Senior Kubernetes Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Assist in the development, modernization, and migration of containerized and agent-based workloads within a government multi-cloud framework serving over 70 customer tenants.

• Design and spearhead the implementation of container platform requirements and architecture utilizing Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

• Establish and manage the Agentic Runtime for Kubernetes (ARK) to facilitate AI-agent workloads.

• Act as the Tier 3 escalation contact for intricate incidents and outages impacting the AKS and ARK agentic-runtime environment.

• Analyze and resolve issues across AKS clusters, the control plane, CNI networking, ingress, CSI storage, workload scheduling, the ARK control plane, and ARK Custom Resources.

• Conduct root cause analysis on high-severity incidents and implement corrective measures to avert future occurrences.

• Handle high-priority incident communications with stakeholders, leadership, and affected tenants.

• Establish and enforce observability standards using Azure Monitor, Managed Prometheus, Container Insights, Azure Log Analytics, and OpenTelemetry.

• Proactively identify and alleviate risks associated with clusters, node-pools, and workloads.

• Evaluate performance, cost, and capacity trends to design optimizations for stability, efficiency, and large-scale security.

• Oversee the management and maintenance of AKS clusters and the ARK agentic runtime across a multi-tenant environment with over 70 tenants.

• Deploy, upgrade, and manage ARK on Kubernetes, handling CRDs, controllers, and integrations of models and tools, including MCP servers.

• Ensure that tenant resources are secure, FedRAMP compliant, and continuously optimized, enforcing Kubernetes RBAC, network policy, and Azure workload identity.

• Collaborate with the Architecture team to align with the Azure Well-Architected Framework and implement Kubernetes best practices.

• Own and enforce Change Management protocols.

• Lead incident intake, triage prioritization, and management of team workloads.

• Mentor and train Tier 2 engineers on Kubernetes and agentic-runtime operations.

• Conduct knowledge-transfer sessions to enhance team capabilities.

• Drive enhancements in team metrics and service delivery in conjunction with the Service Delivery Manager and Product Owner.

• Maintain comprehensive documentation of incident response procedures, architectural decisions, and lessons learned.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 8 years of experience, a Master’s degree with 6 years of experience, an Associate’s degree with 10 years of experience, or a High School diploma/equivalent with 12 years of experience.

• Must possess U.S. citizenship.

• Capability to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust clearance.

• Engineering and systems analysis experience with a strong hands-on focus on Kubernetes in a production environment.

• Extensive practical expertise in operating Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and the broader Kubernetes ecosystem, including the control plane, CNI networking, ingress, CSI storage, RBAC, Helm, and workload scheduling.

• Hands-on experience with deploying and operating Agentic Runtime for Kubernetes (ARK) or similar Kubernetes-native agent/operator platforms using the CRD-plus-controller model.

• Familiarity with ARK Custom Resources (Agents, Models, Teams, Tools, and Queries) and MCP/A2A integration.

• Proven track record in leading incident management and root cause analysis in large-scale, multi-tenant government settings.

• In-depth knowledge of FedRAMP compliance and best practices for security in Kubernetes and Azure.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and technical documentation skills.

• Ability to effectively communicate with technical teams and senior stakeholders.

• Preferred: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD).

• Preferred: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305).

• Preferred: Experience with GitOps and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Bicep, Helm, and Argo CD or Flux.

• Preferred: Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.

• Preferred: Advanced scripting skills in Python, PowerShell, or Go, including experience with the ARK Python SDK (ark-sdk).

• Preferred: Experience integrating LLM providers such as Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or local models within an agentic runtime.

🏝️ Benefits

• Potential eligibility for overtime.

• Potential eligibility for shift differentials.

• Potential eligibility for a discretionary bonus.