ProxMox Migration Consultant (VMware/Hyper-V)

About Cronos Europa

Cronos Europa is a leading IT and digital transformation partner dedicated exclusively to European Institutions and agencies, delivering mission‑critical solutions that shape Europe’s digital future. As part of the Cronos Group, one of the most innovative and fastest‑growing tech ecosystems in Europe, we benefit from a vast pool of expertise and cutting‑edge capabilities. With over 1,000 specialists across Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, we combine deep institutional knowledge with strong engineering excellence to support long‑term, high‑impact EU programmes requiring reliability, scalability, and innovation.

About the job

The EU Commission is consolidating and migrating production and non-production workloads away from VMware vSphere/ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V onto Proxmox VE.

We are looking for a hands-on Proxmox consultant who has done this before — someone who can assess the existing environment, design the target Proxmox architecture, plan and execute the migration with minimal downtime, and leave behind clean documentation and an internal team that can run it.

This is a delivery-focused role. The candidate will be working closely with our infrastructure, networking, and security teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess the current VMware (vSphere / ESXi / vCenter) and Hyper-V (incl. SCVMM where present) environments — inventory, dependencies, storage, networking, and licensing exposure.
• Design the target Proxmox VE architecture: cluster topology, storage backend (Ceph / ZFS / NFS / iSCSI), networking (Linux bridges, bonding, VLANs, SDN), high availability, and backup strategy.
• Plan and execute VM migrations using appropriate methods and tooling (Proxmox import wizard, qemu-img conversion, virt-v2v, Veeam, cold/warm/live cut-over) with rollback plans.
• Stand up and configure Proxmox clusters, Proxmox Backup Server, HA groups, and monitoring/alerting.
• Validate migrated workloads (performance, drivers/VirtIO, guest tooling, boot, networking) and tune for production.
• Define and document migration runbooks, cut-over plans, and operational procedures.
• Handle decommissioning of source infrastructure and reclaim/repurpose hardware where applicable.
• Manage certificates and PKI material for the Proxmox web UI, API, and cluster communication (certificate lifecycle, renewals, internal CA).
• Provide knowledge transfer and training so internal staff can operate and maintain the platform.
• Report progress against milestones and surface risks early.

Profile requirements

IT-Related Skills — Level: Mid to Senior

• Proxmox VE expertise — cluster setup, management, upgrades, and day-2 operations (required).
• VMware migration experience — vSphere / ESXi / vCenter, including VM export/conversion to KVM/QEMU.
• Hyper-V migration experience — Hyper-V / SCVMM, VHD/VHDX handling and conversion.
• KVM / QEMU virtualisation — VirtIO drivers, guest agent, performance tuning.
• Linux system administration — Debian-based systems (Proxmox runs on Debian), shell, services, kernel/storage troubleshooting.
• Storage — Ceph and/or ZFS, plus NFS / iSCSI; capacity planning and resilience.
• Network and security operations — Linux networking, VLANs, bonding, firewalling, SDN; handling crypto material and PKI certificates (cluster/API/UI certs, certificate lifecycle management).
• Backup and DR — Proxmox Backup Server, snapshot/replication strategies, Veeam or equivalent.
• Automation and tooling — Bash and/or Python scripting, Ansible / Terraform for repeatable provisioning (advantageous).
• IT service management awareness — working with ticketing and CMDB tooling; drafting migration and operational procedures, contributing to internal policies and IT security concepts.

Non-IT-Related Skills

• Communication and stakeholder management — liaising with infrastructure, security, application owners, and management.
• Problem-solving and analytical skills — troubleshooting and root-cause analysis under production constraints.
• Organisational and time-management skills — prioritising migration waves, meeting cut-over deadlines.
• Reporting and documentation — runbooks, migration plans, status reports, and architecture documentation.
• Team collaboration and knowledge transfer — upskilling internal staff and aligning the team on the new platform.
• Adaptability and flexibility — working in a changing environment and adjusting plans as dependencies surface.
• Customer/service orientation — minimising disruption to users and application owners during migration.
• Project management — supporting and tracking milestones, implementation, and operationalisation.
• Administrative skills — managing access/accounts, attending planning meetings, taking and circulating notes.
• Attention to detail — validating migrated workloads, verifying configurations, and monitoring certificate status.

Soft Skills

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Proactive approach to problem-solving and task management.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and deadlines.
• Willingness to learn and take on new responsibilities.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information.

Required experience

• Demonstrable experience delivering at least one production migration from VMware and/or Hyper-V to Proxmox VE.
• Solid Proxmox VE and Linux administration background.
• Hands-on experience with Ceph or ZFS in production.
• Comfort with VM conversion tooling and live/cold cut-over techniques.

Desired Assets

• Proxmox certification or equivalent demonstrable track record.
• Experience with the post-Broadcom VMware licensing landscape and cost-reduction migrations.
• Ansible / Terraform / Infrastructure-as-Code experience.
• Experience with Proxmox SDN, clustering at scale, or multi-site/DR designs.
• Familiarity with monitoring stacks (Prometheus / Grafana / Zabbix).

If you wish to integrate a dynamic structure on a human scale while working with the latest technologies, don't wait anymore and join Cronos Europa!