Senior Kubernetes Platform Systems Engineer

We’re seeking a Senior Kubernetes Platform Systems Engineer to support our U.S. Government program(s) in Laurel, MD
. The Senior Kubernetes Platform Systems Engineer will be responsible for administering, automating, securing, monitoring and maintaining Kubernetes platform infrastructure across development, staging and operational environments while supporting mission-critical systems.

Responsibilities:

• Administer, maintain, and optimize a highly available Kubernetes platform supporting mission-critical applications across Development, Staging, and Production environments.
• Partner with software developers, systems engineers, and government stakeholders to translate operational requirements into scalable, reliable platform solutions that support mission success.
• Design, build, and maintain hardened container images and deployment templates that ensure consistency, repeatability, and security across enterprise environments.
• Develop, automate, and continuously improve CI/CD pipelines to streamline application delivery, reduce deployment time, and improve overall platform reliability.
• Perform routine vulnerability scanning, system patching, security hardening, and compliance activities to maintain enterprise security standards and accreditation requirements.
• Plan, coordinate, and execute platform upgrades, software releases, and infrastructure enhancements while minimizing operational impact and maintaining service availability.
• Continuously monitor the health, performance, and availability of Kubernetes clusters and supporting infrastructure, proactively identifying and resolving issues before they impact customers.
• Troubleshoot complex infrastructure, application, and platform issues by performing root cause analysis and implementing long-term corrective actions.
• Configure, maintain, and enhance enterprise monitoring, alerting, health check, and logging solutions to improve operational awareness and system performance.
• Establish, manage, and maintain representative development and test environments that accurately mirror production configurations for validation, testing, and release activities.
• Evaluate test coverage, identify operational gaps, and collaborate with engineering teams to improve system quality, reliability, and deployment confidence.
• Coordinate planned maintenance windows and system outages while communicating schedules, risks, and impacts to internal teams, operations personnel, and external mission partners.
• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve technical documentation including Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Administrator Guides, User Guides, Knowledge Base articles, and operational runbooks.
• Research emerging technologies, Kubernetes best practices, automation tools, and platform enhancements, providing recommendations that improve operational efficiency, scalability, and security.
• Generate operational metrics, service reports, and performance benchmarks to support leadership visibility, capacity planning, and continuous process improvement.
• Provide Tier II/Tier III operational support by investigating customer support requests, troubleshooting complex technical issues, managing certificate requests and renewals, and ensuring timely issue resolution.
• Provision and onboard new customer projects, configuring Kubernetes resources, platform services, and supporting infrastructure to enable secure, reliable, and scalable deployments.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related discipline is desired. An additional five (5) years of experience may be substituted for the degree.
• Twenty (20) years of Systems Engineering experience in programs and contracts of similar scope
• Demonstrated experience administering and supporting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environments, including system provisioning, storage and network interface management, OS hardening, vulnerability remediation, patch management, and performance optimization.
• Hands-on experience automating infrastructure and application deployments using Ansible or comparable Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and configuration management tools to improve operational efficiency…