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Kubernetes Platform Engineer
Job Location:
Job Location:
Berkeley, CA - USA
Hourly Salary:
USD 95 - 100
Hourly Salary:
Posted:
24 May 2026 (30+ days ago)
Posted:
Application Deadline:
21 August 2026
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Vacancies:
Job Summary
Location: Hybrid in Berkeley CA
Employment Type: 1-Year Contract (With possibility of extension or conversion based on performance and organizational needs)
About the Organization
A nationally recognized research institution where your work directly supports groundbreaking scientific programs. We build the infrastructure behind some of the most impactful research in the country.
About the Role
We are looking for a skilled Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join our Platform Engineering this hands-on individual contributor role you will be at the heart of our infrastructure managing Kubernetes clusters implementing cutting-edge networking solutions and empowering development teams to ship with confidence. If you thrive in technical environments and love solving complex platform challenges we want to hear from you.What Youll Do
Cluster Operations & Administration- Manage the full lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters (on-premises K3s/RKE2 GKE and EKS) including upgrades security patching scaling and capacity planning
- Troubleshoot cluster-level issues including control plane problems node failures and resource constraints
- Implement and maintain cluster security hardening based on CIS benchmarks and organizational security policies
- Monitor cluster performance and optimize resource utilization across multi-tenant workloads
- Manage etcd cluster health backup procedures and disaster recovery
- Implement configure and maintain Cilium CNI across on-premises and cloud Kubernetes environments
- Design and enforce network policies to achieve secure multi-tenant isolation
- Troubleshoot complex pod networking issues including DNS resolution service discovery and connectivity
- Configure and maintain BGP peering with physical network infrastructure for on-premises integration
- Collaborate with network engineering on firewall rules VLANs IPv6 networking and architecture
- Contribute to building a next-generation internal developer platform focused on security and development efficiency
- Assist development teams with deploying configuring and troubleshooting Kubernetes workloads
- Review application deployment manifests and provide guidance on best practices
- Develop and maintain platform documentation runbooks and self-service guides
- Engage with development teams to understand platform needs and evolving requirements
Required Qualifications
- 8 years of related experience with a Bachelors degree; 6 years with a Masters; or equivalent experience
- Demonstrated experience administering Kubernetes on on-premises infrastructure (K3s RKE2 or similar)
- Experience with cloud-managed Kubernetes (GKE and/or EKS)
- Strong understanding of Linux networking fundamentals: iptables/nftables routing DNS TCP/IP
- Experience with GitOps methodologies and tools such as ArgoCD or Flux
- Proficiency in scripting and automation: Bash Python Go
- Cilium CNI or equivalent production networking experience
- Understanding of Kubernetes security best practices including Pod Security Standards RBAC and secrets management
- GCP and/or AWS cloud platform experience
- Strong collaboration and communication skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Go programming experience for operator maintenance and platform tooling development
- CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) or CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist) certification
- Background in BGP routing protocols and network engineering
- IPv6 networking experience
- Infrastructure as Code experience with Terraform or Ansible
- Experience with internal developer platform tools such as Backstage
- Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio Linkerd)
- Familiarity with GitHub and GitLab workflows and code review practices
Required Experience:
Senior IC
About Company
Xellia is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on providing important anti-infective treatments against serious and often life-threatening infections.
