VMware Specialist

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success.

Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

We have a new opportunity for a VMware Specialist to join our Technology team in either London or Colchester. This is a permanent opportunity and is offered with hybrid working (2 days per week onsite).

As VMware Specialist, you’ll be responsible for keeping the platform secure, stable and available, and will support business-critical services across on‑premises and hybrid environments. You’ll be involved in hands‑on work with vSphere, stretched clusters, Horizon VDI and backup/recovery operations.

The Technology team provides expertise and effective solutions to Penguin Random House. We integrate flexibility and agility which supports our consistent way of working. We set ourselves up for success by holding ourselves accountable and welcoming change. Each member of the Technology team brings skill and initiative to their role; we take personal ownership within a one team culture, working collaboratively to meet expectations from our stakeholders who trust us to deliver.

• Administer, maintain, and optimise VMware vSphere environments (ESXi, vCenter, clusters, resource pools, data stores).
• Operate and support stretched clusters (e.g., cross‑site resilience), including failover/failback processes and availability testing.
• Manage and support VMware Horizon VDI infrastructure (brokers, pools, golden images, lifecycle management, user experience and capacity).
• Provision, monitor, and troubleshoot virtual machines and supporting services to meet SLAs and performance targets.
• Perform platform monitoring and proactive health checks (capacity, performance, alerts, patch levels).
• Support backup and recovery operations for virtual infrastructure, including restores, verification/testing, and backup troubleshooting (e.g. Veeam).
• Execute patching and upgrades across the VMware stack, coordinating changes through change management processes
• Troubleshoot incidents and problems across compute, storage, networking, and virtualisation layers; drive issues to resolution and produce RCA documentation.
• Collaborate with Storage, Network, Security, and End User teams to deliver improvements and ensure platform compliance.
• Maintain operational documentation, runbooks, standards, and asset/configuration records.

• Strong hands‑on experience administering VMware vSphere (vCenter, ESXi, clusters, HA/DRS).
• Strong experience in designing the VMWare estate, upscaling and downscaling the VMWare footprint.
• Demonstrable experience supporting stretched cluster designs and operational procedures (including resilience testing and incident recovery).
• Experience with VMware Horizon VDI in production (supporting users, pools, images, troubleshooting, performance).
• Solid experience with backup platforms and recovery processes for virtual machines and VMware environments (including restore validation).
• Working knowledge of enterprise infrastructure fundamentals:
• Storage (SAN/NAS concepts, multipathing, datastore performance)
• Windows Server and/or Linux administration basics
• Familiarity with IT service management practices (incident/change/problem management).
• Proficiency in creating, configuring, and managing Azure VMs, including skills in configuring and managing Azure Backup and Site Recovery, and experience with managing and automating patching processes for Azure VMs.
• Understanding of Azure networking concepts, including virtual networks, subnets, and network security groups.
• Knowledge of Azure storage options and management.
• Experience with Azure security features, including Azure Active Directory and role‑based access control (RBAC).
• Ability to travel when necessary across our London and Colchester sites.
• Experience of vSAN and NSX, VMware Cloud Foundation, or cloud integrations (Azure VMware…