System Engineer - Golang & Kubernetes CRDs

PortBlueSky; British Columbia; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first flexibility

Deep systems engineering work

Strong technical environment

Open-source relevance

High standards in coding and testing

Job summary

PortBlueSky is seeking a skilled System Engineer specializing in Golang and Kubernetes. You will work on core components of a Kubernetes-native platform, tackling complex systems challenges and ensuring production reliability.

The ideal candidate has expert-level Go skills, strong understanding of Kubernetes internals, and the discipline for advanced systems testing. Enjoy a remote-first environment with a flexible schedule, contributing to open-source Kubernetes projects.

Qualifications

• Expert-level Go development skills.
• Strong command of idiomatic Kubernetes controller patterns.
• Deep Kubernetes internals knowledge, including CRDs and API extensions.
• Comfort working on advanced storage modes, including Postgres-backed resources.
• Understanding of security boundaries and Kubernetes security contexts.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the core Kubernetes-native engine.
• Implement idiomatic controller patterns and advanced API machinery.
• Support advanced storage modes with PostgreSQL integration.
• Collaborate with the Tech Lead on platform components.
• Improve reliability and test coverage.

Skills

Go development skills

Kubernetes controller patterns

Kubernetes internals knowledge

Testing discipline

Remote communication skills

Tools

Postgres

Ginkgo

Gomega

Helm

client-go

Job description

System Engineer – Golang & Kubernetes CRDs

Are you an expert Go engineer who understands Kubernetes beyond ordinary controller development? Do CRDs, watches, informers, admission webhooks, resource versions, status subresources, aggregated API servers, and conflict‑safe updates feel like familiar territory?

PortBlueSky is supporting a major multinational enterprise in scaling a widely adopted open‑source, Kubernetes‑native platform for agentic AI and enterprise automation. We are looking for a System Engineer to build and maintain the core Kubernetes‑native engine that powers the platform’s runtime, resource model, execution flows, and storage semantics.

This role is for someone who enjoys hard systems problems, clean APIs, strong tests, and the discipline required to make Kubernetes‑native systems behave predictably in production.

Role And Responsibilities

• Build the core Kubernetes‑native engine: Develop and maintain controllers, CRDs, API behavior, storage semantics, and runtime components in Go.
• Implement idiomatic controller patterns: Work with watches, informers, work queues, resource versions, retries, conflict‑safe updates, status transitions, owner references, and finalizers.
• Contribute to advanced API machinery: Work on aggregated API servers, REST storage implementations, OpenAPI generation, serializers, admission reuse, and Kubernetes‑style error handling.
• Support advanced storage modes: Preserve Kubernetes‑style list/watch/get/update/delete semantics while backing resources with Postgres where required.
• Solve consistency and HA challenges: Reason about Postgres logical replication, WAL slots, resource version consistency, watch bookmarks, pagination, managed database constraints, and HA risks.
• Work on mission‑critical platform components: Collaborate with the Tech Lead on execution flows, agent/team/model reconciliation, external server discovery, long‑running task polling, and runtime reliability.
• Improve reliability and test coverage: Write strong tests around retries, cancellation, reconciliation ordering, failure states, dependency readiness, and status transitions.
• Strengthen execution boundaries: Help reason about agent execution, sandboxing, workload isolation, Kubernetes security contexts, and risks around untrusted tool or agent execution.
• Maintain packaging and generation flows: Work with controller‑runtime, client‑go, envtest, Ginkgo/Gomega, Chainsaw e2e tests, code generation, CRD generation, and Helm CRD packaging.

What We Offer

• Deep systems engineering work: This is not ordinary application development. You will work on Kubernetes‑native APIs, controllers, storage semantics, and runtime behavior.
• A strong technical environment: PortBlueSky emphasizes senior experts, hands‑on problem‑solving, and challenging enterprise projects.
• Remote‑first flexibility: Work remotely with flexible hours and conditions designed around experienced developers.
• Open‑source relevance: Contribute to a platform that is used beyond a single internal product team.
• High standards: Work with colleagues who care about clean code, strong tests, API quality, production behavior, and long‑term maintainability.

About You

• Expert‑level Go development skills.
• Strong command of idiomatic Kubernetes controller patterns.
• Deep Kubernetes internals knowledge, including CRDs, API extensions, admission webhooks, status subresources, owner references, finalizers, watches, resource versions, informers, work queues, and conflict‑safe updates.
• Experience with Kubernetes API machinery beyond normal controllers.
• Comfort working on advanced storage modes, including Postgres‑backed Kubernetes‑style resources.
• Strong testing discipline and the ability to reason about subtle distributed‑system failure modes.
• Understanding of security boundaries, sandboxing, workload isolation, and Kubernetes security contexts.
• Fluent English and strong remote communication skills.
• EU residency and permission to work in the EU.

Nice to Have

• Experience with aggregated API servers, REST storage, OpenAPI generation, serializers, and admission reuse.
• Experience with Postgres logical replication, WAL slots, watch bookmarks, pagination, or HA database patterns.
• Familiarity with MCP, A2A, agent execution, model/provider abstractions, or AI orchestration platforms.
• Experience with Helm CRD packaging, Chainsaw tests, envtest, Ginkgo, Gomega, controller‑runtime, and client‑go.
• Open‑source project experience or contributions to Kubernetes ecosystem tools.

Technologies & Tools You May Work With

• Go
• Kubernetes
• CRDs
• controller‑runtime
• client‑go
• Aggregated API servers
• Admission webhooks
• Postgres
• Logical replication / WAL
• OpenAPI generation
• Envtest
• Ginkgo / Gomega
• Chainsaw e2e tests
• Helm
• Kubernetes security contexts
• MCP / A2A integrations