CONTRACT - Sr Engineer, Kubernetes (NTD)

Nintendo of America Inc.; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Onsite in Redmond

Job summary

You will implement IaC with Terraform, drive GitOps deployments using ArgoCD/Flux, work across on‑prem and cloud environments, and mentor peers on best practices. Strong Kubernetes, networking, service mesh, and Go/Python/C# skills are required.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience building and managing production Kubernetes infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Document and standardize existing infrastructure and configurations.
• Build IaC templates and Terraform scripts for Kubernetes provisioning.
• Develop and apply a hybrid cloud strategy and evaluating approaches.
• Design and implement GitOps-based deployment automation (ArgoCD, FluxCD, Spinnaker, Kargo).
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Helm or Kustomize for deployments.
• Manage Kubernetes cluster operations across on‑premise and cloud environments.
• Oversee advanced networking including Cilium, ingress/Gateway API, Envoy, and service mesh.
• Collaborate with peers and mentor teams on Kubernetes best practices.

Skills

Kubernetes

Go

Python

Terraform

GitOps

CI/CD

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

ArgoCD

FluxCD

Spinnaker

Kargo

Helm

Kustomize

kubectl

Kubeadm

Istio

Cilium

Envoy

Job description

Nintendo Technology Development

Nintendo Technology Development is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo Co., Ltd., based in Redmond, Washington, that creates future hardware and software technology.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

As a Senior Software Engineer, Kubernetes, you will be a key member of our internal platform team. This role is a unique blend of software development and DevOps principles, focusing on standardizing, stabilizing, and scaling our Kubernetes infrastructure. You will be responsible for both day‑to‑day operations and strategic long‑term projects that will shape our platform's future.

• Document and Standardize: Audit our existing infrastructure and document our current setup, including its architecture, processes, and configurations. Your goal is to establish a clear and reproducible foundation.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Build out robust deployment scripts and IaC templates to enable the full reproduction of our Kubernetes infrastructure. You will leverage tools like Terraform to provision and manage our clusters, ensuring consistency and reliability.
• Platform Strategy: Investigate and propose solutions for a hybrid cloud strategy, evaluating the technical and business merits of different approaches.
• Implement Deployment Automation: Design and implement standardized, automated deployments using GitOps principles. This includes setting up and managing tools such as ArgoCD, Flux CD, Spinnaker, or Kargo to ensure a single source of truth for all deployments.
• Tooling & CI/CD: Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines to streamline developer workflows. You'll help manage application deployments using package or configuration managers like Helm or Kustomize.
• Cluster Management: Have hands‑on experience with Kubernetes cluster management, which require familiarity with tools like kubeadm and kubectl.
• On‑Premise & Cloud Environments: Have knowledge & experience working with Kubernetes clusters hosted on‑premise and in cloud environments, along with the unique considerations that come with both.
• Networking & Service Mesh: Own the design, tuning, and troubleshooting of cluster networking end‑to‑end - including the CNI dataplane (Cilium), ingress/Gateway API, Envoy configuration, and service mesh. Diagnose and resolve complex throughput, latency, and connectivity issues spanning worker nodes, pod networking, and east‑west traffic.
• Collaboration & Mentorship: Work closely with peer groups and other teams, sharing your expertise and helping to build a deeper understanding of Kubernetes best practices across the organization.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS

We are looking for a senior‑level candidate with a software engineering background and hands‑on experience with managing production Kubernetes environments.

• Experience: 7+ years of professional experience in software development, with at least 5 years of hands‑on experience building and managing production‑level Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Kubernetes Expertise: Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture, including core concepts such as Pods, Deployments, Services, RBAC and the API server.
• On‑Premise & Cloud Cluster Management: Experience with using and managing Kubernetes clusters hosted on on‑premise hardware and in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Experience provisioning and managing infrastructure with tools such as Terraform, specifically for Kubernetes clusters.
• Configuration Management: Proficiency with Helm (especially advanced usage) or Kustomize.
• GitOps: Experience with managing Kubernetes application & service deployment with tools such as ArgoCD, FluxCD, Spinnaker, Kargo, GitLab CI/CD, or GitHub Actions.
• Containerization: Expertise with Docker and other container runtimes like containerd.
• Advanced Kubernetes Networking: Hands‑on production experience with Cilium (or closely transferable CNIs such as Calico or Canal, with demonstrated ability to ramp on Cilium/eBPF). Working knowledge of Linux networking fundamentals (iptables/nftables, conntrack, MTU, BGP) and Kubernetes traffic paths (kube‑proxy or eBPF replacement, CoreDNS, ingress controllers, Gateway API).
• Service Mesh: Production experience with at least one service mesh - Istio (sidecar and/or ambient) preferred, Linkerd or Cilium Service Mesh acceptable - including mTLS, traffic policy, and Envoy‑level troubleshooting (listeners, clusters, xDS, access logs).
• Experience with programming languages such as Go, Python, or C#.
• Knowledge of Linux & Windows systems, as well as scripting functionality for both.
• Direct experience with Terraform, kubeadm, and kubespray for cluster provisioning and management preferred.

Applicants must be legally eligible to work in the United States to be considered. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

This position is onsite in Redmond, WA, and not open to remote status at this time.

This contract position includes the base pay range listed below and is eligible for benefits through the employing agency. Agency benefits include eligibility for medical insurance, employee assistance program, and paid sick leave. All benefits are subject to elections, eligibility requirements, plan and program terms. Benefits offerings will be confirmed at the time of offer by the employing agency, and may differ depending on the employing agency partner.

Pay range: $69.78 — $125.57 USD