Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer / Kubernetes Platform Architect

AppLab Systems, Inc

Milpitas (CA)

Remote

USD 68,000 - 97,000

Full time

1 hour ago

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Job summary

AppLab Systems, Inc. in Milpitas, CA (Remote) seeks an experienced Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to design, automate, and operate enterprise-grade container platforms powering global applications.

You will lead multi-cluster Kubernetes architectures, implement GitOps, and establish platform standards with security and reliability at the forefront. Ideal candidates have 5+ years in Kubernetes administration and platform engineering, deep expertise in cloud-native tooling, observability, and

Qualifications

5+ years of hands-on Kubernetes administration and platform engineering.
Experience designing enterprise-grade container platforms.
Strong knowledge of cloud-native tooling and security.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

Design and implement enterprise Kubernetes platforms across cloud and hybrid environments.
Lead platform standards, governance, and architectural best practices.
Build scalable, resilient Kubernetes clusters with GitOps-driven deployments.
Collaborate with security, SRE, and development teams to ensure reliability.
Advance observability, automation, and CI/CD pipelines for apps.

Skills

Kubernetes

Docker

Helm

Istio / Service Mesh

GitOps

CI/CD

Observability

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

ArgoCD

FluxCD

Azure DevOps

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Job description

Position Title : Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer / Kubernetes Platform Architect

Location : Milpitas, CA (Remote)

Rate :$60/hour on W2

Visa : USC/GC

Job Description - Kubernetes Platform Engineer / Architect

Seeking an experienced Kubernetes Platform Engineer / Architect to design, build, automate, and support enterprise-grade container platforms that power business-critical applications across global environments. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Kubernetes, container orchestration, cloud-native technologies, platform engineering, automation, observability, and DevOps practices.

This role will be responsible for developing a scalable, secure, and highly available Kubernetes ecosystem that enables application teams to rapidly deploy, manage, and modernize workloads. The candidate will work closely with cloud teams, infrastructure teams, application development teams, security teams, and SRE teams to deliver a robust cloud-native platform.

Key Responsibilities

Design and implement enterprise Kubernetes platforms across cloud and hybrid environments.
Define platform standards, governance controls, and architectural best practices.
Build scalable, resilient, and highly available Kubernetes clusters.
Develop container platform roadmaps aligned with cloud strategy.
Establish multi-cluster and multi-region Kubernetes architectures.
Support application modernization and cloud-native transformation initiatives.

Kubernetes Administration & Operations

Deploy, upgrade, patch, and manage Kubernetes clusters.
Perform cluster lifecycle management and capacity planning.
Optimize cluster performance, resource utilization, and availability.
Configure namespaces, RBAC, network policies, storage classes, and quota management.
Troubleshoot complex platform, networking, storage, and container issues.
Ensure platform reliability and operational excellence.

Containerization & Cloud-Native Solutions

Design and implement containerized application environments.
Support Docker and OCI-compliant container technologies.
Develop best practices for:
Container security
Container lifecycle management
Image management
Registry management
Enable microservices architecture adoption.
Support modern cloud-native application deployments.

Platform Automation

Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and GitOps practices.
Automate Kubernetes provisioning and configuration management.
Develop reusable deployment templates and platform services.
Build self-service capabilities for development teams.
Automate platform monitoring, compliance, and operational processes.

Tools

Terraform
Ansible
Helm
ArgoCD
FluxCD
GitHub Actions
Azure DevOps

DevOps & CI/CD Enablement

Design and support CI/CD pipelines for Kubernetes workloads.
Integrate Kubernetes with enterprise DevOps toolchains.
Support continuous deployment and release automation.
Improve deployment speed, reliability, and application availability.
Establish standardized deployment frameworks.

Platforms

Azure DevOps
GitHub Enterprise
Jenkins
GitLab CI/CD

Kubernetes Security

Implement Kubernetes security best practices and governance controls.
Configure and manage:
RBAC
Pod Security Standards
Network Policies
Secrets Management
Service Mesh Security
Integrate security scanning into CI/CD pipelines.
Support Zero Trust architecture initiatives.
Conduct platform security assessments and remediation activities.

Security Technologies

HashiCorp Vault
Aqua Security
Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Containers
Trivy
Falco

Service Mesh & Traffic Management

Design and support service mesh implementations.
Configure traffic routing, ingress controllers, and API gateways.
Implement secure service-to-service communication.
Enable application observability and resilience patterns.

Technologies

Istio
Linkerd
NGINX Ingress
Kong
Ambassador

Monitoring & Observability

Build enterprise observability solutions for Kubernetes platforms.
Implement centralized logging, monitoring, and alerting.
Define SLOs, SLIs, and platform health metrics.
Support Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices.

Monitoring Tools

Prometheus
Grafana
ELK Stack
OpenTelemetry
Datadog
Splunk
Dynatrace

Cloud Platform Integration

Integrate Kubernetes with public cloud platforms.
Design and manage managed Kubernetes services.

Cloud Platforms

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Amazon EKS
Google GKE

Preferred Expertise In AKS Due To Azure Cloud Strategy.

Leadership & Collaboration

Serve as the Kubernetes subject matter expert.
Provide technical leadership and architecture guidance.
Mentor platform engineers and DevOps teams.
Collaborate with application development, cloud, and security teams.
Participate in architecture reviews and technology governance forums.

Experience

10-15+ years of overall IT experience.
5+ years of hands‑on Kubernetes administration and platform engineering.
Experience managing large-scale production Kubernetes environments.
Experience implementing enterprise platform engineering practices.
Strong experience supporting mission‑critical applications.

Required Technical Skills

Kubernetes (K8s)
Docker
Helm
Kustomize
CRDs
Operators
Kubernetes Networking
Kubernetes Security
Service Mesh

Cloud Platforms

Microsoft Azure
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
AWS EKS
Google GKE

Infrastructure Automation

Terraform
Ansible
PowerShell
Python
Bash

GitOps & CI/CD

ArgoCD
FluxCD
Azure DevOps
GitHub Actions
Jenkins

Monitoring & Logging

Prometheus
Grafana
OpenTelemetry
ELK Stack
Splunk
Dynatrace

Networking

TCP/IP
DNS
Ingress Controllers
Service Mesh
Load Balancers
Network Policies
API Gateways

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in semiconductor manufacturing or high-tech enterprise environments.
Experience supporting engineering and R&D workloads.
Experience with AI/ML platform deployments on Kubernetes.
Experience implementing platform engineering and Internal Developer Platforms (IDP).
Familiarity with OpenShift and Rancher environments.
Experience with GPU-based Kubernetes workloads.
Knowledge of FinOps and Kubernetes cost optimization.

Preferred Certifications