Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Job Title:

Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer Location:

Chicago, IL, Primary / Tempe, AZ - Hybrid (3 days/week onsite)

Duration:

7+ Months (Temp to Perm Possibility) Project Overview /

Contractor's Role:

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to support and operate an enterprise VMware Tanzu Kubernetes platform consisting of 100+ Kubernetes clusters across multiple environments, including Production. This role will partner closely with the current platform owner to provide operational support, on-call backup, and platform sustainment, helping ensure platform stability, availability, and compliance for critical business applications. This role is hands-on and production-facing, with responsibilities spanning Kubernetes operations, incident response, platform maintenance, and support of application teams running mission-critical workloads.

Experience Level:

3 - Senior Qualifications (must haves): Kubernetes Experience

• Strong hands-on experience supporting Kubernetes in Production
• Solid understanding of Kubernetes fundamentals, including: o Pods, Deployments, StatefulSets o Services and Ingress o Namespaces, RBAC, ConfigMaps, and Secrets
• Experience troubleshooting Kubernetes networking, scheduling, and resource issues Platform & Infrastructure
• Experience operating Kubernetes on enterprise platforms (VMware Tanzu, OpenShift, AKS, EKS, or similar)
• Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting skills
• Familiarity with container runtimes and container images Operational Mindset
• Experience working in highly regulated, production environments
• Comfortable participating in on-call rotations and handling time-sensitive issues
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to work independently Nice to

Have:

• Experience with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes or VMware-based Kubernetes platforms
• Scripting experience (Bash, Python) for operational automation
• Prior experience supporting large multi-cluster Kubernetes environments

Tasks & Responsibilities:

Kubernetes Platform Operations

• Support day-to-day operations of an enterprise Kubernetes platform (100+ clusters, ~50% production)
• Perform routine operational tasks including cluster maintenance, upgrades, patching, health checks, and capacity management
• Troubleshoot and resolve Kubernetes platform issues impacting cluster or application availability
• Participate in incident response, root-cause analysis, and post-incident reviews On-Call & Backup Coverage
• Act as a backup platform engineer to enable on-call rotation and reduce key-person dependency
• Provide after-hours support as part of a shared on-call rotation
• Serve as a secondary escalation point for critical Production issues Application & Platform Support
• Assist internal application teams with Kubernetes-related questions and issues
• Support common Kubernetes constructs such as Pods, Deployments, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps, and Secrets
• Help teams troubleshoot networking, DNS, ingress, certificate, and resource-related issues
• Review application configurations for Kubernetes best practices and platform alignment Enterprise Tooling & Integrations
• Work with integrated enterprise tools such as: o Ingress controllers (e.g., Contour / Envoy) o Logging platforms (e.g., Fluent Bit, centralized log aggregation) o Monitoring/observability tools (e.g., Dynatrace or similar) o Container registries (e.g., Harbor, JFrog, etc) Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
• Help document operational procedures, runbooks, and troubleshooting guides
• Share Kubernetes knowledge and best practices with internal teams
• Assist in improving platform resiliency, operational maturity, and supportability