Senior Infrastructure Engineer (OpenShift)

Exclaim IT; Canberra; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Exclaim IT seeks a Senior Infrastructure Engineer (OpenShift) to support enterprise OpenShift platforms within a regulated government environment in Canberra. You will lead cluster design, lifecycle, and automation efforts, ensuring availability and security while mentoring junior engineers.

The role requires strong OpenShift/Kubernetes expertise, DevOps practices, and the ability to collaborate with security and application teams in a large ICT setting.

Qualifications

• Extensive OpenShift and Kubernetes administration experience.
• Experience in enterprise-scale, regulated government environments.
• Strong automation and DevOps exposure (IaC, GitOps).
• Ability to lead initiatives and mentor junior engineers.
• NV1 clearance or eligibility preferred.

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain enterprise OpenShift environments for high availability.
• Manage cluster lifecycle: installation, upgrades, patching and config changes.
• Monitor health, capacity, and performance; resolve issues.
• Troubleshoot OpenShift and Kubernetes across networking, storage, auth, and certificates.
• Design and deploy clusters to support secure enterprise apps.
• Develop automation using Ansible, Terraform, Helm, and IaC.
• Support developers with container deployments and CI/CD pipelines.
• Implement platform security controls and RBAC.
• Lead complex changes and mentor engineers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and document procedures.

Skills

OpenShift administration

Kubernetes administration

Automation

CI/CD

Security RBAC

Incident troubleshooting

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Python

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / IT / Software Engineering

Red Hat OpenShift Administration Certification

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Helm

GitOps

IaC

Job description

Our Federal Government is seeking an experienced Senior Infrastructure Engineer (OpenShift), supporting the administration, maintenance and optimisation of enterprise-scale Red Hat OpenShift environments.

In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the availability, stability, security and performance of on-premises OpenShift platforms. You will work closely with infrastructure, security, application and engineering teams to troubleshoot complex technical issues, automate operational processes and deliver scalable, reliable container infrastructure.

The successful candidate will bring strong technical expertise in OpenShift and Kubernetes administration, alongside the ability to lead technical initiatives, mentor junior engineers and contribute to continuous platform improvement within a complex government environment.

NV1 clearance required prior to commencement

Key responsibilities

• Administer, configure and maintain enterprise-scale Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform environments, ensuring high availability, stability and operational resilience.
• Manage OpenShift platform lifecycle activities, including cluster installation, upgrades, patching, configuration changes and ongoing maintenance.
• Monitor platform health, capacity, performance and availability, proactively identifying and resolving potential issues.
• Troubleshoot complex OpenShift and Kubernetes infrastructure issues across networking, storage, compute, authentication, certificates and cluster components.
• Design, deploy and manage Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters to support scalable and secure enterprise applications.
• Develop and implement automation solutions using Ansible, Terraform, Helm, GitOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices.
• Support developers with containerised application deployments, scaling and management through CI/CD pipelines.
• Implement platform security best practices, including vulnerability management, network segmentation, role-based access control (RBAC) and secure configuration.
• Lead complex technical changes and platform improvement initiatives while mentoring junior engineers.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, security, architecture and application teams to resolve incidents and deliver integrated technology solutions.
• Maintain technical documentation, operational procedures, monitoring processes and disaster recovery practices.
• Analyse platform performance and operational data to identify opportunities for automation, efficiency and continuous improvement.
• Experience working within Australian Government or highly regulated environments, with knowledge of the Information Security Manual (ISM) and Essential Eight security frameworks.
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration or equivalent certification.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering or a related discipline.
• Experience implementing DevOps and GitOps practices in complex enterprise environments.
• Knowledge of enterprise change, incident, problem and configuration management processes.
• Experience leading technical teams, mentoring engineers and delivering complex infrastructure projects.

Skills and experience

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in systems administration, including OpenShift or Kubernetes cluster administration.
• Extensive experience administering Kubernetes environments, including networking, security, storage and troubleshooting containerised workloads.
• Strong knowledge of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, including cluster architecture, operators, nodes, workloads and platform lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated experience working within large-scale, multi-architecture enterprise infrastructure environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure components, including compute, networking, storage, load balancing, DNS, certificates and identity services.
• Experience with containerisation technologies, container images, registries and cloud-native application deployment patterns.
• Proficiency in automation and DevOps technologies, including Ansible, Helm, Terraform, Git, Python and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience implementing OpenShift security controls, authentication, authorisation, RBAC and secure platform configurations.
• Strong knowledge of platform monitoring, logging, alerting, performance optimisation and incident troubleshooting.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose complex technical issues and deliver practical, effective solutions.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and contribute to agile delivery environments.
• Experience working in a large-scale ICT environment, ideally including 3+ years working with Kubernetes.
• Impactful government projects: Contribute to critical digital infrastructure supporting services used by millions of Australians.
• Professional development: Opportunity to work with enterprise-scale OpenShift and Kubernetes technologies while expanding technical leadership capabilities.
• Collaborative environment: Work alongside experienced infrastructure, security, application and engineering professionals on complex technology initiatives.