Senior Cloud engineer

About the Role

We are looking for a Cloud engineer to architect, build, and maintain secure, scalable, and resilient cloud platforms while driving excellence in cloud infrastructure, Dev Ops practices, and platform reliability. You will design innovative cloud solutions, implement Infrastructure-as-Code, and provide hands-on support across both production and development environments. In this role, you will mentor and lead junior and intermediate engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration and technical growth, while effectively communicating with both technical teams and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build distributed cloud systems across AWS, Azure, and hybrid environments
• Architect resilient, scalable, highly available cloud-native platforms
• Implement and manage container platforms (Kubernetes, Red Hat Open Shift, EKS, AKS, GKE, ODF)
• Work with Operator Framework to develop and manage Kubernetes/Open Shift operators
• Support provisioning, orchestration, automation, and infrastructure scaling
• Integrate Linux systems with authentication and directory services
• Configure and manage enterprise storage systems across cloud and on-prem environments

• Design and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible, Cloud Formation, ARM, Pulumi)
• Develop automation scripts for provisioning, configuration, and deployment
• Implement CI/CD pipelines using Azure Dev Ops, Git Hub Actions, Git Lab CI, or Jenkins
• Maintain software repositories and automate software update processes
• Build and deploy serverless architectures and containerized workloads

• Implement observability using Prometheus, Grafana, Cloud Watch, X-Ray, ELK/EFK, or Datadog
• Monitor system health through automated and manual processes
• Lead disaster recovery, backup, and replication strategies
• Ensure compliance with NIST, CIS benchmarks, and Zero Trust principles
• Troubleshoot OS-level and application-level issues across Linux and container platforms
• Apply cloud security best practices including IAM governance, network security, and encryption

• Work closely with customers and internal teams to understand requirements and deliver solutions
• Set clear expectations and communicate effectively with stakeholders
• Mentor junior and intermediate engineers
• Drive improvements, promote Dev Ops culture, and support change management
• Represent the infrastructure team in cross-functional initiatives and escalations

Your Expertise

Core Technical Skills

• 5+ years hands-on cloud/platform engineering experience
• Strong experience with Linux systems (RHEL, Ubuntu, CentOS)
• Expertise in containerization (Docker, Podman, Containerd, CRI-O)
• Expertise in container orchestration (Kubernetes, Open Shift, EKS, AKS, GKE)
• Experience with cloud provider services (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong background in monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Cloud Watch, X-Ray, Datadog)
• Skilled in Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible, Cloud Formation, Pulumi)
• Ability to troubleshoot Linux performance, networking, SELinux, permissions, and storage issues
• Proficient in backup, replication, and disaster recovery strategy implementation

Highly Desirable & In-Demand Skills

• Experience with service meshes (Istio, Linkerd)
• Knowledge of SRE principles (SLAs, SLOs, error budgets)
• Understanding of Zero Trust security and cloud security posture management (CSPM)
• Familiarity with API gateways and ingress controllers (NGINX, Kong, Traefik)
• Git Ops experience (ArgoCD, Flux)
• Multi-cloud or hybrid cloud architecture experience
• Storage technologies (block, object, distributed storage)
• Programming/automation in Python, Go, or Bash
• Exposure to event-driven architectures and message brokers (Kafka, Rabbit
  
  MQ)

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree, diploma, or higher certificate in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field
• OR equivalent hands-on cloud engineering experience

Preferred Certifications (Beneficial but not compulsory):

• Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Open Shift Administration
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect / AWS Certified Dev Ops Engineer
• Azure Administrator Associate / Solutions Architect
• CKA, CKAD, CKS (Kubernetes certifications)

Additional Information

• Contract Duration: 12 Months (with possibility of renewal)
• Salary: Negotiable
• Location Options: Johannesburg / Cape Town / Remote
• Must be located in South Africa or have a valid work permit for South Africa