The Cloud Engineer is a key element within the Rackspace support infrastructure and is expected to provide a high level of technical support to our customers via the phone, ticketing system, and automation. This role owns complex customer issues which may take several days or weeks to resolve and keeps our customers updated through every step of the process. Responsible for the support of internal and external customers on multiple platforms. Work with customers and other teams to troubleshoot customer environments to increase user satisfaction. Resolves customer issues, providing guidance and recommendations to increase efficiency and reduce customer incidents. Develops tooling and processes to drive and improve customer experience, creates playbooks, and providing mentoring on customer related issues to support teams. The Support Engineer is expected to take initiative and advise on potential pitfalls that a customer may encounter and suggest alternatives which may better serve the stability and security of the customer’s solution. Keeps informed of emerging technologies. Responsible for adhering to company security policies and procedures and any other relevant policies and standards as directed.
** Role can work remotely anywhere within the U.S. **
Key Responsibilities:
- Technical point of escalation to the Cloud Support and Engineering teams; resolving customer issues, working in collaboration with partners across the business, as required
- Lead functional and contribute to cross-functional business continuity/transformational projects and customer engagements (both technical and non-technical), delivering key objectives for the Organization
- Monitor and provide maintenance for all related infrastructure
- Ensure the control, integrity, and accessibility of the cloud environment
- Implements large, complex enterprise-class solutions
- Lead tasks relating to system architecture enhancements, problem management, fleet management, process improvement, reporting, product integration and customer infrastructure
- Lead Workload/Workforce Management and Optimization related tasks
- Develop technical training for all Rackers supporting Rackspace Supported Cloud Products
- Mentor and assist Rackers across the organization
- Provide technical expertise underpinning communications targeting a range of stakeholders – from individual contributors to leaders across the business
- Collaborate with Account Managers and Business Development Consultants to build strong customer relationships
- Collaborate and share knowledge with other Engineers and Administrators on the support floor
Knowledge:
- Strong knowledge of Cloud Platform Products such as OpenStack Ansible, Red Hat OSP or Kubernetes
- Strong skills in at least one of the following languages: Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Java
- Strong skills with git and git workflows
- Strong skills in leveraging CI and CD tools to automate testing and deployment
- Strong knowledge of Linux or Windows OS, including but not limited to: Server Failover Clustering, Active Directory, IIS
- Broad knowledge of the following with deep knowledge of some: PHP, Python, Ruby, Javascript, Memcached, LAMP, nginx, node.js, nosql, Varnish
- Proficient web programming and scripting ability
- Proficient knowledge of designing, building, implementing, analyzing, and troubleshooting distributed, highly available systems
- Proficient automation skills with at least one configuration management system such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Salt, or other such tools
- Proficient knowledge of software development methodologies including code profiling, regression testing, and continuous integration
- Proficient knowledge of Project Management methodologies
- Proficient understanding of services and protocols, configuration, management, and troubleshooting of hosting environments, including web servers, databases, caching, and database services
- Proficient knowledge in the application of current and emerging network software and hardware technology and protocols
- Requires in-depth conceptual and practical knowledge in own job discipline and basic knowledge of related job disciplines
- Has knowledge of best practices and how own area integrates with others; is aware of the competition and the factors that differentiate them in the market
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or a related technical field
- At the Manager’s discretion, 4 years of additional related experience may substitute for the degree requirement; if substitution allowed, regional equivalent to High School Diploma is required.
Experience:
- 5 – 7 years of technical engineering and administration experience
- Minimum 3+ years hands-on experience supporting Linux systems including 2 or more of:
- Virtualization – primarily using KVM or OpenStack.
- Automation – Ansible, Puppet, SaltStack or other IT automation tools for medium and large environments with practical experience of Ansible Playbook creation
- Containers – especially with Docker,
LXD/LXC, or Kubernetes. - Storage technologies – block, object and network.
- Networking (bonding, firewalling, bridging, switching, network file system tuning, MTU issues, etc.)
- Linux integration with other environments (authentication/directory services, network file systems, etc.)
- Cloud computing (provisioning, monitoring, orchestration, etc.)
- Troubleshooting experience:
- Basic reading of stack traces to be able to search for duplicates, escalate to the correct team.
- Understand OS and Application level bugs and advise on next steps
- Programming fundamentals in any language.
- Customer support experience:
- Customer support is a priority
- Excellent communication skills
- 2+ years of current commercial experience working with a high-traffic site
- Experience with high-availability, high-performance, open source web technologies
- Experience automating and orchestrating workloads across multiple public cloud providers
- Experience with cloud platforms, open source databases and caching layers
- Experience working in a containerized environment (Docker/LXC)