Public Sector Engineer - Virtualization
Preferred Location: Non-Location Specific
Alternate Locations: Dallas, TX; Charlotte, NC; Fargo, ND; Seattle, WA
In some cases, the position can also be located in another major city in the United States.
The CSS Public Sector Engineer positions are a blend of Premier Field Engineer and Support Escalation Engineer engagements.
The CSS Public Sector group is an organization chartered to deliver increased value to some of our most important customers. PubSec engineers have the opportunity to work with one consistent segment customizing support, services, and offerings to meet these customers’ needs. Engineers can move between proactive services delivering preventative, health-driving services on site and remotely, and also providing reactive deep technical problem-resolution assistance by phone.
At Microsoft, the sentence: “That’s not our problem” doesn’t exist in our lexicon. With thousands of employees, we deliver world-class assistance around the clock to our customers, partners and developers in 24 languages.
This position may require you to work a rotational on-call schedule, as well as, some domestic and international travel. This job is eligible for the following work arrangements: Compressed Work Week, Flex Time, Telework.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of US Citizenship to meet US Federal Government security requirements.
US Government Security Clearance: Candidates for this position must currently hold or be able to obtain a US Security Clearance with the US Federal Government.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Represent Microsoft and communicate with corporate customers via telephone, written correspondence, electronic service, and in person regarding finding solutions for technically complex problems identified in Microsoft System Center Suite of products; specifically with Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). Solve highly complex level of problems, involving broad, in-depth product knowledge or in-depth product specialty; may include support of additional product line. Frequently, these problems will not only be technically complex, but will be politically charged situations requiring the highest level of customer skill. Responsible for efficiently managing the relationship with these customers and thoroughly documenting their cases.
Proactive - Premier Field Engineering engagements
Create detailed technical assessments of customer environments, identifying risks to IT best practices, scoping and building a plan for each opportunity to remediate risks. Teach and present workshops and other proactive materials in a group/classroom settings. Lead and control the communication with customers, internal Microsoft stake holders and/or third party vendors. Determine and develop offerings around the technology to aid customers manage our prescriptive guidance for health. Work directly with the product group development teams to obtain product design information or isolate both bug and non-bug related issues as well as act as an advocate for the customer on forward looking situations such as future product features/bug planning. Ability to handle Critical Situations in technically challenging and politically hot circumstances.
Reactive - Support Escalation Engineering engagements
Solve highly complex level of problems, involving broad, in-depth product knowledge or in-depth product specialty; may include support of additional product line. Frequently, these problems will not only be technically complex, but will be politically charged situations requiring the highest level of customer skill. Responsible for efficiently managing the relationship with these customers and thoroughly documenting their cases.
Collaborate on cross-team and cross-product technical issues by working with resources from other groups as needed to resolve customer issues. Collaborate with Tech Leads and escalation resources when appropriate. Report software bugs and customer design change suggestions. Develop specialized expertise in complex MS technologies. Mentor and share information improving overall knowledge of group or organization. Mentor front line support organizations, providing mentor and escalation support for complex technical and political issues.
Use trace analysis, source code, and other sophisticated debugging tools to analyze problems and develop solutions to meet customer needs; may involve light scripting. Lead triage meetings to share knowledge with other engineers and develop customer solutions efficiently. Consistently share best practices with team members. Act as technical resource for broad and complex issues, and may typically be assigned to moderately strategic accounts. Ability to develop and deliver “in depth” technical training to other engineers. Write complex technical articles and sample programs for knowledge base.
Maintain strong working knowledge of pre-release products and take ownership for product improvement in key product areas.
Travel
Travel is required 30% of the time
QUALIFICATIONS:
SOFT SKILLS
Leadership - handle technically challenging and politically hot customer situations
Strong communications skills - Excellent spoken and written English communication skills
Effective, polished interaction with customer both on the telephone and potentially face-to-face to gather information
Superior problem solving and troubleshooting skills, an ability to use various data collection tools and methodologies to analyze problems and develop solutions
Ability to work collaboratively with the Engineering teams to drive architectural changes throughout the environments to improve stability of each environment
Outstanding partnering capabilities
Ability to drive product/service improvements in core technical focus area
Logical and Critical thinking, and demonstrated success in dealing with ambiguity and problem definition under continual deadline constraints
Passion for technology and customer support
Understanding of cloud vs. on premise computing
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Two or more years of System Center Virtual Machine Manager configuration and administration
Strong knowledge of virtualization technologies and strategies
Programming, scripting, and/or SQL experience a plus
Strong knowledge of Microsoft® System Center components, with specific experience with Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Application Virtualization, and Windows Server.
Knowledge of Virtualization concepts including Hyper-V or equivalent competitor products
Two or more years of System Center Configuration Manager administration or solid experience in systems development, network operations, software support or I.T. consulting,
Experience with System Center Data Protection Manger and/or Service Manager a plus,
EXPERIENCE
At least 3 years of Technical Support experience (in a Tier 3 environment) including experience in a customer-facing or customer technical support role
EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION
B.S. degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.