DevOps Architect - Kubernetes Admin

Job Title: DevOps Architect Kubernetes Administrator (AWS)

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced Platform Engineer with deep expertise in Kubernetes administration to architect, operate, and secure a scalable platform for enterprise applications running on AWS. This role is highly focused on Kubernetes internals, upgrades, security hardening, service mesh management, and integrations with tools like HashiCorp Vault, Istio, and Linkerd. You will be a key contributor to platform reliability, scalability, and compliance in a mission-critical cloud-native environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the administration of Kubernetes clusters, including version upgrades, cluster lifecycle management, backup/restore strategies, and performance tuning.
• Integrate Kubernetes with HashiCorp Vault for secrets management using Kubernetes auth methods and dynamic secrets provisioning.
• Implement and manage service meshes such as Istio and Linkerd to support observability, traffic management, and secure service-to-service communication.
• Define and maintain Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) and Operators for managing complex workloads and extending cluster capabilities.
• Design and enforce Kubernetes Network Policies, Pod Security Standards, and RBAC to ensure multi-tenant security and compliance.
• Build and maintain GitOps-style CI/CD pipelines with tools like ArgoCD, Helm, and Flux.
• Scale Kubernetes workloads using HPA/VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, and efficient resource limits/requests management.
• Define governance and automation around Namespace isolation, resource quotas, and policy enforcement (e.g., OPA/Gatekeeper).
• Collaborate with DevSecOps teams to ensure compliance with security standards, vulnerability scanning, and auditability.
• Monitor and troubleshoot cluster health using observability stacks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, ELK, or Datadog).
• Document operational runbooks, Kubernetes best practices, and incident response procedures.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in DevOps, platform engineering, or SRE roles, with a strong focus on Kubernetes.
• Expert-level hands-on experience managing Kubernetes in production, including EKS or upstream Kubernetes.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes internals: etcd, control plane, scheduler, admission controllers, and API server.
• Proven experience with Kubernetes upgrades, backup/restore, and rolling deployments across environments.
• Strong experience with HashiCorp Vault integration using Kubernetes auth method and secrets injection.
• Hands-on experience deploying and operating Istio and/or Linkerd in production environments.
• Solid grasp of Kubernetes RBAC, Network Policies, CRDs, and Pod Security Admission (PSA) standards.
• Proficiency with Terraform, Helm, and scripting (Bash, Python, or Go).
• Experience in implementing CI/CD pipelines and GitOps practices.
• Solid AWS infrastructure knowledge including IAM, VPC, EC2, ALB/NLB, and CloudWatch.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD, or CKS).
• AWS Certifications (e.g., Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer).
• Experience with multi-cluster or hybrid Kubernetes environments.
• Familiarity with policy-as-code tools like OPA/Gatekeeper or Kyverno.
• Understanding of compliance and regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001).

Why You Should Join:

• Work on cutting-edge cloud-native technologies in a high-impact role.
• Be a core part of our cloud infrastructure team, influencing architecture and tooling choices.
• Flexible work environment, competitive salary, and strong benefits package.
• Collaborate with high-performing teams building enterprise-grade platforms.