{"id":180261,"url":"https://alion.io/job/firmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes","title":"Senior AI Infrastructure Engineer, Kubernetes","company":{"id":63306,"name":"Firmus Technologies","domain":"firmus.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/firmus-technologies","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":87,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.333,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":81,"computed_at":"2026-10-22T06:10:10Z"}},"role":"DevOps","role_family":"DevOps","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Sydney, Australia"],"countries":["AU"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":67000,"max_usd":186000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":3299},"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Ansible","optional":false},{"name":"ArgoCD","optional":false},{"name":"Bash","optional":false},{"name":"BGP","optional":false},{"name":"Calico","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Cilium","optional":false},{"name":"DNS","optional":false},{"name":"ElasticSearch","optional":false},{"name":"etcd","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":false},{"name":"GitLab CI","optional":false},{"name":"GitOps","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"Grafana","optional":false},{"name":"InfiniBand","optional":false},{"name":"Jenkins","optional":false},{"name":"kubeadm","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Kyverno","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Loki","optional":false},{"name":"OPA Gatekeeper","optional":false},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"Service Mesh","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Open Policy Agent","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-30T23:34:28Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T19:44:45Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":52,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":52},"description":"Firmus Technologies\nFirmus Technologies is a global leaderpioneering the development and operation of efficient AI infrastructure across Asia Pacific. \nFounded in Australia in 2019, our mission is to create the most efficient AI infrastructure by combining cutting-edge technology with a steadfast commitment to sustainability. \nAt Firmus, we are unique in our approach. We design, build, and operatea new class of digital infrastructure - the AI Factory. Through our model-to-grid technology approach, we have pushed the boundaries of multi-generational liquid cooling systems, energy management, AI software orchestration, and construction. For our customers, this approach allows us to make every watt count and deliver low-cost AI tokens globally. \nFirmus AI Cloud\nOur large-scale GPU cloud platform, Firmus AI Cloud, is purpose-built to deliver energy-efficient AI compute at scale to customers. \nIt empowers developers, enterprises, educational institutions, and government users to train and deploy AI models with unmatched efficiency and cost savings. With an ever-growing suite of services and applications, we are committed to delivering a cloud experience that is market-leading, proprietary, and built to scale. \nRole Summary (Location Melbourne or Sydney)\nThe Senior Kubernetes Engineer, AI Infrastructure owns the technical design and delivery of the backend infrastructure that powers the Firmus Kubernetes platform. This is a hands-on principal-level individual contributor role, responsible for building production-grade cluster lifecycle, control-plane, networking, storage, security, observability, and automation capabilities across GPU-accelerated bare-metal environments.\nThey solve the hardest platform engineering problems, set Kubernetes engineering standards, and provide domain-level technical sign-off for platform designs. They work across AI Platforms, Solutions Architecture & Delivery, networking, security, and operations to create a secure, resilient, multi-tenant platform that can be deployed and operated consistently at AI-factory scale.\nKey Responsibilities\nDefine and own the Kubernetes platform reference architecture across management and workload clusters, including control-plane topology, cluster lifecycle, multi-tenancy, workload isolation, and failure-domain design.\nBuild and maintain the backend services, APIs, controllers, operators, and automation required to provision, configure, upgrade, scale, and retire Kubernetes clusters reliably.\nEngineer repeatable bare-metal Kubernetes deployment and lifecycle workflows using infrastructure-as-code and automated provisioning technologies such as Cluster API, kubeadm, Redfish, PXE, Ironic, or Metal3.\nDesign and operate cluster networking across CNI, ingress, service discovery, DNS, load balancing, network policy, and service mesh; integrate Multus, SR-IOV, BGP, InfiniBand, or RoCE where required for high-performance AI workloads.\nDefine persistent-storage and data-service patterns using CSI, Ceph, local NVMe, object storage, backup and restore, and disaster-recovery mechanisms appropriate for stateful platform and AI workloads.\nIntegrate and productionise NVIDIA GPU and Network Operators, device plugins, drivers, DCGM telemetry, scheduling, quotas, and topology-aware placement for multi-node accelerated workloads.\nEstablish GitOps and CI/CD patterns for platform software, configuration, policy, and release management, with safe testing, progressive rollout, rollback, and upgrade practices.\nBuild platform security into the architecture through identity and access control, RBAC, secrets management, policy-as-code, image and software-supply-chain controls, tenant isolation, and auditable change management.\nDefine service-level objectives and engineer observability for metrics, logs, traces, events, capacity, and performance; lead diagnosis of complex distributed systems failures and eliminate recurring operational toil.\nSet engineering standards, design patterns, review practices, and operational readiness criteria; mentor senior engineers and resolve cross-team technical decisions while remaining directly involved in implementation.\nSkills & Experience\n7+ years of progressive infrastructure, systems, or platform engineering experience, including substantial ownership of production Kubernetes platforms and at least 3 years operating at senior staff, principal, or equivalent level.\nDeep knowledge of Kubernetes internals, including the API server, etcd, scheduler, controller manager, kubelet, admission, CRI, CNI, CSI, reconciliation patterns, cluster performance, upgrades, and control-plane failure modes.\nDemonstrated experience designing, building, and operating highly available, large scale and multi-cluster Kubernetes platforms on bare metal, private cloud, or hybrid infrastructure.\nStrong software engineering ability in Go and/or Rust, with practical Python and Bash skills; experience building Kubernetes operators, controllers, admission webhooks, CLIs, or platform services.\nExpert Linux systems knowledge, including namespaces, cgroups, systemd, kernel, host networking and container runtime behaviour, performance analysis, and low-level troubleshooting.\nStrong Kubernetes networking expertise across Cilium, Calico, or equivalent CNI implementations, plus load balancing, DNS, ingress, BGP, network policy, and multi-network architectures.\nStrong infrastructure automation and GitOps experience with tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Argo CD, Flux, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins.\nPractical experience with Kubernetes security and governance, including RBAC, OPA Gatekeeper or Kyverno, secrets management, certificate lifecycle, image security, and workload isolation.\nExperience implementing production observability with Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Loki, Elasticsearch, or equivalent technologies, and using telemetry to manage reliability, capacity, and performance.\nExperience with GPU-enabled Kubernetes infrastructure, NVIDIA GPU Operator, accelerator scheduling for AI workloads at large scale, RDMA networking, and distributed AI workload requirements.\nExperience with distributed storage and data services such as Ceph, CSI-backed storage, object storage, backup and restore, and disaster recovery.\nCKA-level expertise is expected; CKA, CKS, or relevant cloud-native certifications are strongly preferred.\nBachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent depth of practical engineering experience.\nClear technical judgement and communication, with a record of influencing architecture across software, networking, security, platform, and operations teams.\nLocation & Reporting\nAustralia (Sydney, NSW or Launceston, TAS)\nReporting to Head of AI Platform\nEmployment Basis\nFull-time\nDiversity\nAt Firmus, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds who are passionate about creating a more sustainable future through innovative engineering solutions.\nJoin us in our mission to revolutionize the AI industry through sustainable practices and cutting-edge engineering. Apply now to be part of shaping the future of sustainable AI infrastructure.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7234,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Data Centers & Colocation","Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","AI Compute & Inference"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-31T15:22:24Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":75,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.831,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":52,"expected_fill_days":81,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:mid"],"computed_at":"2026-10-22T06:10:10Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/firmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/firmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-22T20:10:42Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4069,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-23T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":63306},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=63306"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffirmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffirmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffirmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/firmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffirmus-technologies-principal-ai-infrastructure-engineer-kubernetes"}]}