Clear Creek Federal is seeking a Lead Data Protection Engineer [Senior] in Washington, DC -or- Beltsville MD -or- Lakewood, CO.
The Lead Data Protection Engineer (Senior) is responsible for leading the design, implementation, administration, and operational support of enterprise data protection, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery solutions supporting mission-critical federal systems. This position serves as the technical lead for a team of Data Protection Engineers and provides strategic direction for data protection services, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of enterprise data assets.
The successful candidate will possess extensive experience with Commvault technologies, hold an active Commvault certification, and demonstrate proven leadership experience managing a team within a highly secure federal environment. This role requires collaboration across infrastructure, storage, virtualization, cybersecurity, network, and systems engineering teams to ensure comprehensive data protection capabilities across a predominantly on-premises, highly virtualized enterprise environment supporting mission-critical workloads.
Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:- Lead a team of six (6) Data Protection Engineers responsible for enterprise backup, recovery, and data protection operations.
- Design, implement, configure, optimize, and maintain enterprise data protection solutions utilizing Commvault technologies.
- Lead the protection and recovery strategy for enterprise virtualized workloads, ensuring high availability and recoverability of mission-critical systems hosted within on-premises data centers.
- Provide technical leadership and guidance for all data protection initiatives, projects, and operational activities.
- Monitor enterprise backup environments and ensure successful completion of backups, replications, restorations, and disaster recovery activities across large-scale on-premises and VMware virtualized infrastructures.
- Manage and oversee daily data protection operations, including monitoring, reporting, incident management, and compliance activities.
- Support migration efforts from legacy backup technologies, including Avamar, to enterprise Commvault solutions.
- Develop and maintain data backup, retention, archival, and recovery strategies in accordance with federal regulations and organizational policies.
- Respond to service requests and incidents related to data protection systems, performing root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.
- Participate in and support disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution activities.
- Collaborate with systems, storage, virtualization, network, and cybersecurity engineering teams to integrate enterprise-wide data protection solutions across predominantly on-premises infrastructure.
- Conduct regular audits, health assessments, and performance evaluations of enterprise backup, storage, and VMware-based data protection infrastructure.
- Develop metrics, dashboards, and executive-level reporting related to backup compliance, recovery readiness, and operational performance.
- Create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation, standard operating procedures, recovery procedures, system configurations, and knowledge articles.
- Ensure compliance with federal security requirements, data handling regulations, and organizational policies.
- Participate in a 24x7 on-call rotation and provide after-hours support as required.
Required QualificationsEducation- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field.
• Additional relevant experience may be substituted for formal education requirements where permitted by contract.
Experience- Minimum eight (8) years of progressive experience supporting enterprise data protection, backup, and recovery environments.
• Minimum three (3) years of experience serving in a technical lead or team leadership capacity.
• Demonstrated experience leading and managing a team of approximately six (6) personnel.
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and administering enterprise-scale Commvault environments supporting large, highly virtualized on-premises infrastructures.
• Experience supporting enterprise backup and recovery operations within large, complex on-premises and VMware virtualized IT environments.
• Experience supporting enterprise virtualization platforms and protecting virtual machine workloads in large-scale data center environments.
• Experience with disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution.
Certifications- Active Commvault Certification.
- Additional industry certifications such as Security+, CISSP, VMware Certified Professional (VCP), Microsoft, or related infrastructure certifications are highly desirable.
Technical SkillsRequired- Commvault Backup and Recovery
- Commvault Command Center
- Backup Architecture Design
- Data Retention and Lifecycle Management
- Disaster Recovery Planning and Testing
- Backup Monitoring and Reporting
- Data Protection Compliance
- Incident Response and Troubleshooting
- Enterprise Storage Technologies
- VMware vSphere Administration and Data Protection Integration
- Virtual Machine Backup and Recovery
- Enterprise Virtualization Technologies
- On-Premises Data Center Operations
- Windows and Linux Server Administration
- Documentation and Process Development
Preferred- Avamar administration and migration experience
- Experience integrating Commvault with hybrid or cloud-based backup and recovery solutions
- Enterprise storage platforms
- Automation and scripting technologies (PowerShell, Python, or similar)
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities- Strong leadership and team management capabilities.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced operational environment.
- Strong understanding of federal information security and compliance requirements.
- Strong understanding of data protection strategies for large-scale VMware and on-premises enterprise infrastructures.
- Ability to communicate effectively with executive leadership, technical teams, customers, and stakeholders.
- Strong organizational, documentation, and reporting skills.
- Ability to develop strategic recommendations for data protection modernization initiatives.
- Ability to lead modernization efforts involving backup, recovery, storage, and virtualization technologies.
Security Clearance- Active Top Secret (TS) Clearance required.
