Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Think Consulting; Cleveland (OH); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Think Consulting in Cleveland is seeking a Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer to lead the strategy, design, and evolution of our enterprise platform infrastructure onsite.

You will drive standards, automation, and reliability across cloud and hybrid environments while partnering with engineering, security, and architecture teams to deliver scalable, secure solutions.

This role combines hands-on leadership with strategic planning and cross-functional collaboration to enable growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent; 9+ years in platform/infra engineering.
• Deep Kubernetes, Docker, and container platform expertise.
• Extensive cloud infra design in Azure/AWS/GCP and IaC.
• Proven leadership in cross-functional teams and secure systems.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain platform engineering standards and roadmaps.
• Lead cloud, on-premise and hybrid infrastructure design and operations.
• Advance IaC, automation, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Provide mentorship and vendor evaluation.
• Ensure security, compliance, and resiliency across environments.

Skills

Platform engineering

Infrastructure engineering

Cloud engineering

DevOps

Kubernetes

Containerization

IaC

Scripting (Python/PowerShell/Bash)

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

GitOps tooling

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer to lead the strategy, design, and evolution of enterprise platform infrastructure. This role will be responsible for establishing platform engineering standards, driving operational excellence, and ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of critical technology environments.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise across cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, container orchestration, observability, and DevOps practices. This individual will partner closely with engineering, security, and architecture teams to deliver resilient and high‑performing infrastructure solutions that enable business growth and innovation. This role combines hands‑on technical leadership with strategic planning and cross‑functional collaboration.

Location Requirement

This position requires working on-site five (5) days per week in Cleveland, Ohio.

Candidates who are not currently located in the Cleveland area may be considered on a contract basis initially. The expectation is that the selected individual will relocate to the Cleveland metropolitan area within six (6) months to transition into a permanent full‑time role.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define and maintain enterprise platform engineering standards, roadmaps, and best practices.
• Establish strategic priorities for infrastructure, platform services, and operational capabilities aligned with organizational objectives.
• Evaluate architectural designs and provide guidance on scalability, resilience, maintainability, and security.
• Partner with technology leaders to guide long‑term infrastructure investments and modernization initiatives.

Infrastructure & Cloud Operations

• Lead the design, deployment, and ongoing management of cloud and hybrid infrastructure environments.
• Ensure platform services maintain high levels of availability, performance, and operational efficiency.
• Drive infrastructure automation initiatives to improve reliability and reduce manual operational effort.
• Establish and maintain disaster recovery, backup, and business continuity capabilities.

DevOps & Platform Enablement

• Champion DevOps practices and platform engineering principles across technology teams.
• Enhance deployment pipelines, automation frameworks, and infrastructure‑as‑code capabilities.
• Oversee platform services that support continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows.
• Enable development teams through self‑service infrastructure and automated provisioning capabilities.

Security & Compliance

• Identify infrastructure and platform security risks and proactively implement mitigation strategies.
• Develop and maintain security, resiliency, and compliance standards for infrastructure environments.
• Partner with cybersecurity teams to ensure adherence to regulatory and organizational security requirements.
• Promote a culture of security‑first engineering practices.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead cross‑functional initiatives involving engineering, operations, architecture, and security teams.
• Foster collaboration across technical teams to support successful delivery of new services and capabilities.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers and platform specialists.
• Manage vendor relationships and evaluate emerging technologies to enhance platform capabilities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
  • Equivalent experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• 9+ years of experience in platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, or related technical disciplines.
• 6+ years of experience supporting enterprise infrastructure and cloud platforms.
• Strong experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, Docker, and enterprise container platforms.
• Experience designing, implementing, and operating cloud‑based infrastructure in Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Deep expertise in infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Advanced scripting and automation experience using tools such as Python, PowerShell, or Bash.
• Experience supporting highly available, mission‑critical production environments.
• Proven success developing backup, disaster recovery, and resiliency strategies.
• Strong knowledge of monitoring, observability, and log management solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or comparable certifications.
• Experience managing enterprise Kubernetes environments and platform services.
• Expertise with modern GitOps deployment methodologies and tools.
• Experience with observability platforms, centralized logging, metrics collection, and vulnerability monitoring solutions.
• Familiarity with secrets management, certificate lifecycle management, ingress technologies, and platform runtime services.
• Experience supporting large‑scale enterprise cloud transformation initiatives.

Technical Skills

• Cloud Infrastructure & Architecture
• Kubernetes & Container Platforms
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.)
• DevOps & CI/CD Practices
• Systems Administration & Operating Systems
• Networking & Infrastructure Services
• Monitoring, Logging & Observability
• Security & Compliance
• Automation & Scripting
• Platform Reliability & Performance Engineering

Additional Information

• Travel up to 5% may be required.
• Employment is contingent upon successful completion of applicable background screening requirements.
• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status