Cullerton Group has a new opportunity for an
IT Software Engineer 5 Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer in
Peoria, Illinois. The work will be performed
100% onsite, five days per week, with no remote or hybrid options. This is a
12-month position that can lead to permanent employment with our client. Compensation is $74/hr W-2 plus full benefits (vision, dental, health insurance, 401k, and holiday pay).
Job Summary
The Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer will lead the design, deployment, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise Kubernetes platforms supporting advanced AI workloads across cloud and on-premises environments. This role focuses on establishing secure, scalable, highly available Kubernetes infrastructure, implementing GitOps-driven automation, and ensuring reliable platform operations for enterprise AI applications. The engineer will develop platform standards for security, multi-tenancy, observability, infrastructure provisioning, and lifecycle management while collaborating with globally distributed engineering teams. The ideal candidate will have extensive hands-on Kubernetes platform engineering experience, deep Linux and infrastructure expertise, and a strong background in Terraform, Helm, GitOps, and enterprise security practices.
Key Responsibilities- Lead the design, deployment, administration, and lifecycle management of production-grade Kubernetes platforms across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, ensuring high availability, scalability, reliability, and operational consistency.
- Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code and GitOps-driven automation using Terraform, Helm, Argo CD, Flux, or related technologies to automate cluster provisioning, deployments, upgrades, patching, scaling, and configuration management.
- Implement Kubernetes security and governance controls, including role-based access control (RBAC), network policies, secrets and key management, admission policies, workload isolation, and production cluster hardening.
- Establish platform observability, monitoring, incident response, service reliability objectives, and operational readiness practices while troubleshooting complex issues involving Linux, Kubernetes networking, storage, and container runtime environments.
- Collaborate with application, infrastructure, security, and AI engineering teams to establish standardized deployment patterns, support enterprise AI workloads, improve platform adoption, and optimize infrastructure performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
Required Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of relevant professional experience in Kubernetes platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, site reliability engineering, or closely related enterprise infrastructure roles.
- Proven experience designing, building, operating, and evolving production-grade Kubernetes platforms across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.
- Demonstrated experience managing large-scale Kubernetes environments, including platform reliability, security, cluster operations, upgrades, and lifecycle management.
- Deep technical expertise in Linux operating systems, Kubernetes cluster networking, storage architecture, and infrastructure troubleshooting.
- Hands-on experience with Terraform for Infrastructure as Code, automated provisioning, and enterprise platform infrastructure management.
- Strong experience using Helm for Kubernetes application deployment, release management, and configuration management.
- Experience with GitOps tools such as Argo CD or Flux to manage production deployments, configurations, and platform automation.
- Strong hands-on Kubernetes security experience, including RBAC, network policies, secrets management, admission or policy enforcement, and production cluster hardening.
- Experience supporting at least one major cloud platform, preferably AWS or Microsoft Azure, along with enterprise cloud or hybrid infrastructure environments.
- Knowledge of platform monitoring, observability, incident response, operational readiness, and reliability management practices.
- Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills involving complex infrastructure, networking, storage, and runtime issues.
- Ability to collaborate with globally distributed application, security, infrastructure, and platform engineering teams.
- Strong technical communication, problem-solving, and independent decision-making skills.
- Willingness to participate in operational support, on-call activities, maintenance planning, and disaster recovery readiness.
- Ability to work 100% onsite in Peoria, IL, five days per week, starting Day 1.
Preferred Qualifications- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), or Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) certification.
- Experience with managed Kubernetes services and enterprise distributions, including Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, Google GKE, Red Hat OpenShift, or Rancher.
- Experience supporting enterprise AI platforms, AI infrastructure, or shared AI development environments.
- Familiarity with Accenture AI Refinery or comparable enterprise AI platforms.
- Experience with service mesh technologies supporting traffic management, platform security, and resilience.
- Experience with OpenTelemetry or modern observability frameworks for distributed systems and infrastructure monitoring.
- Knowledge of container image security, vulnerability scanning, software supply chain security, and workload protection.
- Experience designing secure multi-tenant Kubernetes platforms with strong governance and workload isolation.
- Familiarity with disaster recovery, high availability, service-level objectives, and enterprise operational readiness.
- Experience improving platform automation, infrastructure cost efficiency, performance optimization, and developer enablement.
- Previous experience supporting large enterprise, manufacturing, industrial technology, or globally distributed engineering environments.
Why This Role?
This position offers an opportunity to build and advance enterprise Kubernetes infrastructure supporting innovative AI technologies for a global leader in heavy machinery and manufacturing. You will contribute to the foundational architecture of a shared enterprise AI platform, implement modern GitOps and infrastructure automation practices, and strengthen the security, reliability, and scalability of critical cloud and on-premises environments. Cullerton Group provides a professional environment with growth potential, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities to develop specialized expertise in Kubernetes platform architecture, enterprise AI infrastructure, and cloud-native engineering.