Kubernetes Engineer

Company Overview:

Our client is a global quantitative trading firm that operates at the intersection of finance, data, and technology. The firm leverages sophisticated algorithms, advanced statistical models, and high-performance infrastructure to execute trades across global financial markets. Technology is central to the firm's operations, and its engineering teams are responsible for building and maintaining the systems that support real-time trading, data processing, and research workflows.

The infrastructure team plays a critical role in enabling the firm's trading strategies by providing reliable, scalable, and secure platforms. As part of this team, the Kubernetes Platform Engineer will contribute to the design, development, and maintenance of a container orchestration platform that supports a wide range of internal applications, from research tools to latency-sensitive trading systems.

Role Summary:

The Kubernetes Platform Engineer will be responsible for building and maintaining a robust Kubernetes-based platform that supports both development and production workloads. This role involves close collaboration with software engineers, site reliability engineers (SREs), and DevOps teams to ensure that infrastructure is aligned with application requirements and operational goals.

The ideal candidate will have deep experience with Kubernetes in production environments, a strong background in Linux systems, and a solid understanding of infrastructure-as-code and automation tools. The role requires a proactive approach to problem-solving, a focus on reliability and performance, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and maintain a scalable and secure Kubernetes platform to support internal services and applications.
• Develop and manage infrastructure-as-code using tools such as Terraform, Helm, and Ansible to automate cluster provisioning, configuration, and deployment workflows.
• Collaborate with application developers and SREs to ensure seamless integration of infrastructure with application lifecycles, including CI/CD pipelines and runtime environments.
• Monitor and optimize the performance, availability, and reliability of Kubernetes clusters and associated services.
• Implement and maintain observability tooling, including metrics collection, logging, and alerting systems (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Fluentd).
• Participate in incident response and root cause analysis for infrastructure-related issues, and contribute to continuous improvement efforts.
• Evaluate and integrate new tools and technologies to enhance the platform's capabilities, security posture, and operational efficiency.
• Contribute to documentation, knowledge sharing, and internal tooling to support platform adoption and ease of use across engineering teams.
• Participate in architectural discussions and long-term planning for infrastructure strategy, capacity management, and platform evolution.

Required Qualifications:

• Proven experience managing Kubernetes in production environments, including cluster lifecycle management, networking, and security.
• Strong proficiency in Linux system administration, including performance tuning, troubleshooting, and scripting.
• Hands-on experience with containerization technologies such as Docker, and familiarity with container security best practices.
• Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Helm, Ansible) and experience automating infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
• Familiarity with CI/CD tools and practices, including Git-based workflows and automated deployment pipelines.
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Fluentd, or similar.
• Understanding of cloud-native architecture principles and microservices design patterns.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team-oriented environment.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in high-performance or low-latency environments, particularly in financial services or trading.
• Familiarity with service mesh technologies (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) and Kubernetes-native security tools (e.g., OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno).
• Exposure to hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environments and related orchestration challenges.
• Experience with GitOps workflows and tools such as Argo CD or Flux.
• Knowledge of network protocols, load balancing, and service discovery in distributed systems.

Work Environment and Collaboration:

This role is part of a globally distributed infrastructure team that supports mission-critical systems. Engineers are expected to take ownership of their work, contribute to team-wide initiatives, and collaborate across disciplines. The environment is fast-paced and engineering-driven, with a strong emphasis on automation, reliability, and continuous improvement.

The team values clear communication, thoughtful design, and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. Engineers are encouraged to propose improvements, experiment with new technologies, and contribute to the evolution of the platform.