Senior DevOps Engineer - Kubernetes

AVM Consulting Inc; Leeds; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology consultancy in the UK is seeking a Kubernetes Engineer to play a key role in building resilient, scalable container-based platforms. The candidate will optimize Kubernetes clusters, enhance deployment strategies, and ensure security and observability for production workloads. Ideal applicants will have over 5 years of experience in infrastructure roles with a strong focus on Kubernetes, particularly in AWS/EKS environments. This hands-on role demands a proactive mindset and a passion for automation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Site Reliability, Infrastructure, or DevOps roles focusing on Kubernetes.
• Deep experience running production workloads on Kubernetes, especially on AWS/EKS.
• Strong understanding of container lifecycle, networking, and orchestration internals.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain Kubernetes clusters across various environments.
• Optimize pod scheduling, resource allocation, and scaling for services.
• Implement RBAC and network policies for secure workloads.
• Enhance Helm charts and GitOps processes for reliable deployments.
• Integrate observability stacks like Prometheus for health visibility.

Skills

Kubernetes focus

Site Reliability Engineering

Infrastructure automation

Proficiency with Helm

Terraform or Pulumi

Scripting languages (Python, Bash, Go)

Service meshes (Istio, Linkerd)

Kubernetes-native security tools

Job description

We are seeking a Kubernetes Engineer with experience building resilient, scalable container based platforms in dynamic environments. You’ll play a central role in implementing our container orchestration strategy, optimizing Kubernetes clusters for reliability, performance, and developer velocity. This is a hands‑on role where architectural insight meets operational excellence - ideal for an engineer who wants to leave their fingerprints on the core of how things run.

Key Responsibilities

Cluster Management: Design, build, and maintain Kubernetes clusters across development, staging, and production environments (EKS a strong plus).

Platform Engineering: Build tooling and abstractions that streamline application deployment and service discovery for developers.

Autoscaling & Performance: Optimize pod scheduling, resource allocation, and horizontal/vertical scaling for high-performance services.

Security & Policy Enforcement: Implement RBAC, network policies, and runtime security tools to enforce safe, compliant workloads.

Deployment Enablement: Enhance Helm charts, Kustomize workflows, and GitOps processes to support fast, safe, and reliable deployments.

Observability: Own the integration and tuning of observability stacks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Loki) for visibility into cluster and application health.

Resilience & Recovery: Support fault‑tolerant architectures, runbooks for failover, and high availability strategies.

Collaboration: Partner with developers, QA, and platform teams to evolve infrastructure‑as‑code and self‑service systems that reduce friction and boost autonomy.

About You

Experience

• 5+ years in Site Reliability, Infrastructure, or DevOps roles with a clear Kubernetes focus
• Deep experience running production workloads on Kubernetes (especially on AWS/EKS)
• Solid understanding of container lifecycle, networking, and orchestration internals

Technical Skills

• Strong with tools like Helm, Kustomize, ArgoCD, or Flux
• Proficiency with Terraform or Pulumi for provisioning EKS and supporting infrastructure
• Competence in at least one scripting language (Python, Bash, or Go)
• Familiarity with service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) and Kubernetes‑native security tools (OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno)

Mindset

• You are proactive and enjoy taking ownership of infrastructure challenges
• You value automation and reducing manual toil wherever possible
• You are comfortable working in fast‑paced, collaborative environments
• You communicate clearly and can explain complex infrastructure topics to different audiences

Nice to Have

• Experience implementing security controls in regulated or compliance‑focused environments
• Familiarity with service mesh architectures or advanced Kubernetes networking
• Background supporting multi‑region or multi‑cloud deployments