Senior Backup Engineer – Cyber Resiliency & Cloud Automation
Job Expired
Chicago, IL
Date Posted:10-Sep-2026
Work Type:Hybrid
Job Number:497730
Job Description
Job Title: Senior Backup Engineer – Cyber Resiliency & Cloud Automation
Duration: 9+ months, (Potential Contract-to-Hire)
Location: Chicago, IL - onsite 3 days per week| open to Tempe, AZ or other client locations where a candidate could go into a local client office
Position Summary
We are seeking a highly technical Senior Backup Engineer to assist with designing, implementing, automating, and continuously improve enterprise backup, cyber recovery, and data protection platforms across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments along with a DTE (Dedicated Testing Environment). This role will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for modernizing backup infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, immutable air-gapped architectures, and recovery testing.
The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in enterprise backup technologies, cyber resiliency, cloud infrastructure, Terraform development, scripting, and large-scale recovery validation. They should be comfortable architecting secure solutions while driving automation and operational excellence within a highly regulated enterprise.
Experience Level: 3 - Senior
Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise backup engineering experience.
• 5+ years designing enterprise backup architectures.
• Experience supporting Fortune 500 or highly regulated environments.
• Extensive experience with hybrid cloud infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of cyber resiliency principles.
Required Technical Skills
Backup Technologies
Experience with one or more:
• Cohesity
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
• Dell Cyber Recovery Vault
• Rubrik
• Veeam
• Commvault
• Veritas NetBackup
Air-Gap & Immutable Backup
Deep experience implementing:
• Immutable backup repositories
• Air-gapped backup solutions
• Cyber recovery vaults
• Secure recovery environments
• Clean room recovery concepts
• Ransomware recovery strategies
Cloud Platforms
Experience with:
• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Azure Local
• VMware Cloud
• Kubernetes/OpenShift
Infrastructure as Code
Strong expertise in:
• Terraform
• Terraform Modules
• GitHub
• Git-based workflows
• CI/CD pipelines
Scripting
Advanced scripting experience with:
• PowerShell
• Python
• Bash
• REST APIs
• JSON/YAML
Operating Systems
Experience with:
• Windows Server
• Linux (RHEL preferred)
• VMware ESXi
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience designing enterprise cyber recovery architectures.
• Knowledge of NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST SP 800-209, and ransomware recovery best practices.
• Experience integrating backup platforms with SIEM, monitoring, and automation tools.
• Familiarity with enterprise observability platforms such as Dynatrace or Splunk.
• Experience with storage technologies including Dell PowerStore, PowerScale, NetApp, or Pure Storage.
• Experience supporting financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Relevant certifications (AWS, Azure, VMware, HashiCorp Terraform, Cohesity, Dell Technologies, Veeam, or similar).
Leadership Competencies
• Exceptional troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• Strong automation-first mindset.
• Ability to simplify complex technical problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative leader capable of influencing cross-functional engineering teams.
• Passion for continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Ability to mentor engineers while driving engineering standards and best practices.
Tasks & Responsibilities:
Enterprise Backup & Recovery
• Design, implement, administer, and optimize enterprise backup and recovery platforms across physical, virtual, cloud, and containerized workloads.
• Lead the architecture and operational management of immutable and air-gapped backup environments to defend against ransomware and destructive cyber events.
• Develop enterprise backup standards, engineering patterns, and operational procedures.
• Perform capacity planning, lifecycle management, performance tuning, and storage optimization.
• Ensure backup solutions consistently meet enterprise RTO, RPO, security, and compliance requirements.
Air-Gapped Cyber Recovery
• Design and engineer logically and physically isolated cyber recovery environments.
• Implement immutable backup strategies utilizing modern cyber vault technologies.
• Validate secure backup replication into isolated environments.
• Build automated processes for backup validation and malware-free recovery verification.
• Partner with Cyber Security teams to support ransomware recovery strategies and cyber resilience initiatives.
Automation & Infrastructure as Code
• Develop reusable Terraform modules for deploying backup infrastructure across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Automate backup deployments using Infrastructure as Code principles.
• Create automation utilizing:
o PowerShell
o Python
o Bash
o REST APIs
• Build self-service deployment capabilities and standardized backup patterns.
• Integrate automation into enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
Recovery Testing & Engineering
• Build and maintain dedicated backup testing and validation environments.
• Design automated recovery validation frameworks.
• Lead enterprise recovery exercises including:
o Backup restore validation
o Bare metal recovery testing
o Database recovery
o File recovery
o VM recovery
o Cloud workload recovery
o Cyber recovery scenario testing
• Continuously improve testing automation to increase confidence in recoverability.
Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure
Engineer backup solutions supporting:
• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Private Cloud
• VMware
• Hyper-V
• Kubernetes/OpenShift
• Traditional on-prem infrastructure
Support cloud-native backup strategies including immutable object storage and cloud disaster recovery.
Engineering & Continuous Improvement
• Build engineering standards and reusable automation frameworks.
• Evaluate emerging backup and cyber recovery technologies.
• Optimize backup performance and reduce operational complexity.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Participate in architecture reviews and enterprise resiliency initiatives.
