part-time support and maintenance model.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive professional experience supporting and architecting enterprise Windows Server environments.

• Strong hands-on experience with Windows Server 2016, 2019, and/or 2022.

• Advanced knowledge of VMware ESXi, vSphere, and vCenter.

• Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, managing, and troubleshooting VMware virtual environments.

• Strong experience with enterprise backup and recovery technologies.

• Hands-on experience with at least one major backup platform such as Veeam, Commvault, Cohesity, Backup Exec, or similar.

• Demonstrated experience performing server and/or virtual machine restores.

• Strong understanding of disaster recovery and business continuity concepts.

• Experience managing server storage, disk volumes, partitions, VMware datastores, and capacity.

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, and DHCP.

• Strong understanding of TCP/IP networking, VLANs, subnetting, routing, and switching.

• Experience working with enterprise firewalls and network segmentation.

• Ability to troubleshoot complex issues spanning servers, virtualization, networking, storage, and backup systems.

• Experience planning and executing infrastructure upgrades, migrations, or modernization projects.

• Strong technical documentation skills.

• Ability to work independently and make sound technical decisions in production environments.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical issues and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Ability and willingness to work onsite at BWT facilities in New York City.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive infrastructure, systems engineering, or architecture experience.

• Previous experience serving as a Senior Systems Engineer, Infrastructure Architect, VMware Architect, Windows Architect, Systems Architect, or similar senior technical role.

• Experience supporting government, municipal, utility, industrial, or other mission-critical environments.

• Experience with high-availability and redundant infrastructure.

• Experience with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), Zerto, or similar disaster recovery technologies.

• Experience with SAN, NAS, Nutanix, Dell EMC, NetApp, HPE, or comparable enterprise storage platforms.

• Experience with Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, SonicWall, or similar networking and firewall technologies.

• Experience with PowerShell scripting and infrastructure automation.

• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure or hybrid Microsoft environments.

• Experience performing infrastructure assessments and producing remediation or modernization roadmaps.

• Experience creating network diagrams and infrastructure documentation using Microsoft Visio or similar tools.

Certifications

Relevant certifications are preferred but not required. Examples include:

• VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

• VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP)

• Microsoft Windows Server / Azure certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate

• Cisco CCNA or CCNP

• CompTIA Network+

• CompTIA Security+

• Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE)

Technical Environment

Candidates may work with technologies including:

Windows Server 2016 / 2019 / 2022, Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, VMware ESXi, VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter, Veeam, Commvault, Cohesity, Backup Exec, Zerto, SAN/NAS storage, VLANs, TCP/IP, routing, switching, firewalls, PowerShell, Microsoft Azure, Visio

Project Schedule

The consultant should be available for approximately full-time hours during the first 30–60 days of the engagement.

Following completion of the initial assessment, remediation, and implementation phase, the role is expected to transition to ongoing support of up to approximately 20 hours per week.

The consultant must be able to support work at both designated NYC facilities as required.

Work Location

This is an onsite New York City engagement supporting infrastructure at:

• 26th Ward facility

• North River facility

Some work may involve travel between the two locations depending on project requirements.

Contract Structure

This position is structured as a 1099 independent contractor engagement.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable working in a consulting environment where priorities may shift as infrastructure conditions are assessed and technical issues are identified.

Work Authorization

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship and must satisfy any applicable client or government-contract work authorization requirements.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The strongest candidate will be a senior-level infrastructure professional who has personally worked across Windows Servers, VMware, networking, storage, backups, and disaster recovery rather than specializing exclusively in one area.

We are particularly interested in candidates who have walked into existing environments, assessed what is working and what is not, corrected infrastructure problems, improved backup and recovery capabilities, documented the environment, and left the organization with a more stable and supportable infrastructure.

This individual should be equally comfortable developing an infrastructure design and logging into an ESXi host, Windows Server, backup console, firewall, or switch to troubleshoot and implement the solution.