Kubernetes Principal Engineer​/Architect

Company Overview

XCEL Engineering, Inc. is an award‑winning small business that provides trusted information technology, engineering, consulting and project management solutions and services to federal agencies and organizations. Originally founded in 1971 by professional engineers at the University of Tennessee, XCEL was acquired in 2003 by U.S. Army and Navy veterans and in 2023 became a Martin Fed company. XCEL Engineering is a part of IT Lab Partners (ITLP) which was created to support a leading research facility in the East Tennessee region in recruiting the best and the brightest technical talent.

Considering joining our impressive team today!

Job Overview

XCEL Engineering is seeking a qualified applicant for a Kubernetes Principal Engineer/ Architect. As a Platform Engineer, you will architect, implement, and maintain the infrastructure underpinning our on‑premises Kubernetes clusters, with a strong focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability. You will lead the technical direction of our platform engineering initiatives, evaluate and integrate key technologies, and deliver a robust internal platform that powers development across the organization.

• Platform Architecture & Implementation
  • Lead the design and technical implementation of on-premises Kubernetes clusters that replace and improve upon features previously provided by Open Shift.
  • Select, evaluate, and integrate critical components for networking, CI/CD tooling, OS management, service mesh, and Kubernetes operators—excluding observability, which is handled by a dedicated SRE sub‑team.
  • Build test environments to evaluate tooling based on performance, feature set, and maintainability—especially for components that must work reliably with on‑premise hardware and OS requirements.
  • Own upgrades, security hardening, monitoring integration, and scalability of all cluster infrastructure.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Tooling
  • Write and maintain infrastructure and deployment code using tools such as ArgoCD (Git Ops), Puppet (OS management), Go, Python, Bash, and Git Lab CI.
  • Support the use and understanding of in-house Kubernetes operators and serve as a secondary maintainer for those controllers.
• Internal Developer Platform & Enablement
  • Collaborate on building a next‑generation internal developer platform inspired by tools like Backstage or AWS Proton, focused on increasing development efficiency and security.
  • Work with the cybersecurity team to define secure image baselines and automate the patching pipeline for container images and golden base layers.
  • Engage with development teams to understand platform needs and tailor the cluster experience to meet evolving requirements.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship
  • Provide architectural guidance, code reviews, and pair programming support to a team of 8–12 engineers.
  • Contribute to onboarding, team documentation, and process improvement initiatives.
  • Act as a go‑to technical expert for all Kubernetes platform questions across the engineering organization.
• Collaboration
  • Partner closely with internal cybersecurity and development teams to ensure the platform meets security, compliance, and usability expectations.
  • Participate in cross‑functional projects related to platform enhancements and cluster lifecycle automation.
  • Be able to represent the Platforms team with vendors and both internal and external collaborators and partners.

• Languages:
  
  Go, Python, Bash
• CI/CD:
  Git Lab CI, ArgoCD
• IaC/Config Management:
  Puppet, Helm
• Kubernetes & Ecosystem:
  On-prem K8s, Custom Operators, Service Mesh
• Operating Systems:
  Linux‑based OS management at the hardware level

• Deep involvement in operating, managing, and designing on‑prem Kubernetes infrastructure, with full ownership from OS/hardware layer up to service‑level automation.
• A platform‑first approach to engineering that balances security, developer experience, and operational scalability.
• Strong mentorship and team enablement focus—guiding engineers while staying hands‑on with operations, architecture, and implementation.

• Bachelor's Degree in computer science or closely related field and a…