Kubernetes Site Reliability Engineer (mid-level)
About The Position
The Aerospace Corporation is seeking a Site Reliability Engineer for Mission IT Operations within its Digital Innovation Division. The role contributes to the development and maintenance of on-premises and cloud-based Kubernetes clusters that support an overall Platform as a Service (PaaS) for engineering teams. These specialized computing environments support scientific and engineering work, including space-launch telemetry analysis, modeling and simulation, and AI large language model training and inference. Working with a multidisciplinary platform and infrastructure team and senior engineers, the successful candidate will help manage multiple Kubernetes clusters, develop and sustain PaaS services, maintain secure and highly available infrastructure, and support scientists and engineers running applications in Kubernetes. The role is based in El Segundo, California, or Chantilly, Virginia, and requires 100% onsite work. After-hours support may be needed for infrastructure troubleshooting, including during rocket launch events.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline.
- At least 5 years of relevant experience directly related to developing and delivering complex, large-scale distributed software systems solutions and technical products.
- At least 3 years supporting a highly available enterprise environment.
- At least 2 years of hands-on experience managing or administering existing Kubernetes environments.
- Shared ownership and engineering responsibility for production on-premises Kubernetes services and cloud environments, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
- Ability to independently identify engineering problems and collaborate with technical leads to resolve full-stack issues.
- Working knowledge of Linux systems administration and configuration in an enterprise environment.
- Understanding of networking and storage fundamentals.
- Experience automating repetitive tasks with scripting or DevOps tools.
- Ability to obtain a U.S. government TS/SCI security clearance and polygraph; U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a clearance.
Nice To Haves
- Current and active U.S. Government TS/SCI security clearance and polygraph.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or another IT-related field.
- Master’s degree or PhD in a STEM discipline, especially an IT-related discipline.
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
- Experience managing Kubernetes clusters using Rancher.
- Experience deploying or supporting persistent container storage on Kubernetes, such as Portworx, Rook Ceph, OpenEBS, or Longhorn.
- Experience with Linux performance tuning and security hardening for U.S. Government environments.
- Experience with VMware or Harvester virtualization infrastructures.
- Experience developing automated provisioning and configuration management solutions using Infrastructure-as-Code and GitOps practices, such as ArgoCD, Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, or Packer, and scripting or programming languages such as Bash, Go, and Python.
- Experience with Agile and Scrum.
Responsibilities
- Develop and sustain advanced services for a Kubernetes-based PaaS, such as Coder workspaces, Kueue batch scheduling, Knative serverless, and Crossplane control planes.
- Frequently apply full security patches across all layers of Kubernetes infrastructure while maintaining very high uptime.
- Contribute to the ownership and engineering responsibility of production Kubernetes and cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
- Collaborate with Kubernetes technical leads to resolve full-stack engineering problems.
- Help ensure successful real-time analysis of telemetry data from space launch partners, including SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin.
- Provide after-hours support for Kubernetes infrastructure troubleshooting, including during rocket launch events.
- Support scientists and engineers running applications in Kubernetes.
- Apply Linux systems knowledge to infrastructure troubleshooting.
- Evaluate and test new products and technologies.
- Use code to enhance and automate operations.
Benefits
- Comprehensive health care and wellness plans.
- Paid holidays, sick time, and vacation.
- Standard and alternate work schedules, including telework options.
- 401(k) plan with company-paid contributions of 8%, 10%, or 12% of eligible compensation based on years of service, plus matching contributions; employees are immediately eligible and vested upon hire.
- Flexible spending accounts.
- Variable pay program for exceptional contributions.
- Relocation assistance.
- Professional growth and development programs.
- Education assistance programs.
- Inclusive work environment built on teamwork, flexibility, and respect.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
