Senior Staff Data Center & OpenShift Operations Engineer(Contractor)tractor)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks seeks a Senior Staff Data Center & OpenShift Operations Engineer (Contractor) to lead high-availability infrastructure in India. You will bridge physical hardware management with OpenShift/OpenStack, driving 99.99% availability through resilient designs, automated deployment, and self-healing capabilities.

The role requires deep hands-on expertise in data center operations, GPU server hardware, IaC, and observability, including Prometheus/Grafana, Velero, ACM, ArgoCD, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience running and operating OpenStack/ProxMox in production environments.
• Deep expertise racking, stacking, and cabling high-density GPU platforms.
• Advanced proficiency with Ansible or Pulumi to automate bare-metal provisioning and OpenShift cluster setup.
• Strong Python and Bash scripting for monitoring integrations and tooling.
• Experience with OpenShift Data Foundation or Ceph storage.
• Hands-on knowledge of Netbox DCIM and logging/metrics stacks.

Responsibilities

• High-Availability (HA) Architecture: Monitor and maintain data center systems with ZSPoF topology across OpenShift control planes and workers.
• Cluster Reliability Engineering: Deploy and manage OpenShift 4.x clusters across multiple zones to hit 99.99% SLAs.
• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: Automated failover, backup/restore via Velero and ACM.
• Automated Cluster Maintenance: Rolling upgrades using GitOps (ArgoCD) and Machine Config Operator for zero-downtime.
• Deep-Stack Incident Resolution: Diagnose hardware and software incidents from GPU firmware to OpenShift networking.
• Vendor & Asset Lifecycle Management: Coordinate with NVIDIA, Dell, Cisco for maintenance and firmware updates.
• Capacity & Thermal Optimization: Design rack density plans, manage PDUs to prevent trips.
• Observability Pipeline: Integrate hardware health metrics into Prometheus/Grafana for real-time alerts.
• Physical Deployment & Infrastructure Execution: Rack and stack high-density GPU servers with 100G/200G cabling.
• Live Hardware Servicing: Replace components in production while maintaining cluster quorum.

Skills

OpenStack

ProxMox

GPU hardware operations

Python

Bash

Ansible

Pulumi

Netbox DCIM

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK/Loki

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

Tools

Ansible

Pulumi

OpenStack

ProxMox

vSphere

KVM

Job description

Senior Staff Data Center & OpenShift Operations Engineer(Contractor)

Role Description

This role is a contract assignment at Palo Alto Networks. Contractors will not be employed by Palo Alto Networks but through our trusted staffing partners.

• Duration - 12 months

Engagement Overview

This position is an Independent Contractor for an experienced Senior Data Center & OpenShift Operations Engineer based in India. This role serves as the foundation of our high-availability infrastructure, bridging physical hardware management with the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) or OpenStack.

The consultant will drive operations to achieve 99.99% availability by implementing resilient physical layout designs and automating cluster deployment, scaling, and self-healing mechanisms.

Key Responsibilities

• High-Availability (HA) Architecture: Monitor and maintain global data center systems using "Zero Single Point of Failure" (ZSPoF) topology across OpenShift control planes and worker nodes.
• Cluster Reliability Engineering: Deploy and manage production-grade OpenShift 4.x clusters across multiple power and cooling zones to hit strict 99.99% operational SLAs.
• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: Formulate, test, and perform automated failover strategies and backup/restore workflows via OADP (Velero) and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (ACM).
• Automated Cluster Maintenance: Execute non-disruptive rolling upgrades and maintenance utilizing GitOps (ArgoCD) and the Machine Config Operator for zero-downtime node evacuations.
• Deep-Stack Incident Resolution: Diagnose and resolve complex hardware and software layer incidents, ranging from host GPU firmware glitches to OpenShift SDN (OVN-Kubernetes) network latencies.
• Vendor & Asset Lifecycle Management: Coordinate with global hardware vendors (NVIDIA, Dell, Cisco) for equipment maintenance, warranty service, and security firmware updates.
• Capacity & Thermal Optimization: Design optimal rack density strategies for high-performance GPU clusters, managing thermal metrics and Power Distribution Units (PDUs) to prevent trip events.
• Observability Pipeline: Maintain DCIM records and integrate hardware health metrics (IPMI/SNMP) directly into Prometheus/Grafana stacks for real-time alerting.
• Physical Deployment & Infrastructure Execution: Carry out rack and stack ops for high-density GPU servers, managing redundant power paths and high-speed (100G/200G) InfiniBand and Ethernet cabling.
• Live Hardware Servicing: Perform precision component replacement (CPUs, GPUs, NVMe drives) in live production environments while maintaining cluster quorum.

Technical Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Platform Expertise: 5+ years of hands‑on experience running and operating OpenStack/ProxMox in production environments.
• Hardware Operations: Deep expertise racking, stacking, and cabling high‑density GPU platforms (e.g., NVIDIA DGX series) and specialized AI/ML server architectures.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Advanced proficiency with Ansible or Pulumi to automate bare-metal server provisioning and OpenShift cluster setup.
• Automation & Scripting: Strong Python and Bash scripting capability for building monitoring integrations and automated operational tooling.
• Storage & Virtualization: Practical experience with vSphere/KVM and enterprise storage engines like OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) or Ceph.
• Observability & DCIM: Hands‑on knowledge of Netbox DCIM, alongside log/metric collection stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/Loki).

Physical & Site Requirements

• Equipment Handling: Capability to physically lift and position data center hardware up to 50 lbs (23 kg).
• Environment: Ability to perform tasks in high-decibel, climate-controlled hot/cold data center aisles.
• Dexterity & Mobility: Comfort working in tight rack enclosures for extended durations, including precision fiber cabling and rail mounting.
• Regional Travel: Occasional travel to secondary data center locations or regional edge POPs within India as needed.