Senior Vmware Infrastructure & Virtualization Engineer

SARVOTHAM

Senior Infrastructure & Virtualization Engineer VMware vSphere/VCF/Aria Suite HCX Migration Hybrid Cloud (AWS/Azure) Infra Automation Ansible & Python SCCM & Intune CI/CD Phoenix, AZ 224-***-**** ***********@*****.*** linkedin.com/in/sarvotham PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Senior Infrastructure & Virtualization Engineer with 9+ years of experience designing, automating, and supporting enterprise infrastructure environments across VMware, Windows Server, Active Directory, and hybrid cloud platforms. Experienced in VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, VCF, Aria Suite (vRA, vRO, vROps), HCX, Python, Ansible, Jenkins, and ServiceNow within large-scale SOX and PCI-regulated environments. Key contributor to enterprise automation initiatives including InfraBot, a self-service automation platform integrating Slack, VMware APIs, Ansible, Jenkins, and ServiceNow to streamline infrastructure operations. Proven track record: reduced manual provisioning effort by 80% through Ansible modernization, accelerated VM delivery by 75% via Aria Automation self-service portals and led zero-downtime migrations of 1,700+ workloads across VMware HCI, Hyper-V, AWS, and Azure supporting 8,000+ virtual machines in 24 7 enterprise production environment. CORE COMPETENCIES

• Virtualization & Cloud: VMware vSphere 6.x–8.x, ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, VCF, NSX-T, Aria Automation (vRA 7.x/8.x), Aria Orchestrator (vRO), Aria Operations (vROps), HCX (Bulk/vMotion/RAV/Cold), VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC), Azure VMware Solution (AVS), Nutanix HCI

• Automation & Scripting: Python, Ansible (Playbooks & Custom Modules), Ansible Tower/AWX, vRO JavaScript, PowerShell, PowerCLI, Bash, REST APIs, YAML/JSON, XaaS Blueprint Design, Puppet, Jenkins, Git, Terraform

• InfraBot Platform: Slack-integrated automation engine — VM lifecycle (create/modify/decommission), AD/DNS/CMDB orchestration, Temporary Access mgmt, EAP/API templates, ServiceNow RFC automation, bulk software install, server validation

• Migration & DR: VMware HCX end-to-end (Bulk/vMotion/RAV/Cold), Zerto, VMware SRM, Veeam Backup & Replication (IVMR, Replica Workflows), NetApp Shift Toolkit, NetApp, cross-hypervisor vSphere Hyper-V, BCDR Planning, vSAN Stretched Clusters

• Cloud & DevOps: AWS (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM, CloudWatch), Azure (VMs, VNets, NSGs), Hybrid Cloud, Jenkins CI/CD, Terraform, JIRA/Confluence, Agile/Scrum, Puppet, Docker

• Networking & Security: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, NSX-T Micro-segmentation, F5 Load Balancer Automation, SSL/TLS Certificate Lifecycle, Firewall

• Storage & Backup: vSAN, NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Shift Toolkit, Veeam, EMC Networker, Cohesity, Veritas Storage Foundation/InfoScale

• Windows & Identity: Windows Server 2012–2022, Active Directory, GPO, DNS/DHCP, Failover Clustering, SCCM/Intune (MDM/MAM, Conditional Access, Autopilot), Azure AD (Entra ID)

• ITSM & Monitoring: ServiceNow (RFC/Incident/CI Automation), Grafana, SCOM, Icinga, BMC Monitoring, Power BI, InfraBot PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Infrastructure & Virtualization Engineer American Express — Phoenix, AZ Oct 2018 – Present Enterprise infrastructure engineering team managing virtualization, hybrid cloud, & automation platforms across DCs supporting 8,000+ VMs. Infrastructure Automation & AI-Assisted Engineering (InfraBot) (2024 – Present)

• Built and led InfraBot — a Slack/chat-driven self-service automation platform — replacing legacy PowerShell with Ansible playbooks and Python pipelines enabling self-service VMware, Windows, Active Directory, and application support operations.

• Achieved 80% reduction in manual engineering effort across SOX/PCI environments covering VM lifecycle, Temporary Access management, TLS certificate lifecycle, bulk software installation, and server validation workflows.

• Engineered vRO JavaScript and Python/Ansible workflows integrating vSphere REST API, Aria Suite APIs, NSX-T API, and ServiceNow for end- to-end VM ingestion and automated RFC creation.

• Enforced governance across 8,000+ VM estate with automated CI record management and change compliance — ensuring all operations were fully auditable without manual intervention.

• Designed XaaS service blueprints in Aria Automation/vRO for self-service Firewall rule provisioning, F5 load balancer pool management, and SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle operations via REST API integrations.

• Utilized Grafana dashboards to monitor automation performance, analyze workflow failures, and improve platform reliability across production and non-production environments.

• Applied AI-assisted development workflows for code generation, architecture reviews, script optimization, and runbook authoring — accelerating automation delivery velocity across Python, Ansible, PowerShell, and YAML pipelines.

• Developed Terraform configurations for cloud resource provisioning and lifecycle management across AWS and Azure, enabling consistent IaC delivery alongside Ansible for hybrid cloud infrastructure automation.

• Mentored junior engineers on Ansible, vRO, and Python automation; delivered across Agile/Scrum sprints in JIRA; authored operational runbooks and troubleshooting guides improving knowledge sharing across infrastructure and platform teams. Hybrid Cloud & VMware HCX Migration Lead (2022 – 2024)

• Led end-to-end HCX migration of 1,700+ workloads to VMware HCI (VxRail/vSAN) — established HCX site pairing, network/compute profiles, and service mesh across source and target vCenter instances.

