Customer Success Engineer III - IN

Job Family Summary

•  Serves as a single point of contact for technical consultation, for a designated customer base in Private Cloud.
• Provides consulting service to customers, developing technical, tactical and strategic plans related to systems definition and feasibility determination.
• Propose and implement system enhancements, assessing the compatibility and integration of products/services proposed to ensure integrated architecture across interdependent technologies.
• Provides escalation coverage for dedicated customer base.
• Responsible for adhering to company security policies and procedures and any other relevant policies and standards as directed 

Career Level Summary

•  Requires in-depth conceptual and practical knowledge in Private Cloud discipline and basic knowledge of related job disciplines.
• Solves complex problems. Works independently, receives minimal guidance. May lead projects or project steps within a broader project or may have accountability for on-going activities or objectives.
• Acts as a resource for colleagues with less experience
• Works independently, receives minimal guidance
• May lead projects or project steps within a broader project or may have accountability for on-going activities or objectives
• Acts as a resource for colleagues with less experience
• Level at which career may stabilize for many years or until retirement

Critical Competencies

• Focusing on customers - Anticipates current customer needs and identifies customer preference trends/patterns. Develops long-term relationships with key customers by creating trust and treating them as a priority. Creates customized customer solutions for complex service offerings
• Investigating Issues - Regularly seeks out new opportunities to develop expertise, recognizing the value and importance of learning and development; acquires and assimilates new knowledge at a fast pace. Adopts a practical approach to work; finds out how to do things by doing them; works to make sure that a method is workable and viable. quickly; identifies a number of ways to improve things and trusts own intuition about which methods will work best.
• Knowing My Organization - Demonstrates advanced knowledge of the organization's product/service offerings, and helps the team understand the key features and associated benefits across the entire suite. Demonstrates understanding of team structure and dynamics and identifies key relationships to develop for the benefit of the team. Maintains and actively promotes the organization’s values, consistently demonstrating expected behaviors.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver Monthly Service Reviews (MSR) and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) with customers, presenting infrastructure performance, availability metrics, and service improvement recommendations
• Develop, maintain, and execute the Technical Account Plan (TAP) aligned with customer business goals, VMware architecture standards, and cloud strategy.
• Define, plan, and drive VMware migration and upgrade strategies (vSphere, vSAN, NSX, vRealize Suite, Aria Operations, SDDC etc.) to ensure seamless transitions and minimal service disruption.
• Act as the primary technical advisor and escalation point for the customer’s VMware private cloud environment. Proactively manage Data Stores capacity, ESXi / VM performances, Network Bandwidth utilization observations and analysis, Backup and patching observation and resolution of the challenges, vulnerability management and remediation.
• Responsible for operational health activities: capacity management, performance review, operational review, risk identification and remediation, assistance with technical migrations and customer environment documentation.
• Drive all major technical events, including upgrades, migrations, DR tests, and incident recovery, ensuring end-to-end coordination across technical, support, and operations teams. Oversee and plan Switches, Firewalls, Load balancer upgrades, Vcenter, ESxi upgraes. ESXi migrations, Zerto configuration for replication and DRE.
• Perform proactive health checks and capacity assessments, using VMware tools and telemetry data to identify risks, optimization opportunities, and performance trends.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and support teams to resolve complex VMware infrastructure issues and track corrective actions to closure.
• Ensure compliance with VMware architecture best practices, security standards, and lifecycle management policies.
• Identify and implement service improvement initiatives focused on availability, resilience, automation, and performance optimization.
• Provide technical enablement and knowledge transfer to customer teams, helping them maximize value from VMware technologies.
• Stay up to date with VMware roadmap, product enhancements, and emerging technologies to guide customers on modernization and transformation initiatives.
• Responsible for collaboration with implementation & solutioning teams with your assigned customers new builds.
• Supports Client Executives in the preparation of customer visits; in the creation of customer quotes.
• Responsible for customer technical documentation: environment runbooks; AMGs and DMGs; architecture diagrams; post sales high level design as part of implementation process.
• Remains informed on account plans for assigned customers, including sitting in on Advisory implementation calls
• Responsible for participation and collaboration with CSMs at; ASRs; QBRs; MSRs; creation and implementation of churn mitigation strategies; implementation calls for assigned customers
• Other Incidental tasks related to the job, as necessary. Owns technical projects that improve customer experience.
• P1 technical support including 24 x 7 on call as required 

Person Specification

• Knowledge
• Requires in-depth conceptual and practical knowledge in Private Cloud, virtualization and basic knowledge of related technologies
• Expert-level knowledge of VMWare vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, SDDC and tools like vMotion, DRS, and HA, SRM & Zerto
• Deep understanding of Windows Server OS, Active Directory, Group Policy, and other core services.
• Understanding of networking, network devices and their usage like Switch, Firewall, Load Balancer
• Experience with backup and recovery tools like CommVault or any other tools.
• 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.
• Knowledge of all Rackspace products, business units, and segments
• Understands Rackspace’s strategic partners, vision, and roadmap
• Knowledge of competitors’ offerings, as well as their strengths and weaknesses
• Broad knowledge of IT systems in general, private cloud and Internet technologies in particular, and the ongoing development of both
• Must have conversational knowledge of business finance, particularly as it relates to information technology

Skills

• Good Skills in collaborating and contributing to the selling processes and use of techniques in client interactions
• Strong writing, editing, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Must be able to present technical and business concepts in a clear manner, and to communicate proficiently with technical experts on a wide variety of IT subjects.
• Strong presentation skills, attention to detail, and follow-through techniques.
• Must be able to gain the trust and respect of customers in order to gain high-level strategic insight into their business.
• Ability to develop and maintain relationships with key external stakeholders at various business levels.
• Able to “think outside of the box” to consultatively and strategically architect complex IT systems to support customers’ strategic goals

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in field related to role 

Certifications

• MCSA, MCSE
• VMware, VMWare SDDC, VMWare SRM / Zerto
• Datadog
• Linux+, RHCSA, RHCE
• ITIL

Experience

• 10+ years of experience in System Administration, Consulting and Implementation
• Multi-vendor breadth knowledge
• Experience handling multiple tasks/projects
• Experience working directly with key customer stakeholders
• Presenting technical information to wide range of customer stakeholders

• Preferred - Relevant hosting experience and working in a managed services environment

Physical Demands

• General office environment: no special physical demands required
• May require long periods sitting and viewing a computer monitor
• Schedule flexibility to include working weekends and/or evenings and holidays as required by the business for 24/7 operations

Travel

• Occasional domestic/international travel, less than 10%