Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer
Role Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead Kubernetes & Platform Engineer to design, build, secure, and operate enterprise-grade Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) platforms. This role will lead AKS platform architecture, cluster design, DevSecOps enablement, automation, observability, security hardening, and production readiness across multiple environments. The engineer will collaborate with architects, application teams, security teams, DevOps, and operations teams to deliver a scalable, secure, and reliable Kubernetes platform on Azure.
Key Responsibilities

• AKS Platform Design - Define Kubernetes cluster architecture, node pools, networking, ingress, scaling, and workload isolation.
• CI/CD & GitOps - Implement CI/CD pipelines and GitOps-based deployment patterns using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or GitLab.
• Networking & Security - Configure Azure networking (VNets, private clusters, load balancers, DNS, certificates, service mesh) and enforce RBAC, Azure AD/Entra ID integration, managed identities, Key Vault, image scanning, and policy enforcement.
• Observability - Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry.
• Automation - Automate infrastructure using Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, Helm, and scripting (Bash, PowerShell, Python).
• Production Support - Troubleshoot production issues, perform upgrades/patching, optimize performance, and resolve incidents.
• Standards & Mentorship - Create platform standards, reusable templates, runbooks, and mentor engineers on Kubernetes best practices.

Required Qualifications

• 10 years of overall IT experience, with 5 years in cloud/platform engineering.
• 3 years of hands-on Kubernetes/AKS implementation and operations experience.
• Strong expertise in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Kubernetes architecture, and Azure cloud services.
• Proficiency in containerization (Docker), Helm charts, Kubernetes networking, services, deployments, config maps, secrets, storage classes, and autoscaling.
• Experience with Azure networking (VNets, subnets, private endpoints, DNS, firewalls, load balancers).
• Hands-on with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep), CI/CD tools, and GitOps frameworks (Argo CD, Flux).
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes security, RBAC, image registry, secrets management, and policy enforcement.
• Skilled in monitoring/troubleshooting production workloads with Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, and Log Analytics.
• Excellent communication and technical leadership skills.