Kubernetes Engineer

Stefanini Group•Charlotte, NC

10h•Hybrid

About The Position

Stefanini Group is looking for an experienced Kubernetes Engineer/Administrator for a globally recognized company. This role focuses on managing and scaling our enterprise-grade Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) infrastructure. You will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining production Kubernetes clusters that support critical enterprise workloads across multiple Azure regions.

Requirements

5+ years of hands-on Kubernetes experience in production environments
2+ years of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) experience required
Strong Terraform expertise with proven ability to build reusable, production-ready modules
Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture, networking, storage, and security
Experience with private AKS clusters and Azure Private Link/Private Endpoints
Proficiency with Azure networking: VNets, subnets, NSGs, private DNS zones, VNet peering
Strong understanding of Azure managed identities, Workload Identity, and RBAC
Experience with Azure Key Vault integration (CSI driver, disk encryption sets)
Hands-on experience with customer-managed encryption keys in Azure
Experience with Azure Container Registry including geo-replication and vulnerability scanning
Advanced Terraform skills with module development experience
Git version control and branching strategies (GitHub)
GitOps tools: ArgoCD
GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines
Infrastructure testing and validation practices
Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell
kubectl, helm, kustomize
Linux system administration
Scripting: Bash, Python, or PowerShell
Container technologies: Docker, containerd
GitHub workflows and Actions
Strong analytical and troubleshooting abilities
Excellent documentation skills with focus on knowledge sharing
Collaborative team player with mentoring capabilities
Effective communication for both technical and business audiences
Self-motivated with ability to manage complex projects

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of AKS advanced features (Fleet Manager, AKS Automatic, Managed Namespaces) is a plus
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
Experience with Linkerd service mesh - deployment, configuration, and troubleshooting
Experience with AKS Fleet Manager for multi-cluster orchestration
Familiarity with AKS Automatic and managed namespace patterns
Experience with Kubernetes operators and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)
Service mesh implementations (Linkerd preferred; Istio, Open Service Mesh)
Advanced CNI configurations (Azure CNI, Calico, Cilium)
Multi-cluster management and federation
Experience with other cloud platforms (GCP GKE, AWS EKS) is a plus
Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)
Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
Building internal developer platforms on Kubernetes
Policy-as-code implementation (Azure Policy, OPA, Kyverno)
Cost optimization and FinOps practices for Kubernetes
Chaos engineering and reliability testing
Multi-region disaster recovery patterns

Responsibilities

Design, deploy, and manage enterprise-scale AKS clusters across multiple Azure regions.
Implement and maintain private AKS clusters with advanced networking configurations.
Configure and manage customer-managed encryption keys (CMK) for cluster disk encryption.
Implement blue/green deployment strategies for zero-downtime cluster upgrades.
Manage AKS cluster lifecycle including upgrades, node pool scaling, and disaster recovery.
Optimize cluster performance, cost, and resource utilization.
Implement AKS Fleet Manager for multi-cluster management and orchestration.
Configure AKS Automatic for simplified cluster operations and auto-scaling.
Manage AKS Managed Namespaces for improved multi-tenancy and resource isolation.
Implement and maintain private networking architectures with Azure Private Endpoints.
Configure and manage Workload Identity (OIDC) and user-assigned managed identities.
Integrate Azure Policy for governance, compliance, and security enforcement.
Implement Kubernetes RBAC and Azure RBAC integration.
Manage secrets integration with Azure Key Vault using CSI drivers.
Ensure secure communication between AKS and Azure PaaS services.
Implement network policies and pod security standards.
Deploy and manage Linkerd service mesh for secure service-to-service communication.
Implement mTLS between services with automatic certificate rotation.
Configure traffic splitting, load balancing, and observability with Linkerd.
Troubleshoot service mesh networking and performance issues.
Integrate service mesh metrics with Azure Monitor.
Develop and maintain Terraform modules for AKS and supporting Azure infrastructure.
Build reusable, production-ready Terraform patterns following Azure best practices.
Implement infrastructure automation and GitOps workflows.
Manage Terraform state, version control, and module lifecycle.
Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for infrastructure patterns.
Design and implement GitOps workflows using ArgoCD for application deployments.
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions for Kubernetes workloads.
Integrate AKS with Azure Container Registry (ACR) for container image management.
Implement automated testing and validation for infrastructure and application changes.
Manage deployment strategies (rolling updates, blue/green, canary).
Maintain GitHub Actions workflows for infrastructure provisioning and testing.
Integrate AKS with Azure services including.
Configure and maintain private endpoints for all Azure services.
Implement VNet integration and subnet delegation patterns.
Design and implement service connectivity across Azure regions.
Implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting with Azure Monitor.
Configure Log Analytics workspaces and integrate with AKS.
Build dashboards and alerts for cluster health, performance, and security.
Leverage Linkerd metrics and distributed tracing for service observability.
Troubleshoot complex cluster, networking, and application issues.
Conduct capacity planning and cost optimization.
Participate in on-call rotation for production support.
Perform post-incident analysis and implement preventive measures.