Principal Linux Kubernetes Engineer

***We are unable to sponsor for this permanent full-time role***

***Position is Bonus eligible***

Prestigious Financial Institution is currently seeking a Principal Linux Systems Engineer with strong Kubernetes experience. Candidate will lead the design, automation, and scalability of our global infrastructure that powers mission-critical financial applications. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in Linux systems, Kubernetes orchestration, and modern development practices, and thrives in high-performance, regulated environments. As a senior technical leader, you will set architectural standards, mentor engineers, and drive platform reliability, observability, and security across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments.

Responsibilities:

Design and evolve the firm’s container orchestration and compute platforms (Kubernetes, Incus/LXD, or hybrid systems) to support low-latency, high-availability financial applications.

Define infrastructure-as-code (IaC) standards (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar) and ensure consistent, auditable deployments across environments.

Lead the adoption of immutable infrastructure principles, secure baseline images, and reproducible environments (RHEL-based).

Architect and implement CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure and application deployment with an emphasis on developer experience and velocity.

Partner with development, SRE, and security teams to ensure regulatory compliance, change control, and observability across all layers.

Establish monitoring, logging, and metrics strategies (Prometheus, Loki, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, etc.) for production and pre-production systems.

Drive performance tuning and capacity planning for large-scale, latency-sensitive services.

Serve as a technical mentor and thought leader within the organization.

Provide strategic input into infrastructure roadmap, vendor selection, and emerging technology evaluations.

Qualifications:

10 years of professional experience in Linux systems engineering, ideally Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or derivatives.

5 years of experience architecting and operating enterprise-grade Kubernetes platforms, capable of influencing technical direction, setting engineering standards, and serving as the technical authority for our Kubernetes strategy; must have hands-on experience deploying and managing clusters in bare-metal and on-premises environments (self-managed or cloud-native distributions such as EKS, GKE, or OpenShift).

Strong proficiency with Python or Go for automation, tooling, and integration with APIs.

Deep understanding of networking (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing) and security fundamentals (RBAC, TLS, secrets management).

Expertise with CI/CD tooling (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Tekton, etc.) and artifact lifecycle management (Harbor, Pulp, or Artifactory).

Proven experience with IaC (Terraform, Pulumi, or Ansible/SaltStack).

Familiarity with container image lifecycle management, base image hardening, and SBOM compliance.

Exposure to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or private cloud).

Background in SRE practices, including SLI/SLO management, error budgets, and runbook automation.

Experience with GitOps, event-driven automation, and declarative configuration management.

Exceptional problem-solving ability and technical judgment.

Excellent written and verbal communication, including documentation and presentation skills.

Strong sense of ownership, accountability, and ability to influence without direct authority.

Advanced certifications such as RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) or LFCE (Linux Foundation Certified Engineer) are a plus.

Extensive experience working in cloud-based environments like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.

Understanding of compliance frameworks (SOC2, ISO27001, or NIST).

Experience supporting financial systems, trading platforms, or other latency-sensitive workloads.

Experience in leading Agile teams and familiarity with Agile methodologies.