Software Engineer; Kubernetes

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!

XCEL Engineering is seeking a qualified applicant for a Software Engineer (Kubernetes) to design and develop custom Kubernetes Operators that extend the orchestration of high-performance workloads and secure data workflows se roles are central to enabling American Science Cloud's AI and HPC platforms, ensuring that containerized research applications run seamlessly across heterogeneous compute and data environments.

• Custom Kubernetes operator development
• Design, implement, maintain, modify, and test custom Kubernetes operators written in Go and/or Ansible
• Enhance existing software development processes, practices, and standards; 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.
• Support the use and understanding of in‑house Kubernetes operators and serve as a maintainer for those controllers.
• Architecture & Infrastructure as Code and Tooling
• Develop and implement an Architecture as Code process for the Slate platform
• Write and maintain infrastructure and deployment code using tools such as ArgoCD (Git Ops), Puppet (OS management), Go, Python, Bash, Ansible, Terraform, and Git Lab CI.
• Engage with development teams to understand platform needs and tailor the cluster experience to meet evolving requirements.
• Technical Leadership for Software Engineering
• Provide software development, guidance, code reviews, and pair programming support to a team of 11 engineers.
• Contribute to onboarding, team documentation, and process improvement initiatives.
• Act as a go‑to technical expert for all Kubernetes custom operator questions across the engineering organization.
• Collaboration
• Partner closely with internal cybersecurity and development teams to ensure the platform custom operators meets security, compliance, and usability expectations.
• Participate in cross‑functional projects related to platform enhancements, cluster lifecycle automation and infrastructure provisioning.

• United States citizen with the ability to obtain a security clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or a related technical field.
• Experience with the following key technologies and tools:
• Languages:
  
  Go, Python, Bash
• CI/CD:
  Git Lab CI, ArgoCD
• IaC/Config Management:
  Puppet, Helm, Ansible
• Kubernetes & Ecosystem:
  On‑prem K8s, Custom Operators, Service Mesh, k8s architecture
• Operating Systems:
  Linux‑based OS management at the hardware level, strong Linux sysadmin skills

• Prior Istio operator development or service mesh integration experience.
• Familiarity with Web Assembly plugin development for Istio or Kubernetes.
• Background in HPC platforms, GPU‑based AI training environments, or large‑scale distributed systems.
• Exposure to DOE computing ecosystems (ALCF, OLCF, NERSC, ESnet, HPDF).
• Experience with containerized scientific workflows and secure data‑sharing architectures.

• Inside office environment.
• Working on a computer for long periods of time.
• May involve long period of sitting at a desk.
• The work environment is fast‑paced and sometimes involves extreme deadline pressures.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.