Senior Virtualization & AI Engineering Specialist - ASSETS

ARS has an exciting new opportunity for a Senior Virtualization & AI Engineering Specialist in support of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center Combatant Command, Command and Control (C2) Division (AFNWC/NCC). This is a full-time position located at Offutt AFB, NE

The Senior Virtualization & AI Engineering Specialist is responsible for engineering, operating, and optimizing enterprise virtualization, AI, data science, and analytics solutions in support of USSTRATCOM and the Strategic Mission Planning & Execution System (SMPES). This position focuses on VMware vSphere, ESXi, vRealize Aria Operations, vRealize Aria Operations for Logs, and advanced analytics tooling to ensure highly available, secure, and compliant IT services within classified DoD environments.

The role requires close collaboration with cyber, network, data science, and application teams to maintain full asset visibility, meet DoD STIG and cybersecurity requirements, and support 24/7 mission operations and SMPES objectives.

Applied Research Solutions (ARS) is respected as a world-class provider of technically integrated solutions as we deliver premier talent and technology across our focused markets for unparalleled, continuous mission support. Awarded a Best Places to Work nominee since 2020, ARS recognizes that without our career-driven, loyal professionals, we would not be able to deliver state-of-the-art results for our mission partners. We firmly believe that prioritizing our employees is of the upmost importance.

We provide a culture where our employees are challenged to meet their career goals and aspirations, while still obtaining a work/life balance. ARS employees are motivated through our industry competitive benefits package, our awards and recognition program, and personalized attention from ARS Senior Managers.

• An understanding of the design, implementation, and maintenance of VMware vSphere and ESXi-based virtualization infrastructure across multiple environments and security domains.
• Configure and administer vRealize Aria Operations and vRealize Aria Operations for Logs to ensure comprehensive performance monitoring, alerting, and log analysis.
• Perform advanced troubleshooting of virtualization, OS, and hardware issues; coordinate with vendors and internal teams to discover possible problems.

• Lead the development and tuning of AI, data science, and analytics tooling in support of SMPES administrative and mission requirements.
• Translate user and government stakeholder requirements into actionable technical tasks, with supporting text documentation and SysML/UML class, process, and sequence diagrams.
• Enable accurate modeling and simulation of future requirements, and support agile development and testing of mission software aligned with SMPES objectives.
• Integrate AI and analytics outputs with existing SMPES and virtualization platforms to enhance situational awareness, performance monitoring, and decision support for mission planners and operators.

• Translate government stakeholder requirements into executable technical tasks and work packages in alignment with SMPES processes and standards.
• Track progress against plans, identify and surface issues, and develop and present courses of action (COAs) consistent with SMPES weekly and monthly status reporting requirements.
• Prepare technical documentation, briefings, and status reports for leadership and stakeholders, clearly communicating technical risks, dependencies, and milestones.

• Ensure all assigned systems and virtual infrastructure components comply with DoD STIGs, DISA guidance, and organizational security policies.
• Partner with J5 cyber and security teams to achieve full asset visibility across classified networks and support ongoing risk management and accreditation activities.
• Support vulnerability remediation, configuration hardening, and security monitoring, including coordination of patching and mitigation strategies.
• Manage administrative support of the SMPES Risk Registry on SIPR and JWICS MSS platforms; develop, refine, and maintain Risk Registry processes in coordination with government stakeholders for approval and implementations

• Gather and analyze mission and customer requirements; translate them into technical system requirements and…