• Configured HCX-IX (encrypted tunneling), HCX-NE (Layer 2 network extension), and HCX-WO (WAN optimization) appliances; executed Bulk, Cold, vMotion, and RAV migration workflows with replication lag monitoring and off-peak pre-seeding.

• Achieved 100% zero-downtime delivery and 100% ServiceNow CR compliance across all migration waves; raised and managed CRs with risk scoring, backout procedures, implementation plans, and CAB approvals.

• Designed wave-based migration groups in the HCX console — organizing VMs by application dependency mapping, network topology, and criticality; enforced application-owner sign-off gates and per-wave smoke testing before each cutover window.

• Executed vSphere Hyper-V cross-hypervisor migrations using Veeam IVMR — including backup/replica job configuration, network/IP mapping, wave scheduling, and post-cutover validation.

• Migrated 500+ workloads to AWS/Azure via VMware Cloud on AWS with HCX network extension, NAT, IPsec, and VPN — preserving IP/gateway assignments through cutover without application changes.

• Executed V2V and P2V migrations using Zerto alongside HCX for remote site workloads with continuous replication requirements; configured Zerto VPGs for DR failover scenarios supporting BCDR objectives.

• Deployed Nutanix HCI environments (ESXi 6.5/6.7 nodes, Foundation VMs, LCM upgrades); automated vSAN health checks and ESXi patch pipelines with PowerCLI + Ansible.

• Managed AWS (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM, CloudWatch) and Azure (VMs, VNets, NSGs) environments; authored Power BI infrastructure inventory and failure reports for leadership visibility.

• Authored migration runbooks, wave plans, risk assessments, and backout procedures; built reusable ServiceNow CR templates with pre- defined risk scoring and rollback scripts.

• Performed post-migration source cleanup: bulk VM deregistration via PowerShell automation, IP/DNS reclamation, removal from backup and monitoring systems, and ServiceNow CMDB updates ensuring full audit trail. VMware Virtualization & Aria Suite Automation (2018 – 2022)

• Designed and delivered Aria Automation 8.x (vRA) self-service portal from scratch — automated AD domain join, DNS registration, and GPO- linked OU placement on every provisioned server; reduced VM delivery SLA from multi-day to under 2 hours (75% improvement).

• Designed and maintained vRA Blueprints for Windows 2012–2022 and RHEL 6–9; managed Business Groups, Entitlements, Reservations, IP Pools, and Fabric Groups in vRA.

• Onboarded new application teams by conducting requirements intake calls, building business groups, entitlements, and reservations mapped to correct clusters and VLANs per team requirements.

• Performed vRealize Suite upgrades across vRA, vRO, IaaS Web, IaaS Manager, and DEM Orchestrator from 7.0 through 7.5 — with full rollback planning and zero-downtime execution.

• Automated NSX-T distributed firewall policy deployment, security group management, and API-driven micro-segmentation; implemented vROps dashboards for 8,000+ VM capacity and performance monitoring with executive-level reporting.

• Administered Active Directory: Trust Relationships, Sites & Services replication, GPO/OU structures, AD-integrated DNS/DHCP, and privileged access management across physical (HP/Dell/Cisco UCS) and virtual Windows Server 2012–2022 in SOX/PCI-regulated DC.

• Managed Intune/SCCM co-management for hybrid Windows fleets (compliance, Conditional Access, BitLocker/Defender); designed Windows Failover Clusters for SQL Server 2008–2016.

• Built Citrix XenApp 6.5/Studio 7.x environments; managed IIS, PKI certificate lifecycle, SCCM OSD with Ansible post-build; configured Icinga/SCOM/BMC monitoring; administered Veritas Storage Foundation/InfoScale, EMC Networker, and Cohesity.

• Provided 24 7 P1/P2 on-call incident response with structured root cause analysis and post-incident reviews to leadership. Systems Engineer e-ICON Online Services — Hyderabad, India Nov 2013 – Jun 2015

• Managed VMware vSphere (ESX 4.x) supporting 1,000+ VMs automated provisioning via PowerCLI built vROps capacity dashboards.

• Administered AD, DNS, DHCP, and SCCM patch management for Windows Server 2008R2/2012R2 fleets; developed Python scripts for performance monitoring and utilization trend reporting.

• Performed P2V migrations using VMware vCenter Converter during datacenter consolidation projects; provided incident management and SLA-compliant escalation support.

EDUCATION

M.S. Information Technology — University of the Cumberlands, Williamsburg, KY 2020 – 2021 M.S. General Engineering — Southern University & A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA 2015 – 2017 B. Tech — Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University, India 2009 – 2013 CERTIFICATIONS

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• 80% Reduction in Manual Effort — Ansible/Python InfraBot modernization at AmEx, converting legacy PowerShell scripts to standardized playbooks across SOX/PCI environments.

• 75% Faster VM Delivery — Aria Automation 8.x self-service portal with automated AD domain join, DNS registration, and GPO placement; multi-day delivery reduced to under 2 hours.

• 1,700+ Zero-Downtime Migrations — Led migration of 1,700+ workloads to VMware HCI and 500+ to AWS/Azure; zero unplanned outages via HCX, Zerto, Veeam IVMR; 100% ServiceNow CR compliance across all waves.

• Cross-Platform Infrastructure Authority — Deep expertise across VMware Aria Suite, Nutanix HCI, Ansible/Python, and Windows/Linux — full SDDC stack coverage.

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