Platform Engineer: Kubernetes, KVM & Lab Automation

Cisco Systems, Inc; Kraków; On-site; PLN 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an experienced Platform Engineer to build and operate production Kubernetes clusters across on‑premises and bare‑metal environments.

You will own VM lifecycle, networking, storage, and security baselines, while advancing automation using Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps practices with Argo CD or Flux. The role emphasizes collaboration with the operations team on monitoring, capacity planning, and incident response, and requires strong Linux expertise and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 4+ years of experience in platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or Linux systems engineering (or equivalent work experience).
• Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting experience (RHEL-family or similar), including host networking such as bridging, VLANs or equivalent, bonding, and MTU.
• Experience operating Kubernetes in production, including upgrades, debugging, and day‑2 operations.
• Experience with Linux virtualization (KVM/QEMU, KubeVirt, OpenShift Virtualization, or similar), including VM lifecycle, not containers only.
• Experience with Kubernetes networking and persistent storage (CNI, CSI, PVCs).
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and/or Ansible).
• Experience with Git plus CI/CD and/or GitOps (Argo CD, Flux, or similar).
• Scripting or automation experience in Python, Go, and/or Bash.

Responsibilities

• Build, upgrade, and operate production Kubernetes clusters, including on‑premises and bare‑metal environments.
• Own cluster fundamentals, including Linux nodes, networking, ingress, storage, RBAC, and security baselines.
• Run KubeVirt in production, including VM lifecycle, templates, scheduling, live migration, and disk attach.
• Enable additional networks for VMs beyond the default pod network, including isolation between tenants or environments.
• Integrate the cluster with data‑centre networking and storage (CSI), including snapshot and clone workflows for VM disks.
• Automate infrastructure and cluster lifecycle using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and/or Ansible) and GitOps (Argo CD or Flux).
• Contribute to Kubernetes APIs used by the product (operators, CRDs, admission, or similar) so VMs and networks can be automated without manual node changes.
• Package and standardise deployments with Helm as reusable templates.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana) and help define SLIs/SLOs for cluster and VM operations.
• Fix issues across Linux, KVM/QEMU, Kubernetes, networking, and storage, and support incident response with the operations team when required.
• Partner with the operations team on monitoring, alerting, and capacity planning.
• Document how the platform is built, operated, and used.

Skills

Linux administration

Kubernetes operations

SRE practices

Automation scripting

Python scripting

Go scripting

Bash scripting

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Git

Argo CD

Flux

Helm

KubeVirt

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an experienced Platform Engineer to build and operate production Kubernetes clusters across on‑premises and bare‑metal environments.

You will own VM lifecycle, networking, storage, and security baselines, while advancing automation using Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps practices with Argo CD or Flux. The role emphasizes collaboration with the operations team on monitoring, capacity planning, and incident response, and requires strong Linux expertise and