Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer

ZipStaff•Washington, DC

18h•Onsite

About The Position

ZipStaff is seeking a Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to serve as a primary technical leader architecting, securing, and scaling multi-cloud Kubernetes infrastructure for a major transportation organization in the Washington, DC area. The engineer will own platform capabilities end-to-end, drive GitOps automation through ArgoCD, streamline enterprise CI/CD using GitHub Actions Runner Controller (ARC), and create developer golden paths through hardened IaC modules and progressive delivery pipelines. The role operates in a high-standards enterprise setting, emphasizing platform reliability, security controls, clear Architectural Decision Records (ADRs), and enablement of cross-functional engineering teams. The position is an on-site W2 contract through ZipStaff; C2C and 1099 arrangements are not accepted.

Requirements

7+ years in DevOps, SRE, or Infrastructure/Platform Engineering, including at least 5+ years dedicated strictly to Kubernetes platform engineering at scale.
Deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes, AWS EKS, Azure AKS, ArgoCD, GitHub ARC, Terraform, and GitOps methodologies.
Proven background configuring cloud networking, ingress controllers, RBAC, network policies, and policy-as-code frameworks such as Kyverno or OPA/Gatekeeper.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Ability to work on-site in Washington, DC.

Nice To Haves

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS), or AWS/Azure Cloud Certifications.
Service Mesh experience (Istio/Linkerd).
Experience with Backstage IDP or similar internal developer platforms.
Prior background working in highly regulated or enterprise environments.
Experience supporting transportation or mission-critical systems.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain production EKS and AKS platform standards, cluster lifecycles, cross-cloud networking, storage, disaster recovery, and multi-region portability.
Architect enterprise GitOps deployment patterns using ArgoCD and implement GitHub Actions Runner Controller (ARC) to automate release workflows, progressive delivery (canary/blue-green), and fail-forward/rollback mechanisms.
Establish enterprise RBAC, Network Policies, Pod Security Standards, and Kyverno or Gatekeeper policy enforcement; manage secret standards and automate release evidence capture for compliance.
Publish hardened base container images and reusable golden Terraform modules to provide self-service platform capabilities and reduce cognitive load for application developers.
Define SLOs, error budgets, and central monitoring standards, and integrate automated quality gates, security scans, and pre-production performance and chaos testing into CI/CD pipelines.
Own platform capabilities through their full lifecycle, mentor engineering teams on modern cloud-native practices, and author Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) to clarify design trade-offs.