IT Networking Systems Engineer (Data Center)

Hammerspace is a Data Platform that centralizes data logically into a unified namespace and allows for decentralized accelerated access.

Role Overview

We are seeking a high-level IT and Networking Engineer to serve as both the technical and strategic anchor for our data center operations. This role requires a tenured pro capable of managing high-speed NVIDIA/Mellanox fabrics and automated virtualization platforms while simultaneously driving long-term infrastructure and financial planning.

You will be responsible for the full lifecycle of our hardware, the efficiency of our resource utilization, and the long-term technical and financial health of our data center footprint.

Strategic Planning & Financial Management

• Long-Term Strategic Planning: Drive 6+ month strategic planning for data center space, power, and cooling infrastructure.
• Utilization Monitoring: Maintain rigorous oversight of current power and space utilization to prevent capacity bottlenecks.
• Budgeting and Projection: Project future utilization trends to identify budget needs and maintain active control over infrastructure costs.

Infrastructure Efficiency & Optimization

• Workload Analysis: Investigate server/network utilization under current workloads to identify inefficiencies and drive more efficient resource use.
• Strategic Buildouts: Design new server buildouts based on current deficiencies or to maintain a performance balance while controlling costs.
• Internal Collaboration: Work with various internal groups to establish future utilization needs and ensure infrastructure growth aligns with company goals.
• Procurement Optimization: Facilitate batch and bulk procurement processes to ensure optimal pricing on hardware and services.
• Security Considerations: Design with reasonable lowest impact security that mitigates security concerns across physical, network, internal, etc.
• Security Considerations: Design security policies and controls that balance reasonable protections (physical, network, host, etc) against workload and agility impacts

Core Engineering & Technical Operations

• Virtualization Management: Administer VMware (ESXi) and Proxmox environments, including virtual switching, V-motion, data store, and virtual host management.
• High-Speed Networking: Oversee the architecture and implementation of high-speed networking (200G/400G+) using NVIDIA and Mellanox hardware.
• Network Protocols: Configure and troubleshoot core protocols including BGP, ECMP, Spanning Tree, SNMP, VPN, DNS, NTP, etc.
• Hardware Lifecycle: Manage the physical deployment, firmware updates, and troubleshooting of Dell servers (iDRAC, RAID controllers, and network cards).
• Automation & IaC: Maintain and expand infrastructure-as-code using Ansible and Terraform.
• Data Integrity: Own and execute onsite and offsite backup strategies and systems

DC Management

• Relationship Management: Act as the primary point of contact for DC Providers to ensure service levels are consistently met.
• Design Oversight: Ensure DC operators provide optimized power and cooling designs that meet technical requirements while balancing scaling/flexibility vs cost considerations.
• Physical Operations: Establish monitoring procedures to track physical parameters of DC ops (Power utilization, Cooling, per rack design limits, per area design limits, blast radius effects, etc) provide and execute plans covering how to handle out of tolerance situations.
• Rack design: Design and implement best-practice rack layouts that consider cable types, power/cooling needs, physical device mass and other considerations in an environment with varying levels of power density.
• • Experience with 35KW+/rack layout

Key Technologies & Skills

Networking & Systems

• High-Speed Fabric: Expert knowledge of 200G/400G+ links and high-performance interconnects.
• L3 Routing: Advanced understanding of BGP and ECMP for optimized traffic flow.
• Hypervisors: Proficiency in VMware (ESXi) and Proxmox.
• Linux Administration: Advanced mastery of Linux environments (e.g., Debian, CentOS, or RHEL-based distributions).
• Containerization: Experience with LXC containers and automated provisioning.

Automation & Development

• IaC Tools: Mastery of Ansible and Terraform for infrastructure deployment.
• Scripting: Strong proficiency in Python and Bash for automation and custom monitoring tools.
• Version Control: Experience with various source control and CI/CD workflows.

Hardware & Physical Ops

• Server Ecosystem: Deep knowledge of Dell iDRAC, LifeCycle Controllers, RAID management, and other vendor-diverse hardware considerations.
• Physical Maintenance: Ability to perform hands-on troubleshooting, rack management, and cable mapping.

Work Planning/Leadership

• Work Orchestration: Direct team members in work planning and orchestration in project execution (e.g. bulk server installs, inventory activities, decomm/cleanup activities, etc.)
• Knowledge Sharing: Mentor junior team members in developing their ongoing DC operations skillset

Other Qualifications

Work Location/Type

• Work Location: Must be willing to work up to five days per week in our Riverton, UT office location or our Bluffdale, UT Data Center
• L3 Type: Occasional lifting of loads up to 50lbs during rack/stack activities

Additional Desirable Experience

• Cloud Computing: Experience in architecture and administration of AWS, GCP, Azure, and OCI environments

Sample Roadmapped Projects (12-24 Month Outlook)

• Full Proxmox Migration: Lead the transition from legacy virtualization toward a fully Proxmox and Terraform-driven environment.
• Network Convergence: Systematically expand the HS2 network architecture to incorporate and refresh all existing HS1 hardware.
• Monitoring Expansion: Establish wide-scatter monitoring to ensure both switch performance and service performance across the network remain optimal.

The anticipated base salary range for this role is $200,000-250,000. Actual compensation will be determined by several factors including, but not limited to, level of professional/education experience, skills/abilities, internal equity, and budgetary considerations. In addition, Hammerspace offers a broad range of health plans for medical, dental, vision, life and disability.

We also offer 401k plans and flexible time off.

Hammerspace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, military status, or national origin or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or applicable local law.

Notice to Recruiters and Staffing Agencies

Agencies are hereby specifically directed not to contact Hammerspace employees directly in an attempt to present candidates. To protect the interests of all parties, Hammerspace will not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to Hammerspace will be considered Hammerspace property.

Hammerspace will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. Hammerspace will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees.

Agency must obtain advance written approval from Hammerspace's recruiting function to submit resumes, and then only in conjunction with a valid fully-executed contract for service and in response to a specific job opening. Hammerspace will not pay a fee to any Agency that does not have such agreement in place.

Skills

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Analysis Skills, Ansible, Automation, BGP, Bash Scripting, Best Practices, Blasting, Broadband, Budgeting, Capacity Utilization, CentOS, Cloud Computing, Compensation Management, Computer Firmware, Continuous Deployment/Delivery, Continuous Integration, Cost Control, DNS (Domain Name System), Data Quality, Debian Linux, Dell Computers, Ecosystems, Energy Efficiency, Financial Management, Financial Planning, GCP (Good Clinical Practices), Hardware Installation, Hardware Virtualization, Health Plan, Hypervisors, Identify Issues, Information Technology & Information Systems, Leadership, Lift/Move 50 Pounds, Linux Administration, Linux Operating System, Mentoring, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows Azure, NTP, Needs Assessment, Network Architecture/Engineering, Network Monitoring, Network Operations Center, Network Protocols, Network Systems, Physical Security, Pricing, Procedure Development, Process Improvement, Project Execution, Project Planning, Purchasing/Procurement, Python Programming/Scripting Language, RAID Storage, Red Hat Linux Operating System, Relationship Management, Resource Utilization, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), Sales Management, Scripting (Scripting Languages), Security Design, Source Code/Configuration Management (SCM), Spanning Tree Protocols, Strategic Planning, Systems Administration/Management, Systems Engineering, Team Player, Technical Operations, Technical Strategy, Technical/Engineering Design, Trend Analysis, VMWare, VMWare ESX/ESXi, VPN (Virtual Private Network), Virtual Hosting, Virtualization

About the Company

Hammerspace