Staff Software Engineer (Cloud, Kubernetes)

UKG•Atlanta, GA

85d•$129,500 - $186,100

About The Position

UKG is seeking a curious and passionate Lead Software Engineer to join our Engineering Platform team. This role involves developing, enhancing, and maintaining tools, frameworks, and service infrastructure that support DevOps pipeline automation for various UKG products. The individual will collaborate with Product Management, Architects, and internal engineering teams to understand requirements, implement solutions, identify issues, and propose improvements. The role requires working as a Leader, Developer, and Developer Advocate, closely collaborating with product development teams to mature and evolve our Kubernetes and container platforms. This work is within the Engineering Acceleration group, supporting internal product teams in their deployments. The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background and experience with cloud technologies, GitHub Actions, Terraform, and Ansible, and be recognized as an expert in their technical area. This position may perform work with the U.S. government, therefore, the ideal candidate should be a U.S. Citizen and possess an existing or previous Government Security Clearance, or the ability to obtain the appropriate security clearance is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
7+ years of DevOps and software engineering experience
Deep expertise in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java,C#, .NET, or JavaScript.
Extensive experience with GitHub Actions, leveraging Terraform and Ansible to create CI/CD pipeline automation frameworks and container-based deployments.
Deep experience working with Kubernetes, Docker, and public cloud deployment platforms
Deep expertise in backend Java, Go, JavaScript/Typescript (Node.js, NPM, React, Angular, etc.)
Extensive experience with software architecture and design patterns, including the ability to design and implement scalable, reliable systems in a DevOps model.
Proven track record of leading and delivering large-scale, complex software projects.
Proficiency with cloud technologies like Azure, AWS, GCP, and version control systems like GitHub.
Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail, with a commitment to delivering high-quality software solutions.
Proficiency in building telemetry or observability as part of the development process.
Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and drive technical decisions across the organization.
Deep understanding of Kubernetes operators, networking primitives, including Services, Ingress, Gateway API, and service mesh architectures (e.g., Istio, Linkerd), with hands-on experience operating them at scale.
Strong expertise in DNS architecture and operations, including traffic management, split-horizon DNS, failover strategies, and performance optimization in large-scale distributed systems.
Proven experience designing and operating service-to-service routing, including L7 traffic shaping, canary deployments, blue/green releases, and zero-downtime migration strategies.
Experience with API gateway and edge routing technologies (e.g., NGINX, Envoy, Kong, or cloud-native equivalents), including authentication, rate limiting, and policy enforcement.
Hands-on experience with TLS/mTLS, certificate lifecycle management, and secure service-to-service communication in a Kubernetes or microservices environment.
Ideal candidate should be a U.S. Citizen
Existing or previous Government Security Clearance preferred, or ability to obtain appropriate security clearance is required

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field.
Experience with GitHub Actions, Terraform, Ansible and Kubernetes
Familiarity with developing accessible technologies.
Dedicated to diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Demonstrated expertise in specialized disciplines and related fields. Recognized as an expert in their technical area.
Understanding of internal and external business challenges and regulatory factors. Apply best practices to improve products, processes, or services.

Responsibilities

Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code for various software applications and systems.
Drive the technical strategy and vision for major projects and initiatives, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices.
Communicate complex concepts, anticipate potential objections, and influence others to adopt a point of view.
Lead cross-functional teams to design, develop, and deliver high-impact software projects on time and within budget.
Coordinate activities and tasks of other team members, working independently and needing guidance only in the most complex situations.
Architect, design, and develop complex software systems and applications, ensuring high standards of performance, scalability, and reliability.
Collaborate with architects on mid-level and high-level design.
Solve complex issues with innovative solutions, setting precedents as needed.
Navigate information, alternatives, and relationships to achieve results.
Impact the achievement of area/group objectives.
Develop team policies, procedures, and techniques.
Drive prioritization of technical debt, articulating the expected impact and outcomes.
Ensure the health and quality of services and incidents, proactively identifying and addressing issues.
Utilize service health indicators and telemetry for action.
Conduct thorough root cause analysis and implement measures to prevent future recurrences.
Advocate for and implement best quality practices, hold a high bar for engineering excellence, and guide the team in maintaining service quality through the testing pyramid.
Oversee CI/CD pipelines, ensuring efficient build, test, and deployment phases.
Take ownership from working with product management on requirements to designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining software in production.
Build testable software, define tests, participate in the testing process, automate tests using tools (e.g., JUnit, Selenium) and design patterns leveraging the test automation pyramid as the guide.
Conduct comprehensive code reviews, providing constructive feedback and ensuring adherence to best practices.
Provide technical mentorship and guidance, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Mentor junior engineers on taking ownership of the full lifecycle of services and features.
Develop and maintain comprehensive technical documentation for software applications and systems.
Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, advocating for their adoption where appropriate to drive innovation and productivity enhancement within the team (e.g., CoPilot).