Lead Engineer - Managed Kubernetes

Target; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 5,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Target seeks a Lead Engineer - Kubernetes Platform to design, build, automate, and operate cloud‑native platform services across hybrid cloud and on‑prem environments in Bengaluru. You will develop tooling in Go, manage multi‑cluster deployments, and drive observability, security, and reliability at scale.

Ideal candidates will have 10+ years in software or cloud/platform engineering, deep Kubernetes expertise, and strong IaC/GitOps experience with GKE, Terraform, Helm, Argo CD, and Flux.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software or cloud/platform engineering.
• Proven expertise building and operating cloud-native Kubernetes platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, automate, and operate Kubernetes platform services across hybrid cloud and on‑premises environments.
• Develop platform tooling, controllers, and automation using Go (Golang).
• Design, implement, and manage GitOps and CI/CD workflows to automate deployments across multi-cluster Kubernetes environments.
• Manage, optimize, and scale Kubernetes clusters, including Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and the supporting cloud infrastructure.
• Drive platform observability, reliability, security, resiliency, and operational excellence.
• Lead platform upgrades, cluster migrations, networking enhancements, storage architecture, scalability improvements, and platform modernization.
• Define platform architecture, engineering standards, and long‑term technical strategy.
• Partner with engineering teams to deliver secure, scalable cloud‑native platform capabilities.
• Serve as a technical SME, mentor engineers, and influence engineering best practices across teams.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional stakeholders to define platform roadmaps and balance product requirements with long‑term sustainability.

Skills

Go

Kubernetes

Public Cloud

Kubernetes networking

IaC

GitOps

CI/CD

Observability

Linux

CSI storage

CKA/CKAD

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Helm

Kustomize

Argo CD

Flux

GKE

Job description

About Us

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

About Us

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

As a lead engineer, you serve as the technical anchor for the engineering team that supports a product. You create, own and are responsible for the application architecture that best serves the product in its functional and non‑functional needs. You identify and drive architectural changes to accelerate feature development or improve the quality of service (or both). You have deep and broad engineering skills and are capable of standing up an architecture in its whole on your own, but you choose to influence a wider team by acting as a "force multiplier". Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

We are looking for a Lead Engineer - Kubernetes Platform with extensive platform engineering experience in designing, building, automating, and operating cloud‑native platforms. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud‑native technologies, and platform automation, with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, security, and operational excellence. This role will provide technical leadership in evolving our Kubernetes platform across hybrid cloud and on‑premises environments.

Required Skills

• Strong software development experience in Go (Golang).
• Extensive hands‑on experience designing, administering, and operating Kubernetes platforms, including cluster provisioning, configuration, upgrades, troubleshooting, and production operations.
• Strong experience running Kubernetes on public cloud platforms. Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is preferred; equivalent experience with AWS, Azure, or other public cloud platforms is also acceptable.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture and networking, including CNI plugins, ingress controllers, services, network policies, load balancing, traffic routing, and service connectivity.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Kubernetes deployment tools such as Terraform, Helm, and Kustomize.
• Experience implementing GitOps practices using tools such as Argo CD and/or Flux.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD automation and modern software delivery practices for Kubernetes platforms.
• Experience with observability solutions, including metrics, logging, monitoring, alerting, distributed tracing, and platform reliability.
• Experience administering Linux operating systems and optimizing container host environments.
• Experience with Kubernetes storage technologies, including CSI drivers, Persistent Volumes (PV), Persistent Volume Claims (PVC), Storage Classes, StatefulSets, and disaster recovery strategies.
• Strong automation‑first mindset with experience managing infrastructure and platform services as code using version control, GitOps, and Infrastructure as Code practices.
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and/or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, automate, and operate Kubernetes platform services across hybrid cloud and on‑premises environments.
• Develop platform tooling, controllers, and automation using Go (Golang).
• Design, implement, and manage GitOps and CI/CD workflows to automate application and infrastructure deployments across multi‑cluster Kubernetes environments.
• Manage, optimize, and scale Kubernetes clusters, including Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and the supporting cloud infrastructure.
• Drive platform observability, reliability, security, resiliency, and operational excellence.
• Lead platform initiatives including Kubernetes upgrades, cluster migrations, networking enhancements, storage architecture, scalability improvements, and platform modernization.
• Define platform architecture, engineering standards, and long‑term technical strategy.
• Partner with engineering teams to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and self‑service cloud‑native platform capabilities.
• Serve as a technical subject matter expert, mentor engineers, and influence engineering best practices across teams.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional stakeholders to define platform roadmaps and balance product requirements with long‑term platform sustainability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, cloud engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related field.