Senior Cloud Architect: Kubernetes & Multi-Enclave Ops

United Launch Alliance (ULA); Englewood (CO); On-site; USD 158,000 - 264,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Discretionary annual bonus

Generous paid time off

Flexible work environments

9/80 schedule

Job summary

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is seeking a Cloud Architect 5 to serve as the senior technical authority for Kubernetes platform engineering, multi-enclave cloud operations, and mission-critical workload integration. This role defines enterprise architecture standards, drives reliability and security across clusters, and mentors CloudOps engineers while partnering closely with mission program teams.

Key responsibilities include governing Kubernetes clusters, designing topology, managing

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM field from an accredited college or university.
• 8+ years of cloud engineering or infrastructure experience, including hands-on production Kubernetes administration.
• Deep expertise with EKS or equivalent managed Kubernetes platforms.
• Strong proficiency in cloud networking, service mesh concepts, and core Kubernetes networking models.
• Demonstrated experience implementing security controls such as RBAC, OPA/Gatekeeper, pod security standards, and secrets-management systems.
• Hands-on experience with CSI drivers, persistent storage architectures, and backup/restore design.
• Proficiency with observability stacks including Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing.
• Proven ability to lead incident response, diagnose complex cluster issues, and ensure reliability in mission-critical environments.
• Strong communication skills and ability to coach and mentor junior and mid-level engineers.

Responsibilities

• Govern and maintain Kubernetes clusters supporting engineering workloads, CI/CD environments, and CloudOps automation.
• Design and manage cluster topology including nodes, node groups, autoscaling rules, taints/tolerations, and workload affinity.
• Own cross-cluster networking and service mesh architecture, including Ingress, load balancers, and CNI strategy.
• Define and enforce Kubernetes security posture: RBAC models, OPA/Gatekeeper policies, pod security standards, and secrets-management approaches.
• Architect and manage storage strategies involving CSI drivers, EBS/EFS provisioning, persistent volumes, and backup/restore workflows.
• Drive observability practices using Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing systems.
• Lead incident response and reliability engineering for EKS clusters, addressing node failures, scheduler issues, cluster upgrades, and workload migration.
• Coach CloudOps team members to strengthen cluster operations, readiness, automation, and troubleshooting capabilities.
• Integrate Kubernetes platforms with mission program workflows, toolchains, and specialized workloads.

Skills

Kubernetes

AWS

EKS

Service mesh

RBAC/Opa/Gatekeeper

CI/CD

Terraform

GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux)

Observability (Prometheus, Grafana)

Storage (CSI, EBS/EFS)

Education

Bachelor

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

Helm

ArgoCD

Flux

Job description

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is seeking a Cloud Architect 5 to serve as the senior technical authority for Kubernetes platform engineering, multi-enclave cloud operations, and mission-critical workload integration. This role defines enterprise architecture standards, drives reliability and security across clusters, and mentors CloudOps engineers while partnering closely with mission program teams.

Key responsibilities include governing Kubernetes clusters, designing topology, managing