Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Oivan Group

Dubai

On-site

AED 420,000 - 640,000

Full time

3 days ago

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Job summary

Oivan Group in the United Arab Emirates seeks an experienced Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to build, operate, and troubleshoot enterprise Kubernetes platforms, including GPU-enabled clusters for AI/ML workloads. You will own installation, configuration and day-2 operations across on-premises, air-gapped and hybrid environments.

You will deploy and manage NVIDIA GPU Operator on RKE2, set up Rancher Manager in HA, implement GitOps with Fleet/Argo CD or Flux, and drive CI/CD pipelines,

Qualifications

5+ years in IT with 3+ years Kubernetes in production
Strong Kubernetes troubleshooting and root-cause analysis
Rancher Manager setup and day-2 operations
GPU Operator deployment on RKE2 for GPU workloads
CI/CD and GitOps: GitLab CI/Jenkins/GitHub Actions; Fleet/Argo CD/Flux
Istio service mesh experience; Infrastructure as Code with Terraform/Ansible
Strong Linux admin skills (SLES/RHEL/Ubuntu) and networking fundamentals
Experience in on-premise enterprise environments and air-gapped setups
Advanced English; Arabic is a plus

Responsibilities

Install, configure and operate production Kubernetes clusters (RKE2) across environments
Set up SUSE Rancher Manager HA, backups, authentication and RBAC
Automate infrastructure with Terraform and Ansible
Troubleshoot platform issues end-to-end and perform root-cause analysis
Deploy NVIDIA GPU Operator and configure GPU sharing for AI/ML workloads
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows
Package workloads with Helm/Kustomize and manage Istio traffic policies
Operate SUSE Virtualization (Harvester) and run RKE2 guest clusters
Monitor with Prometheus/Grafana and implement CIS hardening
Plan upgrades with minimal downtime and develop runbooks

Skills

Kubernetes

Rancher Manager

GPU Operator

CI/CD

GitOps

Istio

Terraform

Ansible

Linux Admin

English Proficiency

RKE2

Harvester

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Helm

Kustomize

GitLab CI

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

RKE2

Harvester

Job description

What We Need

Oivan is looking for an experienced Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join our team in the UAE. You will build, operate and troubleshoot enterprise Kubernetes platforms including GPU-enabled clusters for AI/ML workloads. This role requires strong expertise in:

Hands-on Kubernetes operations, with strong troubleshooting and root-cause investigation skills
SUSE Rancher Manager setup, operations and multi-cluster management
NVIDIA GPU Operator deployment and operations on top of RKE2
Automation through CI/CD pipelines and GitOps-based delivery
Istio service mesh

Hands-on experience with RKE2, Rancher and SUSE Virtualization is a very strong plus. Candidates without it must at least understand what these products are and their core concepts.

What You'll Do

Key Responsibilities

We offer you the unique opportunity to apply and develop your skills with a diverse and geographically distributed technology team. You will play a key role in building and running Kubernetes platforms that host mission-critical and GPU-accelerated workloads.

The following are the main duties you will do as part of this job:

Install, configure and operate production Kubernetes clusters, primarily RKE2, across on-premise, air-gapped and hybrid environments
Set up and operate SUSE Rancher Manager in high availability: installation, upgrades, backup and restore, authentication and RBAC, and provisioning or importing downstream clusters
Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)
Troubleshoot and investigate platform issues end to end (nodes, pods, CNI networking, DNS, ingress, storage, certificates, etcd and the control plane) and drive root-cause analysis to closure
Set up and operate SUSE Rancher Manager in high availability: installation, upgrades, backup and restore, authentication and RBAC, and provisioning or importing downstream clusters
Deploy and operate the NVIDIA GPU Operator on RKE2, including driver and container toolkit configuration for RKE2's embedded containerd, the device plugin, GPU Feature Discovery and DCGM monitoring
Configure GPU sharing (MIG and time-slicing) and support the scheduling and operation of AI/ML workloads on GPU nodes
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions) for application and platform delivery
Implement GitOps with Rancher Fleet, Argo CD or Flux, keeping Git as the single source of truth for cluster configuration and deployments
Package and manage workloads with Helm and Kustomize
Deploy and operate Istio: traffic management, ingress and egress gateways, mTLS and authorization policies, and mesh troubleshooting
Operate SUSE Virtualization (Harvester) to run VM workloads alongside containers and to host RKE2 guest clusters
Implement monitoring, logging and alerting with Prometheus, Grafana and Rancher Monitoring and Logging
Harden clusters using CIS benchmarks (including the RKE2 CIS profile), Pod Security Admission, network policies and secrets management
Plan and execute Kubernetes, RKE2 and Rancher upgrades with minimal downtime
Design and test backup and disaster recovery, including etcd snapshots, Rancher backups and workload backup (e.g., Velero)
Create and maintain runbooks, playbooks and platform documentation
Conduct knowledge transfer and training sessions for customer and internal teams
Work closely with customer stakeholders in on-site engagements

What You Have

Qualifications & Skills

Our ideal candidate will fulfill the following requirements:

5+ years of hands-on experience in IT, with 3+ years administering Kubernetes in production
Strong Kubernetes troubleshooting and investigation skills:
- Systematic debugging with kubectl, events, logs, crictl and node-level tools
- Diagnosing networking, DNS, storage, scheduling, certificate and control-plane issues
- Root-cause analysis and clear incident write-ups
Hands-on experience with Rancher Manager setup and day-2 operations
Experience deploying and operating the NVIDIA GPU Operator, ideally on RKE2
Automation with CI/CD and GitOps:
- GitLab CI, Jenkins or GitHub Actions
- Fleet, Argo CD or Flux
- Helm and Kustomize
Hands-on experience with Istio service mesh
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and Ansible
Strong Linux administration (SLES / SLE Micro, RHEL or Ubuntu) and networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, TLS)
Monitoring and observability: Prometheus, Grafana and centralized logging
Strong Bash scripting; Python or Go is a plus
Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
Strong experience working in on-premise enterprise environments, including air-gapped setups
Ability to work independently in customer-facing roles
English (advanced); Arabic language skills are a strong advantage

Very strong plus: RKE2, Rancher and SUSE Virtualization

Hands-on production experience with these products will strongly differentiate a candidate. Candidates without it must, at a minimum, be able to explain:

RKE2: SUSE's security-focused, CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution; server and agent nodes, embedded containerd, etcd, configuration through config.yaml, CIS-hardened defaults and air-gapped installation
Rancher: multi-cluster management; the Rancher Manager (local) cluster versus downstream clusters, cluster agents, projects and RBAC, Fleet and the app catalog
SUSE Virtualization (Harvester): hyperconverged infrastructure built on Kubernetes, using KubeVirt for virtual machines and Longhorn for storage, managed from Rancher

Desirable

SUSE Security (NeuVector) and SUSE Storage (Longhorn)
CNI expertise: Canal, Calico or Cilium
Secrets management: HashiCorp Vault, Sealed Secrets or External Secrets Operator
Private registries and air-gapped image management (e.g., Harbor)
AI/ML platform tooling (e.g., Kubeflow, KServe, Ray)
Other Kubernetes platforms: Red Hat OpenShift, EKS, AKS or GKE

Preferred Certifications