Storage patching SME

ROLE SUMMARY

The Storage Patching Tower Lead (Onshore) is the primary storage interface to client L2/L3 and vendor liaisons during Canada hours. This role owns the full storage firmware/microcode patch lifecycle across an 811 PB estate spanning IBM (DS8000/SVC/Storwize), Dell EMC (Power Store/VMAX/VNX), Net App (ONTAP), and HPE (3

PAR/Primera) platforms — planning non-disruptive upgrades (NDU), validating multipathing and failover health, and owning tower compliance reporting.

• Tower/pod lead and SME for storage patching — primary storage interface to client L2/L3 and vendors-via-client during Canada hours and weekend windows
• Coordinates NDU windows with client L2/L3 and application teams; owns Storage tower compliance reporting
• Operates as storage execution layer under client direction; storage architecture/design remains client L2/L3 owned
• Directs offshore storage SMEs during onshore hours; manages escalation within agreed SLTs

• Plan and execute controller firmware/microcode, array OS (e.g., Net App ONTAP), and HBA/driver patching across IBM, Dell EMC, Net App, and HPE arrays
• Plan non-disruptive upgrades (NDU); validate multipathing, failover, and health pre-checks before each window
• Coordinate SAN/NAS and switch firmware (Brocade/Cisco MDS) cycles with client L2/L3
• Maintain EOL/EOS lifecycle tracking, capacity/health pre-checks, and compliance posture; update CMDB
• Perform RCA and rollback; elevate hardware/microcode issues to vendor (via client)
• Author RFC/CAB submissions for storage firmware windows; align with application teams for I/O freeze scheduling
• Own Storage tower compliance reporting; present KPIs to the Patch Service Lead for governance reviews

• Execute controller firmware/microcode and array OS patches across IBM, Dell EMC, Net App, and HPE platforms
• Plan and validate NDU procedures — multipathing health, controller failover, LUN snapshot pre-checks
• Manage Net App ONTAP ANDU upgrades — cluster-wide non-disruptive upgrade procedures
• Execute IBM SVC/Storwize rolling node-by-node code upgrades; validate I/O continuity post-upgrade
• Coordinate SAN switch firmware (Brocade/Cisco MDS) cycles; validate fabric health pre/post-change
• Update CMDB firmware levels; close vulnerability tickets; maintain KEDB for recurring firmware issues
• Track vendor firmware advisories (IBM Fix Central, Net App ONTAP release notes, Dell EMC security advisories)

• Storage Platforms
  : IBM DS8000/SVC/Storwize
  · Dell EMC Power Store/VMAX/VNX
  · Net App ONTAP
  · HPE 3
  
  PAR/Primera
• Protocols
  : FC SAN (Fibre Channel)
  · iSCSI
  · NFS/CIFS
  · NVMe-oF awareness
  · Multipathing (MPIO/DM-Multipath)
• Patching Tools
  : IBM Fix Central
  · Net App ANDU/ActiveIQ
  · Dell EMC Unisphere
  · HPE One View
  · Ansible
• ITSM & Vuln
  :
  Service Now (Change/CMDB)
  · Tenable
  · Qualys
  · RFC/CAB
  · KEDB
• Observability
  : IBM Spectrum Control
  · Net App ActiveIQ
  · Splunk
  · Dynatrace
  · Moogsoft

• SAN switch (Brocade/Cisco MDS) firmware management and zoning awareness
• Backup infrastructure patching and storage automation/scripting
• Virtualisation datastore (VMware VMFS, vSAN) awareness

• ITIL 4 Foundation

• Net App Certified Data Administrator (NCDA) or Net App Certified Implementation Engineer (NCIE)
• Dell EMC Proven Professional — Information Storage and Management (EMCISA)
• SNIA Storage Networking certification (SCSN-E) — plus
• Broadcom/Brocade (BCFP/BCFA) for SAN fabric — advantageous

• Experience with large enterprise SAN environments (>500 TB / 811 PB scale)
• Dell EMC Unity/Power Store administration exposure
• Financial services storage patching with regulatory compliance requirements

• Hours
  :
  Canada business hours + weekend NDU change window coverage
• Shift Model
  :
  Hybrid onshore; scheduled firmware maintenance windows
• On-Call
  :
  Yes — emergency storage firmware events and I/O failure escalations
• Language
  :
  English (mandatory)

Compensation: We are offering between $60,000 – $85,000. Applications will be accepted until Aug 21, 2026.Cognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in Canada without requiring employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Disclaimer
:
The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

* Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future*