Cadre5 · 3 weeks ago
Kubernetes Platform Principal Engineer/ Architect
United States
Full-time
Remote
Lead/Staff
8+ years expCadre5 is a company that provides innovative technical solutions and is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Principal Engineer/ Architect to lead their platform engineering initiatives. The role involves architecting, implementing, and maintaining on-premises Kubernetes clusters while mentoring a team of engineers and ensuring the platform meets security and usability expectations.
ComputerSoftware
No H1B
Security Clearance RequiredU.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Lead the design and technical implementation of on-premises Kubernetes clusters that replace and improve upon features previously provided by OpenShift
Select, evaluate, and integrate critical components for networking, CI/CD tooling, OS management, service mesh, and Kubernetes operators—excluding observability, which is handled by a dedicated SRE sub-team
Build test environments to evaluate tooling based on performance, feature set, and maintainability—especially for components that must work reliably with on-premise hardware and OS requirements
Own upgrades, security hardening, monitoring integration, and scalability of all cluster infrastructure
Write and maintain infrastructure and deployment code using tools such as ArgoCD (GitOps), Puppet (OS management), Go, Python, Bash, and GitLab CI
Support the use and understanding of in-house Kubernetes operators and serve as a secondary maintainer for those controllers
Collaborate on building a next-generation internal developer platform inspired by tools like Backstage or AWS Proton, focused on increasing development efficiency and security
Work with the cybersecurity team to define secure image baselines and automate the patching pipeline for container images and golden base layers
Engage with development teams to understand platform needs and tailor the cluster experience to meet evolving requirements
Provide architectural guidance, code reviews, and pair programming support to a team of 8-12 engineers
Contribute to onboarding, team documentation, and process improvement initiatives
Act as a go-to technical expert for all Kubernetes platform questions across the engineering organization
Partner closely with internal cybersecurity and development teams to ensure the platform meets security, compliance, and usability expectations
Participate in cross-functional projects related to platform enhancements and cluster lifecycle automation
Be able to represent the Platforms team with vendors and both internal and external collaborators and partners
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's Degree in computer science or closely related field and a minimum of 8 years as a Platforms engineer
At least 5 years of Kubernetes experience
The ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Energy 'Q' clearance is required. This requires US Citizenship
Preferred
Excellent interpersonal/communication skills, and the ability to work as part of a team
Strong working knowledge of Unix system fundamentals and common network protocols
Experience managing Linux/UNIX operating systems in a heterogeneous environment
Solid understanding of networked computing environment concepts
Excellent understanding of networking, particularly Linux and Kubernetes networking
Experience with instrumenting bare metal and VMWare infrastructure
Ability to develop and maintain programs and scripts that aid in the operation and automation using various shell (primarily bash) and high-level languages (Python or Go)
Ability to proactively identify performance issues, problems, and areas for improvement
Ability to identify requirements and to define, plan, and implement requisite solutions
Ability to plan, organize, prioritize tasks, and complete assigned projects with minimal supervision
Experience with continuous integration and continuous deployment software methodologies
An understanding of code review and familiarity with tools like GitHub and GitLab
Experience using tools such as Nagios, Grafana and Prometheus to monitor systems, metrics, and create dashboards
Experience designing and implement highly available systems/services utilizing virtual machines and Kubernetes resources
Experience participating in an opensource community with patches accepted upstream
Experience deploying and maintaining automated configuration management software such as Puppet or Ansible
Experience implementing systems-level security technologies like SELinux and following security best practices
Benefits
3 weeks’ vacation
Excellent medical insurance, including employer-paid benefits
Full medical, dental, and vision coverage coupled with 401K match
15 days PTO
10 holidays
Company
Cadre5
cadre5 is dedicated to building great software.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Steve Hicks
President / CEO
Chris O'Neal
Sr Partner / VP Software Eng
Company data provided by crunchbase