Cloud Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Position: cloud Kubernetes platform engineer

Location: jersey city, NJ

Days in office: 3 days a week

Interview process: video interview to face to face (manager will not hire someone unless they go for a face to face)

Must have: Kubernetes, Public cloud experience (azure or Google Cloud Platform), terraform (IAAC), security & vulnerability remediation

Position Summary

• We are seeking an experienced Cloud Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join the App Engine Engineering team. This role focuses on building, operating, and maintaining production-grade Kubernetes clusters across Azure AKS and Google GKE, managing GitOps workflows with ArgoCD, developing Terraform infrastructure-as-code modules, and remediating security vulnerabilities across our container and cluster estate.
• The ideal candidate has deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes in a large enterprise environment and is comfortable working across the full lifecycle from provisioning new clusters to day-2 operations, upgrades, security hardening, and decommissioning.

Key Responsibilities

Kubernetes Cluster Build & Operations

• Build, configure, and maintain AKS and GKE clusters across multiple environments (lab, nonprod, preprod, production) and regions
• Manage cluster lifecycle including provisioning, upgrades, scaling, patching, and decommissioning
• Configure and manage node pools, namespaces, RBAC, network policies (Calico), and resource quotas
• Implement and maintain cluster bootstrap components: ingress controllers (Nginx), monitoring (PrometheGrafana), logging (Fluentd/Splunk integration), and service mesh (Istio)
• Manage cluster identity and access: Azure AD integration, Managed Identities, Service Principals, PIM, and Workload Identity Federation
• Support disaster recovery operations across primary and DR clusters

Terraform & Infrastructure as Code

• Develop, maintain, and enhance Terraform modules for AKS/GKE cluster provisioning, IAM, bootstrap, namespaces, and node pools
• Work with Terraform Enterprise (TFE) workspaces manage workspace configuration, variable sets, VCS integration, and Sentinel policies
• Maintain Storefront (SF) product definitions and composite workflows for automated cluster provisioning via Genie
• Ensure infrastructure code follows GitLab branching strategy, release tagging, and merge request workflows
• Collaborate with CloudOps and Platform teams on landing zone configurations, networking, and DNS

ArgoCD & GitOps

• Deploy, configure, and maintain ArgoCD across all cluster environments
• Manage ArgoCD application definitions, projects, RBAC policies, and repository configurations
• Implement and maintain GitOps workflows for application and platform component deployments
• Troubleshoot ArgoCD sync issues, drift detection, and webhook integrations
• Manage ArgoCD hub-spoke architecture across multiple clusters

Security & Vulnerability Remediation

• Triage and remediate container image vulnerabilities identified by Wiz.io, Microsoft Defender, and X-Ray scanning
• Maintain and update base images across the container registry (Hubble/Artifactory)
• Implement and enforce Azure Policy / OPA Gatekeeper constraints for CIS Kubernetes benchmarks
• Manage CCM findings, exemptions, and compliance documentation
• Perform security hardening: FIPS-enabled nodes, host encryption, private clusters, seccomp/AppArmor profiles, read-only root filesystems
• Manage PKI certificates and Service Principal certificate lifecycle (creation, renewal, rotation)
• Maintain secrets management using SMS2, Azure Key Vault, and Secrets Store CSI driver

Monitoring, Alerting & Support

• Monitor cluster health, resource utilization, and platform service availability
• Investigate and resolve platform incidents node failures, network issues, pod scheduling problems
• Support application teams with onboarding, namespace provisioning, and troubleshooting
• Participate in on-call rotation for production cluster support

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Kubernetes in production environments
• 3+ years with Azure AKS and/or Google GKE
• 3+ years with Terraform (HCL) writing modules, managing state, working with Terraform Enterprise or Terraform Cloud
• 2+ years with ArgoCD or equivalent GitOps tooling (Flux)
• Strong experience with container security scanning and vulnerability remediation
• Proficiency with Linux, shell scripting (Bash), and at least one of: Go, Python
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes networking: CNI plugins (Azure CNI, Calico, Kubenet), network policies, ingress controllers, DNS, load balancers
• Experience with Kubernetes RBAC, Azure AD/Entra ID integration, Managed Identities, and Workload Identity
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI, Jenkins, or TeamCity
• Familiarity with monitoring stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with OpenShift (OCP) in addition to AKS/GKE
• Experience with Helm chart development and management
• Familiarity with OPA/Gatekeeper policy authoring and CIS Kubernetes benchmarks
• Experience with Kafka/Strimzi (AMQ Streams) for event streaming in Kubernetes
• Knowledge of Azure networking: VNets, NSGs, Private DNS Zones, hub-spoke topology, ExpressRoute
• Experience with Velero for cluster backup and restore
• Experience with cert-manager or PKI certificate lifecycle management
• CKA, CKAD, or CKS certification
• Experience in financial services or other highly regulated industries