Kubernetes Administrator

Job Description

Location: Remote 

Contract Duration: 6 months

Contract details: B2B/ PFA or SRL

Role Overview

We are looking for a Senior Kubernetes Administrator to architect, operate, and continuously improve mission-critical Kubernetes platforms with strict availability and reliability requirements (99.95%+ uptime SLAs).

This role owns the end-to-end Kubernetes platform, from control-plane architecture and multi-region resilience to security, automation, observability, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Kubernetes Architecture & Operations

• Architect, operate, and scale highly available Kubernetes clusters meeting 99.95%+ uptime SLAs.

• Design and manage multi-region, multi-zone Kubernetes clusters, including:

  • zero-downtime upgrades

  • blue/green control-plane rollouts

  • surge-based node rotations

• Deeply understand and optimize Kubernetes internals, including:

  • API Server performance design and tuning based on NFRs

  • etcd clustering, backup, compaction, and disaster recovery

  • scheduler optimization and custom scheduling strategies

Advanced Troubleshooting & Incident Management

• Lead advanced troubleshooting of:

  • control-plane failures

  • node instability

  • networking and storage issues

  • complex, multi-layer platform incidents

• Act as a senior escalation point for critical production issues.

Platform, Networking & Storage

• Operate AKS or native Kubernetes platforms at enterprise scale.

• (Nice to have) Experience with bare-metal Kubernetes, including:

  • Cilium Load Balancer

  • BGP-based networking

  • node pool design

• Own stateful Kubernetes workloads, including:

  • StatefulSets

  • highly available CSI backends

  • storage performance tuning and I/O optimization

Infrastructure as Code & GitOps

• Lead Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and GitOps strategies using:

  • Terraform

  • Helm

  • Kustomize

• Implement declarative cluster configuration with Argo CD.

• Automate cluster creation, policy enforcement, compliance scanning, and drift remediation.

CI/CD & Automation

• Build and maintain enterprise-grade CI/CD pipelines with advanced security controls using:

  • Azure DevOps

  • GitHub Actions

• Integrate CI/CD pipelines with Kubernetes platforms for secure, reliable delivery.

Security & Identity

• Implement and enforce enterprise-grade Kubernetes security frameworks, including:

  • Zero Trust architectures

  • workload identity

  • mutual TLS

  • signed container images

• Enforce Pod Security Standards (PSS) and NetworkPolicies, including eBPF-based policy tracing.

• Integrate Kubernetes clusters with corporate identity systems (OIDC, Azure AD, IAM).

• Manage secrets lifecycle using:

  • HashiCorp Vault

  • Azure Key Vault

  • SOPS

• Implement admission control using:

  • OPA Gatekeeper

  • Kyverno

Observability & Reliability Engineering

• Own the full monitoring and observability stack, including:

  • Prometheus

  • Grafana

• Design and operate high-throughput logging pipelines using Loki.

• Implement distributed tracing and root-cause analysis with OpenTelemetry.

• Define, measure, and report:

  • Service Level Indicators (SLIs)

  • Service Level Objectives (SLOs)

  • error budgets

  • reliability dashboards

Required Skills & Experience

• Senior-level experience operating production Kubernetes platforms at enterprise scale

• Deep expertise in Kubernetes internals and control-plane architecture

• Strong hands-on experience with AKS or native Kubernetes

• Advanced knowledge of Kubernetes networking, storage, and security

• Proven experience with IaC, GitOps, and CI/CD automation

• Strong troubleshooting skills in complex, distributed systems