Kubernetes Platform Engineer | 1- Year Contract | Remote | $100/hour
Our client, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is seeking a Kubernetes Platform Engineer for a one year contract. This is a hands-on, individual contributor role focused on the day-to-day operation, administration, and improvement of Kubernetes platforms supporting critical research and scientific networking systems.
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Employment Type: W-2 only. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. No C2C or third-party arrangements.
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Contract Dates: May 27, 2026 – May 26, 2027
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Location: Remote
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Hours: Full-time, Monday through Friday
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Background Check: Clear criminal background check required
Responsibilities:
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Manage the full lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters, including upgrades, patching, scaling, and capacity planning across on prem and cloud environments
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Administer and troubleshoot Kubernetes platforms using K3s, RKE2, GKE, and EKS
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Implement and maintain Cilium CNI and enforce secure network policies for multi tenant environments
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Troubleshoot complex cluster and networking issues including control plane failures, node issues, DNS, and service connectivity
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Manage etcd health, backups, and disaster recovery processes
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Collaborate with datacenter and network teams on infrastructure changes and maintenance windows
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Support development teams by reviewing deployment manifests and assisting with workload troubleshooting
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Contribute to internal developer platform initiatives and platform documentation, runbooks, and best practices
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Apply Kubernetes security best practices, including RBAC, Pod Security Standards, and secrets management
Required Qualifications:
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8+ years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience
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Hands-on experience administering on premises Kubernetes (K3s, RKE2, or similar)
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Experience supporting cloud-managed Kubernetes environments (GKE and/or EKS)
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Strong Linux and networking fundamentals including routing, DNS, TCP/IP, and firewall concepts
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Experience with Cilium CNI or equivalent container networking solutions
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Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools such as ArgoCD or Flux
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Scripting and automation skills using Bash, Python, and/or Go
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Experience working in collaborative, production-focused engineering environments
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Cloud experience with GCP and/or AWS
Preferred Qualifications:
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Go programming experience for platform tooling or operator development
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CKA or CKS certification
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Experience with BGP, IPv6 networking, or service mesh technologies
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Infrastructure as Code experience with Terraform or Ansible
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Experience supporting internal developer platforms or tools such as Backstage
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Strong familiarity with GitHub or GitLab workflows and code review practices