Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer (On-Prem & Cloud)

Bay Systems Consulting Inc.; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Bay Systems Consulting Inc. in Berkeley, CA, is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join the Platform Engineering team as a hands‑on contributor.

The role emphasizes daily operations of on‑prem Kubernetes clusters (K3s/RKE2) with cloud support on GCP and AWS, plus Cilium networking and multi‑tenant security. The candidate will manage cluster lifecycles, implement security baselines, and enable development teams to deploy workloads efficiently.

Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree
• Demonstrated experience administering Kubernetes on on‑premises infrastructure (K3s, RKE2, or similar)
• Experience with cloud‑managed Kubernetes (GKE and/or EKS)
• Strong understanding of Linux networking fundamentals: iptables/nftables, routing tables, DNS, TCP/IP stack
• 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
• GCP and/or AWS 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
• Work with network engineering team on firewall rules, VLANs, IPv6 networking, and network architecture
• Contribute to building a next‑generation internal developer platform inspired by tools like Backstage
• Work with the security team to define secure image baselines and automate the patching pipeline for container images
• Assist development teams with deploying, configuring, and troubleshooting Kubernetes workloads
• Review application deployment manifests and provide guidance on best practices and optimization
• Develop and maintain platform documentation, runbooks, and self‑service guides
• Engage with development teams to understand platform needs and tailor the cluster experience to meet evolving requirements

Skills

Kubernetes administration

On-premises Kubernetes (K3s/RKE2)

Cloud Kubernetes (GKE/EKS)

Linux networking fundamentals

GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux)

Scripting (Bash, Python, Go)

Cilium CNI

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Backstage

Job description

Bay Systems Consulting Inc. in Berkeley, CA, is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join the Platform Engineering team as a hands‑on contributor.

The role emphasizes daily operations of on‑prem Kubernetes clusters (K3s/RKE2) with cloud support on GCP and AWS, plus Cilium networking and multi‑tenant security. The candidate will manage cluster lifecycles, implement security baselines, and enable development teams to deploy workloads efficiently.