Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Perfect Timing Personnel Services • Berkeley, CA

14h • $100 • Remote

About The Position

Our client, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer for a one year contract. This is a hands-on, individual contributor role focused on the day-to-day operation, administration, and improvement of Kubernetes platforms supporting critical research and scientific networking systems. Employment Type: W-2 only. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. No C2C or third-party arrangements.

Requirements

• 8+ years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Hands-on experience administering on premises Kubernetes (K3s, RKE2, or similar)
• Experience supporting cloud-managed Kubernetes environments (GKE and/or EKS)
• Strong Linux and networking fundamentals including routing, DNS, TCP/IP, and firewall concepts
• Experience with Cilium CNI or equivalent container networking solutions
• Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools such as ArgoCD or Flux
• Scripting and automation skills using Bash, Python, and/or Go
• Experience working in collaborative, production-focused engineering environments
• Cloud experience with GCP and/or AWS

Nice To Haves

• Go programming experience for platform tooling or operator development
• CKA or CKS certification
• Experience with BGP, IPv6 networking, or service mesh technologies
• Infrastructure as Code experience with Terraform or Ansible
• Experience supporting internal developer platforms or tools such as Backstage
• Strong familiarity with GitHub or GitLab workflows and code review practices

Responsibilities

• Manage the full lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters, including upgrades, patching, scaling, and capacity planning across on prem and cloud environments
• Administer and troubleshoot Kubernetes platforms using K3s, RKE2, GKE, and EKS
• Implement and maintain Cilium CNI and enforce secure network policies for multi tenant environments
• Troubleshoot complex cluster and networking issues including control plane failures, node issues, DNS, and service connectivity
• Manage etcd health, backups, and disaster recovery processes
• Collaborate with datacenter and network teams on infrastructure changes and maintenance windows
• Support development teams by reviewing deployment manifests and assisting with workload troubleshooting
• Contribute to internal developer platform initiatives and platform documentation, runbooks, and best practices
• Apply Kubernetes security best practices, including RBAC, Pod Security Standards, and secrets management

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees