Senior DevOps Engineer

Network Finance; Randburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Network Finance is seeking an experienced Platform Engineer to design and manage Kubernetes platforms across cloud and on-prem environments. You will ensure reliability, scalability, and performance of critical systems while driving automation and best practices.

You will lead incident investigations, mentor junior engineers, and collaborate with software, data, and integration teams to deliver robust platform solutions.

Qualifications

• Experience operating Kubernetes in production environments.
• Strong background in cloud-native platforms and IaC with Terraform.
• Hands-on GitOps workflows and release management.
• Proficiency with Linux system administration and automation tools.
• Ability to implement monitoring, alerting, and observability.
• Leadership, mentoring, and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, manage and improve Kubernetes platforms across cloud and on-premise.
• Ensure reliability, performance, and scalability of production systems.
• Lead incident investigations and reliability initiatives.
• Develop automation and standardized deployment patterns.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers.

Skills

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitOps

Linux

Automation

Observability

Incident response

Stakeholder communication

Mentoring

Tools

Ansible

Docker

ArgoCD

Helm

Kustomize

Longhorn

Job description

Key Responsibilities

Platform Engineering & Operations

• Design, manage, and continuously improve Kubernetes platforms across cloud and on-premise environments.
• Ensure the reliability, availability, performance, and scalability of critical production systems.
• Support and maintain live production platforms while driving ongoing operational improvements.
• Participate in incident investigation, root-cause analysis, and reliability enhancement initiatives.
• Develop and implement best practices for platform operations and system resilience.

Infrastructure as Code & Automation

• Build and maintain infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools.
• Develop reusable automation frameworks and standardized deployment patterns.
• Improve provisioning, upgrade, and lifecycle management processes.
• Drive automation initiatives that reduce manual operational effort and improve efficiency.
• Enhance deployment consistency and operational repeatability across environments.

Kubernetes & Platform Management

• Provide technical leadership on Kubernetes architecture, administration, and optimization.
• Manage GitOps-based deployment workflows and release management processes.
• Support application deployment and configuration management within containerized environments.
• Improve deployment safety, rollback strategies, and environment consistency.
• Manage stateful workloads and storage solutions within Kubernetes ecosystems.

Production Support & Reliability Engineering

• Support platforms with demanding uptime and availability requirements.
• Improve backup, disaster recovery, and system recovery processes.
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability best practices.
• Ensure platform stability through proactive performance tuning and reliability initiatives.
• Contribute to service availability and operational maturity.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor junior and intermediate engineers within the DevOps function.
• Promote engineering excellence through documentation, knowledge sharing, and coaching.
• Support onboarding and technical skills development.
• Establish and maintain operational standards and best practices across teams.

Collaboration & Architecture

• Partner with software engineering, data, and integration teams to deliver robust platform solutions.
• Contribute to platform strategy, technical roadmaps, and architectural decisions.
• Communicate technical risks, recommendations, and design considerations to stakeholders.
• Drive continuous improvement and innovation across infrastructure and platform services.

Required Skills & Experience

Cloud, Infrastructure & Kubernetes

• Strong hands-on experience operating Kubernetes in production environments.
• Proven experience managing cloud-native platforms.
• Extensive experience with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code methodologies.
• Experience implementing and managing GitOps practices.
• Strong Linux systems administration skills.
• Experience supporting stateful applications and workloads.
• Experience using automation tools such as Ansible.
• Knowledge of containerisation technologies and deployment pipelines.

Operational & Reliability Engineering

• Experience supporting mission-critical production environments.
• Strong understanding of infrastructure reliability and operational excellence.
• Experience implementing monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions.
• Solid knowledge of:
  • DNS
  • TLS/SSL
  • Load Balancing
  • Ingress Controllers
  • Networking Fundamentals

Platform Engineering

• Experience working across both cloud and on-premise infrastructure environments.
• Strong understanding of scaling, performance optimisation, and high-availability architectures.
• Experience developing and improving deployment, recovery, and operational procedures.

Preferred Skills

Experience with one or more of the following will be highly advantageous:

• AWS
• Azure
• ArgoCD
• Helm
• Kustomize
• Docker
• Cloudflare
• Kubernetes Storage Solutions
• CSI Drivers
• Longhorn
• EBS
• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices and Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
• Software Development experience
• Customer-hosted platform support

Certifications

The following certifications would be beneficial:

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
• Other cloud or infrastructure-related certifications

Key Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of platform outcomes.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong mentoring and leadership capabilities.
• Meticulous attention to detail and commitment to operational excellence.
• Passion for automation, continuous improvement, and modern engineering practices.
• Ability to thrive in complex and fast-paced technical environments.