Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer (DevSecOps)

Exasoft; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

Exasoft is seeking an experienced Kubernetes Platform Engineer / DevSecOps Lead in Abu Dhabi to operate and optimize production Kubernetes environments. You will focus on Day 2 operations, security hardening, monitoring, logging and automated remediation across RKE2, Rancher Manager and Harvester HCI.

The role requires strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes production environments, incident response, and automation for reliability, security and performance.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Kubernetes Day 2 operations and cluster troubleshooting.
• Experience with RKE2, Rancher Manager, and Harvester HCI.
• Knowledge of software supply chain security, SBOM, image signing and CIS hardening.

Responsibilities

• Administer and troubleshoot production Kubernetes clusters and components.
• Install, configure, upgrade RKE2 clusters and Rancher Manager; manage lifecycle and HA.
• Deploy and manage Harvester infrastructure and Longhorn storage; integrate with Rancher/RKE2.

Skills

Kubernetes Day 2 Ops

RKE2

Rancher Manager

Harvester HCI

Software Supply Chain Security

Linux

Monitoring

Logging

CI/CD & GitOps

Security hardening

Tools

Prometheus

Grafana

Loki

Job description

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Candidate Location: UAE / India (India-based candidates must be willing to relocate)

Role: DevSecOps Lead / Cloud Native Consultant

Experience: Strong hands-on Kubernetes production experience is essential; relevant expertise takes priority over total years of experience.

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Kubernetes Platform Engineer / DevSecOps Lead with strong expertise in Kubernetes Day 2 Operations, RKE2, Rancher Manager, Harvester HCI, software supply chain security, Linux, monitoring, logging and CI/CD automation.

The role focuses on operating, maintaining, troubleshooting, securing and optimizing production Kubernetes environments, rather than primarily building deployments or developing CI/CD pipelines.

Kubernetes Day 2 Operations is the most critical requirement. Candidates must have practical experience managing Kubernetes clusters and applications after production deployment, including daily operations, troubleshooting, reliability, security, performance optimization, upgrades and automation.

Key Responsibilities

• Kubernetes Day 2 Operations: Administer and troubleshoot production Kubernetes clusters, including control-plane components, worker nodes, pods, networking, DNS, ingress, storage, scheduling and resource issues. Perform cluster upgrades, incident management, root-cause analysis, backup/recovery and performance optimization.
• RKE2 & Rancher: Install, configure, administer and upgrade RKE2 clusters and Rancher Manager. Manage cluster lifecycle, RBAC, high availability, monitoring, backups and production troubleshooting.
• Harvester HCI: Deploy and manage Harvester infrastructure, virtual machines, networking and Longhorn storage. Support integration with Rancher/RKE2 and troubleshoot infrastructure issues.
• DevSecOps & Supply Chain Security: Implement container scanning, vulnerability management, SBOM generation, image signing, secure registries, secrets management, CIS hardening and policy-as-code using tools such as Trivy, Cosign, Kyverno or equivalent.
• Linux Administration: Manage Linux servers, perform patching and hardening, troubleshoot networking, CPU, memory, storage and system issues, and automate tasks using Bash, Python or Ansible.
• Monitoring & Logging: Implement and maintain Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, ELK/EFK or equivalent tools for observability, proactive alerting, incident investigation and platform reliability.
• CI/CD & GitOps: Build and maintain secure CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps. Implement GitOps with ArgoCD or Rancher Fleet, automate deployments using Helm, Terraform and Ansible, and support rollback and recovery.

Mandatory Technical Skills

• Kubernetes: Advanced hands-on administration, production troubleshooting and Day 2 operations.
• RKE2: Installation, configuration, lifecycle management and troubleshooting.
• Rancher Manager: Setup, cluster administration, upgrades and operational support.
• Harvester HCI: Deployment, virtualization, storage and platform administration.
• Software Supply Chain Security: Vulnerability scanning, SBOM, image signing, container security and policy enforcement.
• Linux: Administration, troubleshooting, security hardening and scripting.
• Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana or equivalent.
• Logging: Loki, ELK/EFK or equivalent.
• CI/CD & GitOps: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD, Rancher Fleet or equivalent.

Preferred Skills

• CKA / CKS certifications.
• NVIDIA GPU Operator and GPU-enabled Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Istio Service Mesh.
• AWS EKS, Azure AKS or hybrid cloud experience.
• Experience supporting high-availability, enterprise production platforms.

Candidate Requirements

• Proven hands-on experience in production Kubernetes administration and Day 2 operations.
• Strong troubleshooting, incident response, root-cause analysis and cluster recovery experience.
• Practical exposure to the mandatory Kubernetes ecosystem, particularly RKE2, Rancher and Harvester.
• Strong understanding of DevSecOps, Linux, monitoring, logging and infrastructure automation.
• Ability to independently resolve complex production platform issues and collaborate with cross-functional teams.