[MSO] Senior DevOps Engineer (Kubernetes) | 6-month contract

Software Mind develops solutions that make an impact for companies around the globe. Tech giants & unicorns, transformative projects, emerging technologies and limitless opportunities - these are a few words that describe an average day for us. Building cross-functional engineering teams that take ownership and crave more means we’re always on the lookout for talented people who bring passion and creativity to every project. Our culture embraces openness, acts with respect, shows grit & guts and combines employment with enjoyment.

Project - the aim you’ll have

We are looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer (Kubernetes) to join the team running managed Kubernetes services for a Dutch managed services provider.

The clusters run on the provider's own infrastructure, on-premises and at scale, and they are production for the provider's customers, who deploy and run their own workloads on them. One team both builds and operates the platform - there is no separate ops team, so what you automate is what you are on call for.

The workload is growing faster than the current capacity can handle, which is why two senior engineers are joining. That shapes the first months: the priority is learning the environment quickly enough to take real work off the team, rather than spending a quarter reading documentation.

Your first milestone is operational independence - handling production incidents on the clusters on your own, and taking your place in the on-call rotation once onboarding is complete. From there the work moves into cluster lifecycle, automation and direct work with the customers running on the platform.

Role - how you’ll contribute

• Troubleshoot and resolve incidents in production Kubernetes clusters, on-premises and at scale - this is the core, day-to-day work of the role
• Deploy, upgrade and maintain the lifecycle of the clusters
• Work directly with the customers running on the platform: helping them deploy their workloads, and diagnosing problems with them when something breaks
• Improve the platform through automation and GitOps
• Write and maintain runbooks, so operational knowledge sits with the team rather than with individuals
• Join the on-call rotation after an onboarding period

Expectations - the experience you need

• 5+ years of hands-on Kubernetes experience, including running and debugging production clusters - diagnosing what fails under load, during upgrades, and at the networking and storage layers
• Strong Linux fundamentals and systematic troubleshooting
• GitOps in practice, preferably ArgoCD
• Helm - writing and maintaining charts, not only installing them
• Kubernetes networking at CNI level: Cilium, ingress, load balancing, DNS
• Kubernetes storage: CSI, persistent volumes, stateful workloads
• Working directly with customers: explaining a technical problem and its consequences to someone outside your team
• English at C1 level - the working language with the client's engineers and with the customers running on the platform

How you work with others:

• Takes ownership: picks up a problem, decides how to approach it, and carries it through without needing to be chased for progress
• Spots problems before they become incidents: notices what is degrading in the environment and raises or fixes it rather than waiting for a ticket
• Gets productive fast in an unfamiliar estate: learns by working in it and asking the right questions, rather than waiting for complete documentation

Additional skills - the edge you have

• CKA, CKAD or CKS, CKA preferred - a current certification confirms the fundamentals are covered before you start
• Cluster lifecycle tooling - Cluster API, kubeadm, or Rancher/RKE2 - cluster deployment and upgrades are part of the day-to-day, so experience here shortens the ramp-up
• Python scripting and automation - most platform improvement work on this team is automation work
• Public track record: open-source contributions, talks, blog posts or further certifications such as Kubestronaut

What we offer:

• Flexible and remote cooperation options
• International projects with leading global clients
• Travels related to international projects
• Non-corporate atmosphere
• Access* to language classes
• Access* to knowledge-sharing initiatives
• Access* to private healthcare and life insurance
• Access* to multisport card

*The availability and terms of individual benefits may vary depending on the chosen form of cooperation.