Kubernetes Engineer

Stefanini Group • Charlotte, NC

23h • 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 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed