Kubernetes Engineer

Artifintech; North Charleston (SC); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

CS/OSS contributions encouraged

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Artifintech in the United States is seeking a senior Kubernetes SME to design, implement, manage, and optimize enterprise-grade Kubernetes environments across bare-metal, virtualized, and multi-cloud platforms.

You will drive GitOps pipelines with Argo CD or Flux, tackle complex networking, security tooling, observability, and mentor junior engineers while collaborating with application teams and security stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Senior Kubernetes SME with hands-on design and operations experience.
• Experience deploying and managing production Kubernetes across multi-cloud and on‑prem.
• Strong track record in GitOps delivery pipelines (Argo CD or Flux).
• Deep knowledge of CNIs, ingress controllers, and service meshes.
• Proficiency in monitoring, logging, tracing, and incident response for clusters.
• Experience with security tooling (OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno, or Falco).
• Ability to guide, mentor, and transfer knowledge to engineers and teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize enterprise-grade Kubernetes environments.
• Architect, deploy, and manage clusters across bare-metal, VM, and multi-cloud.
• Lead GitOps automation and CI/CD pipelines for workloads and cluster state.
• Tune networking, CNIs, ingress and service mesh configurations for reliability.
• Build observability and incident-response frameworks for cluster health.
• Collaborate with application teams and security stakeholders for compliance.
• Create reusable automation templates and documentation for repeatability.

Skills

Kubernetes SME

Multi-cloud orchestration

GitOps pipelines

Argo CD or Flux

Cluster operations

Networking troubleshooting

Istio/Linkerd service mesh

CI/CD tooling

Terraform/Ansible

Container tech (Docker, Podman)

Kustomize/Helm

Security tooling (OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyph

SRE/Observability

DoD security posture awareness

Education

BS Degree in a relevant technical field

CompTIA Security+ CE

Professional Scrum Developer or Certified Scrum Developer

Tools

AKS

EKS

GKE

Docker

Podman

Buildah

Istio

Linkerd

Argo CD

Flux

Jenkins

Git

YAML

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

US Citizen, Green Card, H-1B, OPT-EAD, CPT, Other

Work Authorization:US Citizen, Green Card, OPT-EAD, CPT, H-1B, H4-EAD, Other

Job Summary:

We are seeking a high-level Kubernetes Subject Matter Expert (SME) with deep hands‑on experience in Kubernetes orchestration, cloud‑native infrastructure, cluster operations, and automation. This individual will serve as a senior technical resource responsible for designing, implementing, managing, and optimizing enterprise‑grade Kubernetes environments.

Required Skills:

• Serve as a senior technical authority and SME for Kubernetes architecture, orchestration, operations, and best practices.
• Architect, deploy, manage, and optimize Kubernetes clusters across bare‑metal, virtualized, and multi‑cloud environments.
• Leverage GitOps delivery pipelines using Argo CD or Flux to automate infrastructure state, cluster add‑ons, and workload deployments across multi‑cluster environments.
• Configure, tune, and troubleshoot cluster networking, including Container Network Interfaces (CNIs), ingress controllers, and service mesh architectures.
• Build and optimize monitoring, logging, and tracing frameworks to support cluster reliability and workload visibility.
• Troubleshoot complex Kubernetes issues involving networking, scheduling, storage, performance, control plane components, and node health.
• Collaborate with application teams to onboard workloads, establish deployment patterns, and optimize resource utilization.
• Develop documentation, standards, and reusable automation templates to create consistency and repeatability across environments.
• Provide technical leadership, knowledge transfer, training, and mentorship to junior engineers and cross‑functional teams.

Skills:

• Must be eligible to obtain and/or maintain a Department of Defense (DoD) Secret security clearance.
• Deep, hands‑on Kubernetes experience with a strong emphasis on container orchestration, including cluster architecture/operations, workload deployment, and infrastructure components.
• Experience designing, provisioning, administering, and troubleshooting production Kubernetes environments.
• Familiarity with managed Kubernetes platforms such as AKS, EKS, or GKE.
• Solid understanding of containers and container build processes using technologies such as Docker, Podman, or Buildah.
• Strong troubleshooting skills involving Kubernetes networking, storage, scheduling, node health, and control plane issues.
• Experience with service mesh technologies such as Istio or Linkerd and/or ingress controllers such as NGINX, HAProxy, or Traefik.
• Experience with Helm charts, Kustomize, and Kubernetes Operators.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes security tooling such as OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno, or Falco.
• Strong experience with automation and Infrastructure as Code tooling such as Ansible or Terraform.
• Proficiency with Git, Jenkins, YAML, CI/CD pipelines, GitOps, and modern DevOps workflows.
• Familiarity with DoD compliance and security frameworks, including DISA STIGs, SCAP, and RMF.
• Strong communication and documentation skills, with the ability to explain complex Kubernetes concepts to both technical and cross‑functional teams.

We'd Be Impressed if You Had:

• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)

Education:

• BS Degree in a relevant technical field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Ability to obtain the following certifications within 3 months of start date:
• CompTIA Security+ CE
• Professional Scrum Developer or Certified Scrum Developer
• 5+ years of hands‑on experience working with Kubernetes, containerized environments, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, or related technologies, including significant experience designing, provisioning, and administering production Kubernetes environments.
• Demonstrated experience independently troubleshooting and supporting enterprise Kubernetes environments.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, citizenship/ immigration status, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.