Sr. Storage Engineer - NetApp

Key Responsibilities

Incident & Problem Management 

• Provide expert-level support for NetApp storage environments, including performance, capacity, data protection, and interoperability issues. 

• Own NetApp incidents end-to-end from triage through resolution, including clear customer communication. 

• Act as escalation point for Sev 1/2 storage incidents to rapidly restore service and protect critical business workloads. 

• Perform root cause analysis for major storage incidents and implement corrective and preventive actions. 

Hardware & RMA Coordination 

• Lead and coordinate hardware replacement processes (RMAs, drive replacements, controllers, shelves) with NetApp and logistics partners. 

• Manage end-to-end RMA lifecycle: identification, RMA creation, shipment tracking, onsite installation coordination, and post-replacement validation. 

• Ensure accurate documentation of RMA activities, asset updates, and configuration changes within customer and internal systems. 

Proactive Health, Capacity & Best Practice Reviews 

• Use NetApp tools (e.g., Active IQ) to identify risks, configuration deviations, and performance/capacity issues. 

• Conduct periodic environment health and best-practice reviews, presenting findings and remediation plans to customers. 

• Recommend and support configuration optimizations, firmware/ONTAP upgrades, and data layout improvements. 

Change & Upgrade Support 

• Plan and support NetApp-related change windows (e.g., ONTAP upgrades, shelf additions, hardware refreshes). 

• Create and review change plans, rollback procedures, and validation checklists for storage changes. 

• Ensure changes are executed safely and documented thoroughly. 

Customer & Cross-Vendor Collaboration 

• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers on NetApp and storage-related architecture decisions. 

• Collaborate with networking, virtualization, and backup teams to resolve multi-domain issues (e.g., VMware + NetApp, SAN fabric, backup tools). 

• Coordinate with NetApp support as needed while maintaining AHEAD’s “single point of contact” for the customer. 

Documentation & Continuous Improvement 

• Develop and maintain runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and knowledge base articles for NetApp technologies. 

• Identify opportunities to automate health checks, reporting, and common remediation tasks. 

• Mentor and cross-train other engineers on NetApp storage technologies and best practices. 

Required Skills & Experience

Technical Expertise - Strong hands-on experience with: 

• NetApp AFF and FAS platforms 

• ONTAP/ONTAP Select (clustered architecture, SnapMirror/SnapVault, etc.) 

• E-Series and/or All SAN Arrays (as applicable) 

• Storage networking concepts (Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS, SMB) 

• Performance tuning and capacity planning in storage environments 

• Familiarity with Active IQ or similar analytics tools for storage health and risk analysis. 

Experience 

• 8+ years in storage engineering/administration/support, ideally with a heavy NetApp focus. 

• Experience supporting mission-critical, 24x7 enterprise environments. 

• Background in incident, problem, and change management (ITIL desirable). 

• Soft Skills 

• Clear, concise communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 

• Ability to manage multiple incidents and projects simultaneously. 

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for customer outcomes. 

Education & Certifications (Preferred) 

• Relevant NetApp certifications such as: 

• NetApp Certified Data Administrator (NCDA) 

• NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer (NCIE) 

• Other storage/virtualization certifications (e.g., VMware, Cisco) are a plus. 

Success Measures (Role-Level KPIs) 

• Reduction in Sev 1 incident rate per NetApp array or environment. 

• RMA cycle times (initiation to fully validated replacement) meeting or beating target. 

• Active IQ risk remediation rates and decline in critical/high-risk findings over time. 

• Storage environment health scores (capacity, performance, configuration compliance). 

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) for NetApp-related incidents and reviews.