Principal Cloud & Kubernetes Engineer

InterSystems powers some of the worlds most mission-critical healthcare financial services and data platforms. Our technology runs where reliability security and performance are not optional and where platform engineering has a direct impact on clients and the people they serve.

As Managed Services and SaaS continue to modernize Kubernetes is becoming a core foundation for how we deliver resilient automated and scalable services globally. This role offers the opportunity to help shape that platform at a meaningful scale: building the engineering patterns automation reliability practices and operational discipline that will support the next generation of InterSystems cloud and managed services capabilities.

This is a chance to do deep technical work that matters: modern cloud-native engineering real production responsibility and the ability to influence how a global technology company evolves its service platforms.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Principal Kubernetes Engineer to serve as a senior hands-on technical leader for the build operation automation and continuous improvement of InterSystems Kubernetes-based managed services and SaaS platforms. This role is intended for an engineer who has deep production Kubernetes experience and can lead complex implementation work across hybrid private cloud and public cloud environments.

The Principal Kubernetes Engineer will work closely with Kubernetes architects platform leadership DevOps Site Reliability Engineering application security and infrastructure teams. The role is more experienced than a Senior Kubernetes Engineer and is expected to own the most complex engineering work set implementation standards guide other engineers and translate architecture into reliable production platforms.

This role is not primarily a people-management position. It is a principal individual contributor role for a hands-on engineer who can operate at senior depth lead technical execution mentor others and drive platform

Key Responsibilities

Principal-Level Platform Engineering

• Lead complex Kubernetes platform engineering initiatives across public cloud private cloud and on-premises environments.
• Translate reference architectures and platform standards into production-ready implementation patterns.
• Own advanced cluster lifecycle activities including provisioning upgrades patching node strategy workload placement resource governance and operational readiness.
• Guide engineering decisions for EKS AKS GKE Rancher Spectro Cloud or equivalent enterprise Kubernetes platforms.
• Act as a senior technical escalation point for Kubernetes platform design operations automation and incident resolution.

Advanced Kubernetes Operations

• Lead troubleshooting of complex Kubernetes failures involving control plane behavior node health CNI issues ingress storage certificates DNS workload scheduling resource pressure and cluster degradation.
• Drive root cause analysis and permanent corrective actions for recurring platform issues.
• Establish operational runbooks health checks upgrade playbooks and incident response practices for Kubernetes environments.
• Improve platform reliability through proactive monitoring capacity analysis error reduction and operational standardization.
• Participate in production support for mission-critical managed services and SaaS workloads.

Automation GitOps and Infrastructure as Code

• Lead development of reusable automation using Terraform Helm GitOps CI/CD pipelines and scripting languages such as Python Bash or Go.
• Define implementation-level standards for Terraform modules Helm charts Kubernetes manifests deployment pipelines and configuration management.
• Drive GitOps-based delivery using tools such as Argo CD Flux or equivalent platforms.
• Reduce manual operational work through repeatable tested version-controlled automation.
• Ensure platform changes are reviewed validated documented and deployed through controlled engineering practices.

Security and Platform Governance

• Implement Kubernetes security controls including RBAC namespace strategy network policies secrets management workload isolation admission controls and secure image practices.
• Partner with security teams to ensure Kubernetes platforms meet enterprise security compliance and audit requirements.
• Support certificate lifecycle management registry controls vulnerability remediation identity integration and least-privilege access models.
• Help enforce platform guardrails that enable application teams while protecting production environments.

Reliability Observability and SRE Partnership

• Lead implementation and improvement of observability tooling such as Prometheus Grafana Loki Fluent Bit CloudWatch Azure Monitor or equivalent solutions.
• Create dashboards alerts service health views and platform-level indicators that improve operational visibility.
• Partner with SRE teams to define service level indicators service level objectives reliability practices and incident review processes.
• Support capacity planning performance tuning backup and recovery practices and disaster recovery readiness for Kubernetes platforms.

Technical Leadership and Mentorship

• Mentor Kubernetes Engineers and Senior Kubernetes Engineers through design reviews implementation guidance code reviews incident reviews and operational coaching.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to application platform infrastructure security and operations teams.
• Create and maintain high-quality technical documentation implementation guides runbooks and internal enablement materials.
• Influence platform engineering practices across teams without relying on formal people-management authority.

Required Experience and Qualifications

• Eight to twelve or more years of experience in infrastructure cloud DevOps platform engineering or Site Reliability Engineering roles.
• Five or more years of hands-on Kubernetes experience in production environments supporting business-critical workloads.
• Proven experience leading complex Kubernetes implementation work across multiple environments teams or platforms.
• Strong hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform such as AWS Azure or Google Cloud; multi-cloud or hybrid experience preferred.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes operations scheduling networking ingress storage security observability and lifecycle management.
• Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation using Terraform Helm GitOps and CI/CD systems.
• Strong Linux container runtime networking DNS TLS/certificate and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience supporting production incidents performing root cause analysis and implementing permanent corrective actions.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers lead technical workstreams and influence standards across teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex platform issues to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with Spectro Cloud Rancher EKS AKS GKE or other enterprise Kubernetes management platforms.
• Experience with Argo CD Flux or mature GitOps operating models.
• Experience with service mesh technologies such as Istio Linkerd Cilium or equivalent platforms.
• Experience with Kubernetes backup and recovery tools such as Velero Kasten Stash or equivalent solutions.
• Experience with container security image scanning policy-as-code admission controllers runtime security or supply chain security.
• Experience in regulated healthcare financial services or compliance-driven environments.
• Experience supporting application modernization microservices adoption or developer platform enablement.
• Familiarity with emerging container and virtualization platforms such as KubeVirt Incus or related technologies.

Preferred Certifications

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
• HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate
• AWS Azure or Google Cloud professional-level certifications
• Linux Foundation or equivalent Linux certification

Impact

As a Principal Kubernetes Engineer you will help turn Kubernetes architecture and strategy into reliable secure automated production platforms. Your work will raise the engineering standard for Kubernetes operations reduce platform risk improve reliability and help InterSystems scale mission-critical managed services and SaaS offerings.

About InterSystems

InterSystems a creative data technology provider delivers a unified foundation for next-generation applications for healthcare finance manufacturing and supply chain customers in more than 80 countries. Our data platforms solve interoperability speed and scalability problems for large organizations around the globe to unlock the power of data and allow people to perceive data in imaginative ways. Established in 1978 InterSystems is committed to excellence through its 247 support for customers and partners around the world. Privately held and headquartered in Boston Massachusetts InterSystems has 38 offices in 28 countries worldwide. For more information please visit.