Developer - Infrastructure Automation Engineer

Job Title: Developer - Infrastructure Automation Engineer

Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting contract Developer - Infrastructure Automation Engineer opportunity.

Job Description:

• Seeking an experienced Infrastructure Automation Engineer. The contractor will work within a mature, production VMware environment (5+ years in production, managing approximately 300TB of VM data across 1,500–2,000 on-premises VMs) to secure provisioning automation, ensure every workload is updated to meet our internal management policies for security and data integrity.
• The contractor will work closely with the internal infrastructure team and team leader throughout the engagement — proactively raising questions, flagging risks, as well as self-reviewing their work for key dependencies and edge cases before implementation.
• All code will be maintained in GitLab with regular check-ins, following standard software development practices.
• The opportunity will also collaborate on a VMware-to-Proxmox migration effort to ensure that initial
• Seeking an experienced Infrastructure Automation Engineer for a focused 90-day engagement.
• The contractor will work within a mature, production VMware environment (5+ years in production, managing approximately 300TB of VM data across 1,500–2,000 on-premises VMs) to secure provisioning automation, ensure every workload is updated to meet our internal management policies for security and data integrity.
• The contractor will work closely with the internal infrastructure team and team leader throughout the engagement — proactively raising questions, flagging risks, as well as self-reviewing their work for key dependencies and edge cases before implementation.
• All code will be maintained in GitLab with regular check-ins, following standard software development practices.
• The opportunity will also collaborate on a VMware-to-Proxmox migration effort to ensure that initial.

Job Responsibilities:

• Aria Automation templates that provision VMs and self-register with AWS SSM and SentinelOne across Windows, Linux, and macOS
• GitLab CI pipelines to develop, test, validate, and deploy provisioning templates and migration script code.
• Security team collaboration: define and validate exclusions, token handling, and a documented exclusions process and technical implementation.
• VMware-to-Proxmox migration toolkit: robust, repeatable scripts and pipelines to migrate ~1,500–2,000 on-premises VMs with SSM and SentinelOne registration to a proxmox-based environment.
• Proxmox platform readiness: collaborate on capacity planning input, environment validation, and migration tools and scripts.
• Provisioning & Templates:
  • Extend existing production Aria Automation environment with new virtual machine templates for SSM and SentinelOne self-registration
  • Build reusable, parameterized templates across Aria Automation, Terraform, and Ansible
  • Support for all three OS types: Windows, Linux, and macOS (Intel-based)
  • Integrate with existing CI-driven provisioning and deprovisioning workflows already in place
  • Treat the existing production environment with care — validate all changes in non-production before any production promotion. Attention to detail and clear team communication of possible clear assessment of production impact it imperative.
• AWS SSM Integration:
  • Automate SSM Agent installation and registration as part of every provisioning workflow
  • Configure hybrid activation codes for all on-premises (non-EC2) targets across all OS types
  • Validate SSM registration before marking provisioning complete
• SentinelOne Integration:
  • Automate SentinelOne agent installation and silent deployment for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  • Develop hands-off integration with SentinelOne so that any defined exclusions are in place at SentinelOne installation time.
  • Confirm agent check-in as a provisioning completion gate.
• Security Team Collaboration:
  • Work directly with the internal Security group to define and validate required exclusion sets.
  • Work directly with internal security group to define system integration for up-front exclusions activation process.
  • Collaborate with Security to develop and document a formal exclusions process — covering what exclusions are permissible, how they are requested, reviewed, and approved.
• GitLab & CI/CD Pipeline Development:
  • Maintain all code in GitLab with regular, meaningful check-ins, pull requests and regular reviews with team.
  • Follow generally accepted software development practices: branching strategies, merge requests, commit hygiene, and code review
  • Build and maintain GitLab CI pipelines for linting, validation, testing, and deployment of provisioning and migration code
  • Implement pipeline stages for Dev, Staging, and Production promotion with appropriate approval gates
  • Use Artifactory to store and retrieve binary dependencies.
  • Organize repositories clearly so the internal team can understand, maintain, and extend the work after the engagement ends.
• VMware-to-Proxmox Migration:
  • Work with the infrastructure team to inventory all ~1,500–2,000 VMs — workload types, OS, network topology, storage layout, and VMware-specific dependencies (VMware Tools features, VMXNET3, paravirtual SCSI, VMware-specific drivers, etc.)
  • Self-review all VMs and migration candidates for VMware-specific dependencies — proactively identify anything that may not translate cleanly to Proxmox and raise findings with the team leader before proceeding
  • Coordinate with the infrastructure team on Proxmox capacity planning — advise on node count, storage sizing for ~300TB of VM data, and network configuration
  • Design and develop a migration script toolkit (Bash, Python, PowerShell, and/or Ansible) to automate export from VMware and import/conversion to Proxmox-compatible formats using tools such as virt-v2v and qemu-img
  • Automate post-migration configuration: network interface remapping, storage attachment, and VM hardware profile alignment
  • Integrate SSM Agent and SentinelOne re-registration into the post-migration workflow so migrated VMs are immediately managed and protected on Proxmox
  • Implement pre- and post-migration validation checks — confirming VM boot, network connectivity, SSM registration, and SentinelOne check-in before marking a migration complete
  • Prefer live migration where feasible; where downtime is unavoidable, coordinate directly with end-users to agree on outage windows before proceeding
  • Support a phased migration approach: non-production and lower-risk workloads first, then production with change management gates
  • Consult freely and proactively with the team leader throughout — ask questions early, flag concerns immediately, and do not proceed with uncertain migrations without alignment
  • Deliver a migration runbook covering prerequisites, execution steps, rollback procedures, and known edge cases
• Proxmox Platform Readiness:
  • Advise the infrastructure team on capacity requirements based on current VMware inventory and ~500TB data volume
  • Assist with validation of Proxmox-based self-service provisioning system. Develop and run test scripts and terraform and cloud-init templates for testing.
  • Prototype VM provisioning using Terraform (Proxmox provider) and Ansible
  • Validate Proxmox networking, storage, and resource configuration against workload requirements
• Documentation & Handoff:
  • Deliver runbooks for all provisioning templates, CI pipelines, and migration workflows
  • Document integration architecture, secret/credential management with existing internal controls.
  • Deliver the Security-approved exclusions process as a standalone document
  • Deliver the migration script toolkit with inline documentation and a standalone operations guide.
  • Conduct a knowledge transfer session with the internal infrastructure team before engagement close

