Senior SRE, Infrastructure & Platform

F5 Networks, Inc; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

F5 Networks, Inc is seeking a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to advance automation, tooling, and internal platforms for a global, multi-datacenter footprint. You will build CI/CD pipelines, develop internal APIs, and lead Ansible automation with a focus on reliability, PCI-DSS alignment, and on-call readiness.

You will work across Kubernetes, cloud and on-prem environments, creating self-service interfaces and scalable infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in an SRE/DevOps role with strong coding and automation
• Proficiency in Python and Go with CLI tools, APIs, and automation frameworks
• Expert Ansible skills including custom modules and large-scale inventory management
• Solid Linux systems knowledge (RHEL/CentOS) and CI/CD experience using GitLab CI
• Experience with API-driven infrastructure management and secret management (Vault)
• Familiarity with Proxmox, NetBox, and iLO integration for infrastructure automation

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain internal tools, CLIs, and APIs (Go/Python) for self-service infrastructure
• Build integrations between infrastructure systems (NetBox, Vault, Proxmox, monitoring, CI/CD)
• Develop Ansible roles, playbooks, and modules for large-scale datacenter deployments
• Architect and refine CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure automation and testing
• Automate Kubernetes cluster lifecycle, container image pipelines, and Helm/GitOps workflows
• Automate bare-metal provisioning, OS install, and VM deployment across many datacenters

Skills

Python

Go

Ansible

Kubernetes

Linux (RHEL/CentOS)

GitLab CI

CI/CD

Tools

Proxmox

NetBox

HashiCorp Vault

iLO

Vault API

Job description

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation.

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

F5 is bringing a better digital world to life by helping organizations create, secure, and run applications that power our lives. Within the Platform Engineering team, this role helps ensure our platform isoperatedsafely, reliably, and with operational excellence.

We are looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineerthat leads withkindness, andpossessesa strong software development background to join our Infrastructure Engineering team. Your primary focus will be building automation, tooling, and internal platforms that enable our team tooperatea global, multi-datacenter infrastructure spanninga growing number ofPoints of Presenceacross the globe.

Deep familiarity with production infrastructure -- bare-metal hypervisors, containerized workloads, Kubernetes clusters, and cloud platforms -- is essential, but your primary lens shouldbe onautomation and code.You will develop internal tools and APIs in Python and Go,designandmaintainAnsible automation across hundreds of hosts, build CI/CD pipelines, and create self-service interfaces that reduce toil andeliminatemanual operations.

You will work within a PCI-DSS compliant environment andparticipatein a 24x7 on-call rotation.

What You'll Do

Internal Tooling & Application Development

• Design and develop internal tools, CLIs, and APIs (primarily in Go and Python) that enable infrastructure self-service, automate complex workflows, and improve operational efficiency

• Build integrations between infrastructure systems -- connecting CMDB/IPAM (NetBox), secrets management (HashiCorpVault), hypervisor APIs (Proxmox), monitoring platforms, and CI/CD pipelines into cohesive automated workflows

• Develop andmaintainAPI clients and libraries for interacting with infrastructure services (ProxmoxAPI, Vault API,NetBoxAPI,iLORedfish, container registries)

• Write well-tested, documented, and maintainable code with proper versioning, release processes, and code review practices

Infrastructure as Code & Ansible Development

• Architect, develop, and refactor Ansible roles and playbooks across a large-scale inventory spanning 30+ datacenters, 80+ group variable files, and 40+ roles

• Design reusable, composable Ansible role patterns that scale cleanly as the DC footprint grows -- new DCs should be deployable with minimal variable additions

• Improve idempotency, error handling, and test coverage across the existing Ansible codebase

• Develop custom Ansible modules, plugins, and lookup plugins where upstream modulesmay be insufficient (e.g., custom Vault integration,ProxmoxAPI interactions,iLOautomation)

• Automate bare-metal server lifecycle end-to-end: fromiLObootstrap through OS installation, hypervisor configuration, VM provisioning, and service deployment

CI/CD Pipeline Engineering

• Design, write, and maintain GitLab CI pipelines for infrastructure automation, including multi-stage deployment workflows with linting, validation, canary testing, and regional rollout

• Build pipeline patterns for safe infrastructure changes: staged rollouts, automated rollback, drift detection, and change validation

• Create reusable pipeline templates and shared CI components thatstandardisehow infrastructure changes are tested and deployed

• Implement automated testing for Ansible roles and infrastructure changes(molecule, ansible-lint, integration testing in episodic environments)

