Kubernetes Platform Specialist Lead Engineer

Job Title: Kubernetes Platform Specialist Lead Engineer
Location: Birmingham Alabama
Experience: 12 Years
Employment Type: Contract
Interview Type: In-Person or Webcam

We are seeking an experienced Kubernetes Platform Specialist Lead Engineer who can design build and optimize Kubernetes-based container platforms for enterprise-scale applications. The ideal candidate will be responsible for leading platform engineering efforts improving reliability scalability and automation and ensuring best practices across cloud-native deployments. This role requires hands-on expertise with Kubernetes DevOps tooling CI/CD container security and modern infrastructure-as-code technologies.

• Lead the design implementation and management of Kubernetes clusters across cloud and hybrid environments.

• Build and maintain scalable reliable and secure Kubernetes platforms using best practices.

• Automate deployments scaling and management of containerized applications.

• Develop and improve CI/CD pipelines with tools such as Jenkins GitLab Azure DevOps or Argo CD.

• Implement monitoring logging alerts and performance optimization for large-scale systems.

• Work closely with development security and cloud engineering teams to support platform enhancements.

• Manage cluster upgrades patching networking storage and troubleshooting.

• Ensure compliance security hardening and RBAC configurations for Kubernetes.

• Provide technical leadership mentorship and documentation for engineering teams.

• Evaluate and integrate new cloud-native technologies as needed.

• 12 years of total IT experience with at least 6 years dedicated to Kubernetes engineering.

• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes cluster administration Helm Operators and container orchestration.

• Expertise in Docker container runtime management and container build processes.

• Proficiency with cloud platforms such as AWS Azure or Google Cloud.

• Strong knowledge of IaC tools such as Terraform Ansible or Pulumi.

• Experience with networking concepts including load balancing service mesh and ingress controllers.

• Strong knowledge of DevOps tools and CI/CD automation pipelines.

• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus Grafana ELK Splunk or Datadog.

• Solid understanding of security practices including vulnerability scanning image registry management and secrets management.

• Strong scripting skills in Bash Python or Go.

• Excellent communication problem-solving and leadership skills.

• Kubernetes certifications such as CKA CKAD or CKS.

• Experience with GitOps methodologies and tools such as Argo CD or Flux.

• Experience building highly available and multi-cluster architectures.