Job Qualifications

• Aria Automation: Hands-on experience with production VMware Aria / vRealize Automation 8.x environments; Cloud Assembly, ABX or vRO
• Terraform: Proficient with HCL, modules, state management; vSphere, AWS, and Proxmox providers
• Ansible: Experience writing playbooks and roles for OS configuration, agent deployment, and migration tasks
• AWS SSM: Hands-on with SSM Agent deployment, hybrid activations for on-premises targets, and IAM configuration
• SentinelOne: Experience with agent deployment across Windows, Linux, and macOS; Management Console API
• Proxmox: Familiarity with Proxmox VE administration, VM/template management, storage, and networking
• VMware Migration: Experience exporting VMware VMs and converting to KVM/QEMU-compatible formats
• Migration Tooling: Familiarity with virt-v2v, qemu-img, or equivalent VMware-to-KVM conversion tooling
• macOS Automation: Experience automating agent deployment and configuration on Intel-based macOS
• GitLab: Comfortable with GitLab repo management, branching, merge requests, and regular check-in discipline
• GitLab CI: Proficient building .gitlab-ci.yml pipelines with multi-stage, multi-environment deployments
• Artifactory: Familiarity with JFrog Artifactory for artifact storage and pipeline integration
• Secret Management: Experience integrating with 1Password Vaults for secret retrieval in scripts and pipelines
• Scripting: Proficient in Bash, Python, and/or PowerShell
• Collaboration: Proactive communicator — comfortable asking questions, raising risks early, and working closely with a team leader and infrastructure team
• Security Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Security teams on exclusion processes and token governance

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Packer for building Proxmox or VMware VM templates
• Familiarity with HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager
• Prior work in security-conscious environments (SOC 2, FedRAMP, etc.)
• Experience with large-scale VMware-to-KVM or VMware-to-Proxmox migrations
• Experience with GitLab Environments and deployment tracking
• Experience integrating provisioning or migration workflows with ITSM tools (e.g., ServiceNow)
• Environment access; review of existing Aria Automation setup and CI workflows; full VM inventory and VMware dependency assessment begins; initial Security team meeting; GitLab repo and Artifactory structure established
• Aria Automation templates with SSM + SentinelOne registration working in non-prod for Windows and Linux; first Security review checkpoint; GitLab CI pipeline validating templates
• macOS (Intel) provisioning integration complete; Terraform and Ansible equivalents with full GitLab CI pipeline promotion workflow
• Exclusions process documented and approved by Security; all token handling via 1Password validated; artifacts managed through Artifactory
• Proxmox capacity planning complete; Proxmox environment validated as migration target; migration script toolkit v1 complete; non-production migration runs executed and validated
• Migration scripts hardened with error handling, rollback, and post-migration validation; production migration pipeline ready with change management gates
• All documentation and runbooks delivered; Proxmox platform readiness report; migration runbook finalized; knowledge transfer completed.

Job Details:

• Job Type: Contract
• Pay Range: $45 - $52 an hour.
• Location: Remote (California, Oregon, Washington)

Benefits Package: Protingent offers competitive salaries, insurance plan options (HDHP plan or POS plan), education/certification reimbursement, pre-tax commuter benefits, Paid Time Off (PTO), and an administered 401k plan.

About Protingent: Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation — from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We’re passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.