Kubernetes Platform Engineer - On-Prem & Cloud

Xcel Engineering; Oak Ridge (TN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

XCEL Engineering is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer to design, implement, and maintain our on‑premises and cloud Kubernetes infrastructure with a focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability.

You will lead platform initiatives, evaluate technologies, and deliver an internal platform that powers development across the organization. The role requires strong Kubernetes expertise and collaboration across teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in computer science or closely related field with 8+ years as a Platforms engineer.
• The ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Energy 'Q' clearance is required. This requires US Citizenship.
• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience administering Kubernetes on on-premises infrastructure (K3s, RKE2, or similar bare-metal distributions).
• Experience with cloud-managed Kubernetes (GKE and/or EKS).
• Strong understanding of Linux networking fundamentals: iptables/nftables, routing tables, DNS, TCP/IP stack, network troubleshooting.
• Experience with GitOps methodologies and tools such as ArgoCD or Flux.
• Proficiency in scripting and automation: Bash, Python, Go.
• Cilium CNI or equivalent production experience.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and communicate technical concepts clearly.
• Understanding of Kubernetes security best practices including Pod Security Standards, RBAC, and secrets management.
• GCP (Google Cloud Platform) and/or AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud platform experience.

Responsibilities

• Manage the full lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters (on-premises K3s/RKE2, GKE, and EKS), including upgrades, security patching, scaling, and capacity planning.
• Troubleshoot cluster-level issues including control plane problems, node failures, and resource constraints.
• Implement and maintain cluster security hardening based on CIS benchmarks and organizational security policies.
• Manage etcd cluster health, backup procedures, and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Monitor cluster performance and optimize resource utilization across multi-tenant workloads.
• Coordinate with datacenter operations team for physical infrastructure changes and maintenance windows.
• Implement, configure, and maintain Cilium CNI across on-premises and cloud Kubernetes environments.
• Design and enforce network policies to achieve secure multi-tenant isolation.
• Troubleshoot complex pod networking issues including DNS resolution, service discovery, and connectivity problems.
• Configure and maintain BGP peering with physical network infrastructure for on-premises integration.

Skills

Kubernetes

Security hardening

Linux networking

GitOps

Scripting

Go

GKE

EKS

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS or closely related field

Tools

K3s

RKE2

Terraform

Ansible

ArgoCD

Flux

Backstage

Istio

Linkerd

Job description

XCEL Engineering is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer to design, implement, and maintain our on‑premises and cloud Kubernetes infrastructure with a focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability.

You will lead platform initiatives, evaluate technologies, and deliver an internal platform that powers development across the organization. The role requires strong Kubernetes expertise and collaboration across teams.