Senior OpenShift Platform Engineer - WebSphere Modernization

Blue Pearl HQ; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Pearl HQ seeks a Senior OpenShift Platform Engineer to lead modernization of legacy WebSphere workloads onto OpenShift in a government tax environment. You will design and operate enterprise OpenShift clusters, automate via Terraform and GitOps, and guide application teams through container-native transformation.

You will implement CI/CD pipelines with ArgoCD and GitHub Actions, build IaC modules with Terraform/Ansible, and ensure high availability, security, and regulatory compliance

Qualifications

• OpenShift expert with enterprise deployment and day-2 operations
• Experience migrating WebSphere WAS to OpenShift
• Hands-on SRE with incident response, capacity planning, and lifecycle management
• Experience in regulated or government-sector environments
• Strong scripting in Python or Java for tooling & automation
• Familiarity with hybrid cloud and virtualization (VMware/vSphere)

Responsibilities

• Lead design, build, and operate OpenShift clusters for WAS workloads
• Drive containerization and migration of WAS applications to OpenShift
• Define GitOps-based pipelines using ArgoCD and GitHub Actions
• Create and maintain IaC modules with Terraform and Ansible
• Perform platform SRE ops including perf tuning and incident response
• Engage stakeholders to define migration strategies and deployment standards
• Implement observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos, Datadog) for monitoring and SLOs
• Enforce OpenShift security posture (RBAC, network policies, secrets)
• Mentor junior engineers and document platform best practices
• Collaborate with IBM delivery leads to track progress and risks

Skills

Kubernetes admin

OpenShift admin

GitOps CI/CD

IaC Terraform

SRE practices

Security compliance

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

ArgoCD

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Prometheus

Grafana

Thanos

Datadog

IBM Transformation Advisor

Job description

Client is undertaking a strategic Modernization 3.0 initiative to migrate legacy WebSphere Application Server workloads onto a modern OpenShift Container Platform. We are seeking a Senior OpenShift Platform Engineer with deep Red Hat platform engineering expertise and a strong DevOps/SRE background to lead containerization and migration efforts in a mission-critical government tax environment. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience building and operating enterprise-grade OpenShift clusters, automating infrastructure delivery with Terraform and GitOps tooling, and guiding application teams through container-native transformation. This is a high-impact engagement where your platform engineering skills will directly enable them deliver faster, more resilient processing capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, build, and operationalizing of Red Hat OpenShift clusters to host modernized WebSphere workloads, ensuring high availability, security, and compliance with government standards.
• Drive the containerization and migration of legacy WebSphere Application Server (WAS) applications to OpenShift-native deployments, leveraging tools such as IBM Transformation Advisor where applicable.
• Define and implement GitOps-based deployment pipelines using ArgoCD and GitHub Actions to automate application delivery across Our Client development, staging, and production environments.
• Author and maintain reusable Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) modules using Terraform and Ansible to provision and manage OpenShift platform components and supporting cloud infrastructure.
• Perform SRE-aligned platform operations including performance tuning, capacity planning, incident response, and software lifecycle management for OpenShift environments.
• Engage Client application and architecture teams to define container migration strategies, establish deployment standards, and support onboarding of WebSphere-based services to the OpenShift platform.
• Implement and manage observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos, Datadog) to provide end-to-end monitoring, alerting, and SLO/SLA visibility across modernized Our Client tax system components.
• Establish and enforce OpenShift platform security posture including RBAC, network policies, image scanning, and secrets management in alignment with Our Client and government compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with IBM delivery leads and Client stakeholders to track modernization progress, manage risks, and communicate platform health and migration milestones.
• Contribute to internal capability building by mentoring junior engineers, documenting platform run books, and sharing Red Hat OpenShift best practices within the Our Client engagement team.

Requirements

Required Skills & Experience

• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform - cluster deployment, configuration, upgrades, and day-2 operations in enterprise environments
• Kubernetes administration with CKA-level proficiency, including workload management, Helm/Kustomize packaging, and namespace governance
• CI/CD pipeline engineering using GitOps patterns with ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or equivalent tooling
• Infrastructure-as-Code delivery using Terraform and Ansible across cloud or on-premise environments
• Containerization of enterprise Java applications, with an understanding of WebSphere or equivalent application server migration pathways
• Observability and monitoring platform management using Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos, or Datadog in production SRE contexts
• Cloud platform experience across at least one of IBM Cloud, AWS, or Azure including networking, storage, and identity fundamentals
• Stakeholder engagement and technical consulting skills, with experience working in regulated or government sector environments

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience with IBM WebSphere Application Server modernization tools such as IBM Transformation Advisor or WebSphere Liberty migration
• Exposure to IBM Cloud Paks and OpenShift-based middleware deployments in financial services or government contexts
• Experience with Kafka or event-driven architecture patterns supporting microservices decomposition from monolithic Java applications
• Familiarity with Our Client, South African government IT governance frameworks, or equivalent public sector compliance and procurement standards
• Scripting and automation proficiency in Python or Java to support tooling integration and platform customization
• Knowledge of VMware vSphere or on-premise virtualization platforms relevant to hybrid cloud and lift-and-shift migration scenarios