Duration: 9+ months, (Potential Contract-to-Hire)
Location: Chicago, IL - onsite 3 days per week| open to Tempe, AZ or other client locations where a candidate could go into a local client office
Position Summary
We are seeking a highly technical Senior Backup Engineer to assist with designing, implementing, automating, and continuously improve enterprise backup, cyber recovery, and data protection platforms across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments along with a DTE (Dedicated Testing Environment). This role will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for modernizing backup infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, immutable air-gapped architectures, and recovery testing.
The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in enterprise backup technologies, cyber resiliency, cloud infrastructure, Terraform development, scripting, and large-scale recovery validation. They should be comfortable architecting secure solutions while driving automation and operational excellence within a highly regulated enterprise.
Experience Level: 3 - Senior
Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise backup engineering experience.
• 5+ years designing enterprise backup architectures.
• Experience supporting Fortune 500 or highly regulated environments.
• Extensive experience with hybrid cloud infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of cyber resiliency principles.
Required Technical Skills
Backup Technologies
Experience with one or more:
• Cohesity
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
• Dell Cyber Recovery Vault
• Rubrik
• Veeam
• Commvault
• Veritas NetBackup
Air-Gap & Immutable Backup
Deep experience implementing:
• Immutable backup repositories
• Air-gapped backup solutions
• Cyber recovery vaults
• Secure recovery environments
• Clean room recovery concepts
• Ransomware recovery strategies
Cloud Platforms
Experience with:
• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Azure Local
• VMware Cloud
• Kubernetes/OpenShift
Infrastructure as Code
Strong expertise in:
• Terraform
• Terraform Modules
• GitHub
• Git-based workflows
• CI/CD pipelines
Scripting
Advanced scripting experience with:
• PowerShell
• Python
• Bash
• REST APIs
• JSON/YAML
Operating Systems
Experience with:
• Windows Server
• Linux (RHEL preferred)
• VMware ESXi
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience designing enterprise cyber recovery architectures.
• Knowledge of NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST SP 800-209, and ransomware recovery best practices.
• Experience integrating backup platforms with SIEM, monitoring, and automation tools.
• Familiarity with enterprise observability platforms such as Dynatrace or Splunk.
• Experience with storage technologies including Dell PowerStore, PowerScale, NetApp, or Pure Storage.
• Experience supporting financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Relevant certifications (AWS, Azure, VMware, HashiCorp Terraform, Cohesity, Dell Technologies, Veeam, or similar).
Leadership Competencies
• Exceptional troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• Strong automation-first mindset.
• Ability to simplify complex technical problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative leader capable of influencing cross-functional engineering teams.
• Passion for continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Ability to mentor engineers while driving engineering standards and best practices.
Tasks & Responsibilities:
Enterprise Backup & Recovery
• Design, implement, administer, and optimize enterprise backup and recovery platforms across physical, virtual, cloud, and containerized workloads.
• Lead the architecture and operational management of immutable and air-gapped backup environments to defend against ransomware and destructive cyber events.
• Develop enterprise backup standards, engineering patterns, and operational procedures.
• Perform capacity planning, lifecycle management, performance tuning, and storage optimization.
• Ensure backup solutions consistently meet enterprise RTO, RPO, security, and compliance requirements.
Air-Gapped Cyber Recovery
• Design and engineer logically and physically isolated cyber recovery environments.
• Implement immutable backup strategies utilizing modern cyber vault technologies.
• Validate secure backup replication into isolated environments.
• Build automated processes for backup validation and malware-free recovery verification.
• Partner with Cyber Security teams to support ransomware recovery strategies and cyber resilience initiatives.
Automation & Infrastructure as Code
• Develop reusable Terraform modules for deploying backup infrastructure across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Automate backup deployments using Infrastructure as Code principles.
• Create automation utilizing:
o PowerShell
o Python
o Bash
o REST APIs
• Build self-service deployment capabilities and standardized backup patterns.
• Integrate automation into enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
Recovery Testing & Engineering
• Build and maintain dedicated backup testing and validation environments.
• Design automated recovery validation frameworks.
• Lead enterprise recovery exercises including:
o Backup restore validation
o Bare metal recovery testing
o Database recovery
o File recovery
o VM recovery
o Cloud workload recovery
o Cyber recovery scenario testing
• Continuously improve testing automation to increase confidence in recoverability.
Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure
Engineer backup solutions supporting:
• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Private Cloud
• VMware
• Hyper-V
• Kubernetes/OpenShift
• Traditional on-prem infrastructure
Support cloud-native backup strategies including immutable object storage and cloud disaster recovery.
Engineering & Continuous Improvement
• Build engineering standards and reusable automation frameworks.
• Evaluate emerging backup and cyber recovery technologies.
• Optimize backup performance and reduce operational complexity.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Participate in architecture reviews and enterprise resiliency initiatives.
Applicant Notices & Disclaimers
- For information on benefits, equal opportunity employment, and location-specific applicant notices, click here
At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws. This position's pay range is $80.00/hr – $85.00/hr.
Similar Jobs