Openstack Infrastructure Engineer

JVR Software; Centurion; On-site; ZAR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

JVR Software is seeking a skilled Cloud Infrastructure Engineer to design, implement, and operate OpenStack-based platforms in Centurion. You will optimize Ceph storage, automate deployments with IaC, and ensure high availability and security across compute, storage, and networking layers.

The ideal candidate has strong Linux system administration skills, hands-on OpenStack and Ceph experience, and a pragmatic, ownership-driven approach to reliability and scalability.

Qualifications

• Proven experience operating OpenStack environments.
• Hands-on OpenStack administration, implementation, troubleshooting, or operations.
• Experience with Ceph or similar distributed storage.
• Strong Linux systems administration and troubleshooting expertise.
• Understanding of virtualization and cloud infra technologies at scale.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, maintain, and scale OpenStack-based cloud infrastructure.
• Manage and optimize Ceph and storage platforms.
• Automate deployment and operations using Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Monitor and improve platform availability, performance, security, and scalability.
• Troubleshoot across compute, storage, virtualization, networking, and cloud services.

Skills

OpenStack admin

Ceph

Linux admin

Networking (OVN/OVS/BGP)

Terraform

Ansible

Rundeck

Docker

LXC/Nspawn

SRE mindset

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Rundeck

Docker

LXC

Nspawn

JunOS

Grafana

Git

Jira

Job description

• Design, implement, maintain, and scale OpenStack-based cloud infrastructure.
• Manage and optimize distributed storage platforms such as Ceph.
• Automate infrastructure deployment and operational processes using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.
• Monitor and improve platform availability, performance, security, and scalability.
• Troubleshoot issues across compute, storage, virtualization, networking, operating systems, and cloud services.
• Plan and execute infrastructure upgrades, migrations, and maintenance activities.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, recovery procedures, and architecture decisions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver resilient and reliable hosting platforms.
• Participate in an on-call rotation and provide support during critical incidents when required.

Technical Skills

• Proven experience operating and managing open-source infrastructure environments.
• Hands-on experience with OpenStack administration, implementation, troubleshooting, or operations.
• Experience with Ceph or similar distributed storage platforms.
• Strong Linux systems administration and troubleshooting expertise.
• Understanding of virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies at scale.
• Experience with data-centre hardware, including:
  • Enterprise servers
  • CPUs and memory
  • Storage technologies
  • Network interface cards (NICs)
  • Firmware management
  • Out-of-band management solutions

Networking

• Experience or exposure to:
  • OVN
  • Open vSwitch (OVS)
  • BGP
  • LACP
  • IPv4 and IPv6
  • Virtual and physical cloud networking
  • Juniper networking environments (advantageous)

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation practices.
• Exposure to tools such as:
  • Terraform
  • Ansible
  • Rundeck
• Commitment to repeatable, version-controlled automation rather than manual processes.

Operations & Reliability

• Strong problem-solving abilities across:
  • Compute environments
  • Storage platforms
  • Physical and virtual networking
  • Databases
  • Message queues
  • Containers
  • Hypervisors
  • Guest workloads
• SRE-focused mindset with an emphasis on:
  • Reducing operational risk
  • Improving reliability
  • Minimizing recovery times
  • Protecting data integrity
• Strong ownership mentality and accountability.
• Ability to analyse and manage infrastructure capacity and performance.
• Security-focused approach to architecture and operations.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills.
• Ability to contribute effectively to technical reviews and design discussions.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to completing work to a high standard.
• Comfortable working within a distributed and largely asynchronous team environment.
• Ability to leverage AI-assisted tools responsibly while applying sound engineering judgement.

Preferred Technology Stack Experience

Experience with several of the following technologies will be highly advantageous:

• OpenStack
• Ceph
• Ansible
• Terraform
• Rundeck
• Docker
• LXC
• Nspawn
• OVN
• OVS
• BGP
• JunOS
• LACP
• Grafana
• Git
• Jira

What We’re Looking For

The ideal candidate is passionate about cloud infrastructure, automation, and open-source technologies. They take ownership of their work, think critically about reliability and scalability, and enjoy collaborating with a high-performing technical team to solve complex infrastructure challenges.
If you’re excited about building resilient cloud platforms and working with modern infrastructure technologies at scale, we’d love to hear from you.