Lead Kubernetes Engineer

Current Employees:
If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category: Academic Staff

Employment Type: Regular

Job Profile: Dev Ops Engineer III

Job Summary:
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), Department of Information Technology, is seeking a Kubernetes Engineer to architect and operate the container orchestration platform underpinning a wide range of strategic SMPH initiatives.

This role will design Kubernetes clusters supporting use cases that include web application hosting, the SMPH research analytics platform, LLMs-as-a-service, and AI-specific orchestration components. The Kubernetes Engineer will work closely with security, infrastructure, research computing, and application teams to ensure clusters meet HIPAA, NIST 800-53, and NIST 800-171 control requirements while delivering a developer-friendly platform that accelerates delivery of new services.

This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

Key

Job Responsibilities:

• Manages, maintains, selects, and develops automation tools and infrastructure, including security configurations

• Performs integration, migration, configuration, and security of existing applications and services into automated infrastructures

• Serves as a subject matter expert to internal stakeholders, providing guidance and training to staff

• Serves as technical lead for one or more aspects of the system

• Analyzes requirements and communicates and coordinates with staff and internal stakeholders related to the system and/or project

• Develops, programs, and/or deploys automation workflows for deployment, configuration, and/or monitoring of systems/services

Department:
School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Information Technology, Infrastructure.

Compensation:
The starting salary wage for the position is $115,000 annually; but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information, refer to the campus benefits webpage.

SMPH Faculty /Academic Staff Benefits Flyer 2026

Required Qualifications:

• At least three (3) years of hands-on production experience designing, operating, and securing Kubernetes clusters
• Demonstrated experience with Ansible for configuration management and automation
• Demonstrated cybersecurity experience, including applying security controls to platform infrastructure

Preferred Qualifications:

• Kubernetes-related certification (e.g., CKA, CKAD, CKS)
• Cybersecurity certification (e.g., CISSP, Security+, GIAC certifications)
• Contributions to open-source cloud-native community projects (CNCF or related)
• Experience with Terraform and infrastructure-as-code in a regulated environment (HIPAA, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171)
• Experience with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or other managed Kubernetes platforms
• Experience supporting research computing, AI/ML workloads, or LLM-serving infrastructure

Education:
Bachelor's degree preferred; focus in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology or related field preferred

How to Apply:
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To apply for this position, select either "I am a current employee" or "I am not a current employee" under Apply Now. You will then be prompted to upload your application materials.

Important:
The application has only one attachment field. Upload the following documents in that field, either as a single combined file or as multiple files in the same upload area.
Failure to submit the required documents will result in no longer being considered for the position.

• Cover letter (required)

• Resume (required)

Your cover letter should address how your training and experience aligns with the required and preferred qualifications listed above. Application reviewers will rely on these…