Kubernetes & Container Platform Automation

• Develop automation for self-hosted Kubernetes cluster lifecycle management: provisioning, upgrades, scaling, and disaster recovery

• Build andmaintaincontainer image build pipelines, registry management, and image promotion workflows

• Create Kubernetes operators or controllers (in Go) where custom automation of cluster-level concerns is needed

• Automate workload deployment patterns, including Helm chart development andGitOpsworkflows

Cloud Infrastructure Automation

• DevelopIaCand automation for AWS and Azure resources, integrating cloud infrastructure with on-premises systems

• Build automation that spans hybrid environments -- coordinating deployments across bare-metal,virtualized, and cloud targets from a unified pipeline

Observability & Reliability Engineering

• Instrument internal tools and automation with proper logging, metrics, and tracing

• Build automated remediation workflows that respond to monitoring alerts and reduce mean time to recovery

• Develop reporting and dashboards that provide visibility into infrastructure state, automation success rates, and toil metrics

• Identifyand automate away recurring operational toil; track and quantify toil reduction over time

Security & Compliance Automation

• Automate PCI-DSS compliance workflows including CIS benchmark hardening, audit evidence collection, and configuration drift detection

• Build automated secret rotation pipelines usingHashiCorpVault

• Develop security scanning integration into CI/CD pipelines (container image scanning, infrastructure configuration validation)

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in an SRE, DevOps, or Infrastructure Engineering role with a strong emphasis on writing code and building automation

• Proficiencyin Python, with experience building CLI tools, APIs (Flask/FastAPIor equivalent), and automation frameworks

• Expert-level Ansible skills: custom role development, module/plugin authorship, complex Jinja2 templating, inventory management at scale, and CI/CD integration

• Solid Linux systems knowledge (RHEL/CentOS) -- you need to understand the systemsyou'reautomating at a depth that lets you debug failures and design robust automation

• Experience building andmaintainingCI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI preferred) for infrastructure automation, not just application builds

• Production experience with self-hosted Kubernetes: cluster operations, controller/operator development, and workload automation

• Practical AWS and Azure experience with anIaCmindset -- provisioning and managing cloud resources through automation, not console clicks

• Experience with API-driven infrastructure management (RESTful APIs, Redfish/iLO, hypervisor APIs)

• Familiarity withHashiCorpVault or equivalent secrets management platforms, including programmatic integration

• Understanding of PCI-DSS requirements as they apply to automated infrastructure management -- audit trails, change control, hardening automation

• Strong software engineering fundamentals: version control workflows, code review, testing practices, documentation, and release management

Preferred

• Experience withProxmoxVE API automation or similar hypervisor platform APIs (VMware vSphere,libvirt)

• Familiarity with bare-metal server management automation (HPEiLORedfish API, IPMI, or equivalent)

• Workingproficiencyin Go, with experience building at least one of: CLI tools, APIs, Kubernetes operators/controllers, or systems-level tooling

• Experience building custom Ansible modules or plugins in Python

• Familiarity withNetBox(or similar CMDB/IPAM) API integration for inventory-driven automation

• Experience developing Kubernetes operators using operator-sdk,kubebuilder, or controller-runtime

• Background in network automation (DNS management, load balancer configuration, LDAP/directory services)

• Experienceoperatingin colocation / carrier-neutral DC environments (Equinix, Interxion, or similar)

• Contributions to open-source infrastructure tooling or libraries

What You'll Need to Succeed

• A software engineering mindset applied to infrastructure problems -- you think in terms of abstractions, interfaces, testability, and maintainability, not just "getting it working"

• Strong opinions on code quality but pragmatism about when to ship -- this is infrastructure tooling, not a SaaS product, and the right trade-offs are different

• The ability to understand complex existing systems deeply enough to automate them safely -- our Ansible codebase has evolved overyearsand new automation must integrate cleanly

• Comfort working autonomously in a globally distributed, remote-first team across multiple time zones

• Clear written communication -- you will write design documents, READMEs, and runbooks as a natural part of your development workflow

• Willingness toparticipatein a 24x7 on-call rotation; your on-call experience will directly inform what you build next

Nice to Have

• Experience withOSTree/ image-based OS lifecycle automation

• Familiarity with Pulp or on-premises package repository management automation

• Experience building developer portals or self-service infrastructure platforms (Backstage or similar)

• Background in DDoS mitigation automation or network-functionvirtualization

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com)

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination. F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting [e-mail].