Principal Engineer, IT Infrastructure

Job Overview

The Principal Engineer, IT Infrastructure at Great Lakes Cheese (GLC) will play a critical role in implementing, and optimizing and administering IT infrastructure systems and solutions that align with the company's growth and technological evolution. This technical position requires deep expertise in compute, storage, infrastructure architecture, data backup/restoration, and disaster recovery (DR) solution(s) design and implementation. As a hands-on senior resource, the Principal Engineer will partner with cross-functional teams to ensure a secure, reliable, and high-performing IT environment that supports GLC's business operations.

Job Responsibilities

• Build resilient compute environments using virtualization technologies such as VMware and Hyper-V, emphasizing server hardware and software-defined infrastructure. 
• Collaborate with infrastructure and networking teams to manage migrations of on-prem data center environment to colocation (colo) facilities and/or cloud, ensuring seamless transitions and minimal downtime.
• Enable and optimize hybrid cloud connectivity with cloud (such as SAP, Salesforce, Azure, AWS, and GCP), ensuring seamless integration between on-premises and cloud resources.
• Optimize storage solutions including SAN, NAS, and hyper-converged systems, to support high-performance and capacity needs.
• Conduct regular backups and test recovery procedures to minimize downtime in case of data loss or system failures.
• Collaborate with system administrators to ensure that compute and storage infrastructure meets current and future demands.
• Develop disaster recovery (DR) plan and conduct DR exercises periodically.
• Review and optimize systems backup architecture and ensure data integrity and availability through replication, backup, and failover solutions.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for DNS, DHCP, and authentication services (Active Directory, LDAP).
• Ensure security by design principles are incorporated into all infrastructure designs.
• Implement infrastructure observability solution and monitor performance metrics across data center infrastructure, identifying and resolving latency or bottleneck issues.
• Apply expertise in low-latency networking and high-performance storage to support latency-sensitive applications.
• Participate in incident response and resolution efforts, providing technical expertise and troubleshooting skills to resolve critical issues.
• Troubleshoot power, cooling, network, and storage issues to ensure maximum reliability and uptime.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation for data center configurations, layouts, and operational processes.
• Mentor system admins, fostering growth and knowledge-sharing within the team.
• Other responsibilities as assigned by the manager.

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. 
• 10+ years in IT infrastructure management with a proven background in hands-on technical roles 
• Proven experience in designing and implementing data center infrastructure, including power, cooling.
• Deep understanding of virtualization technologies (VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix), storage solutions (SAN, NAS, HCI), and network technologies (routing, switching, firewall).
• 8+ years of technical experience in a manufacturing environment. 
• Demonstrated experience with high-performance and low-latency design.
• Expert in Storage (Pure Storage) and Backup (Veeam) Solutions. 
• Current understanding of best practices regarding system security measures.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.   
• Strong analytical skills and have good written and verbal communication skills.
• Certification in relevant technologies (e.g., VMware, PureStorage, Nutanix, Microsoft).
• Ability to provide 24/7 support on an on-call basis.
• Ability to rapidly gain and apply knowledge of GLC manufacturing processes.
• All GLC employees are expected to produce and promote our products and services in a manner that exceeds the quality and value expectation of our customers and consumers by adhering to Good Manufacturing Practices, Policies and Procedures outlined in our Safe Quality Food Program. 
• Willingness to travel up to 20%

Preferred Education and Experience

• Experience in design IT infrastructure solutions for Hybrid environment (On-prem and cloud)
• Experience in setting up Hybrid Active Directory environment (with Azure AD/Entra) 
• Experience managing Microsoft SQL Server environment
• Experience configuring Cloud Environments such as Azure, AWS and GCP.
• Basic understanding of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Working Conditions

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