Senior GCP DevOps Engineer

Role & responsibilities

Own production GKE architecture and lifecycle: clusters, node pools, autoscaling, storage, networking, add-ons, Kubernetes version upgrades, and worker-node patching.

- Design and execute low- or zero-downtime GKE upgrades and node migrations using surge/blue-green strategies, PodDisruptionBudgets, probes, graceful termination, safe drain/cordon practices, rollback plans, and verified capacity headroom.

- Optimize infrastructure through machine-family selection and migrations , node sizing and topology, requests/limits, bin packing, Cluster Autoscaler/HPA/KEDA tuning, quota/reservation planning, and cost analysis.

- Design high-availability and disaster-recovery patterns across zones and regions, including regional/multi-zone GKE, multi-region failover options, backup/restore strategy, recovery testing, and RTO/RPO planning.

- Partner with application teams to make workloads disruption-tolerant through replica design, readiness/startup behavior, preStop and termination handling, StatefulSet/storage considerations, dependency management, and safe rolling deployment patterns.

- Lead DevOps and vulnerability remediation across container images, OS packages, application libraries, and platform components using secure base images, checks, registry scanning, patching, IAM/RBAC, secrets, certificates, and TLS controls.

- Own observability and incident response using Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, ELK/Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Kubernetes metrics; build actionable alerts, reduce noise, lead RCA, and drive post-incident fixes.

- Operate production Kafka platforms, including broker resiliency, rolling restarts, producer/consumer behavior, quotas/rate limits, consumer lag, JMX monitoring, storage capacity, KEDA scaling, and failure-recovery testing.

- Support stateful platform services such as MongoDB, Solr, Redis, and Elasticsearch, including backup lifecycle, restore validation, replication, capacity planning, and version/upgrade compatibility.

- Build and improve GitLab CI/CD pipelines, Docker images, Kubernetes manifests, Python/Bash automation, Terraform-based infrastructure, and Helm/Kustomize packaging so changes are repeatable, reviewed, and auditable.

- Troubleshoot Linux, GKE, networking, DNS, load balancing/Ingress, certificates, VPN/private connectivity, service accounts, storage, and application-to-platform integration issues across environments.

- Own infrastructure-impacting production changes from risk assessment and runbook preparation through validation and stakeholder communication; translate client/business requirements into practical platform solutions and explain trade-offs clearly.

- Mentor junior engineers, review infrastructure and automation changes, strengthen engineering standards and documentation, and provide technical direction across the DevOps team.

Preferred candidate profile

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

- 6+ years of DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineering, or Cloud Infrastructure experience with hands-on ownership of production systems.

- Deep Google Cloud and production GKE experience. This is a GCP/GKE-focused role; EKS/AKS experience without strong GKE depth is not sufficient.

- Advanced Kubernetes administration: node pools, scheduling, autoscaling, PDBs, probes, pod lifecycle, Deployments/StatefulSets, storage/PVCs, RBAC, networking, cordon/drain behavior, upgrades, and API deprecations.

- Proven experience executing GKE upgrades, node/machine-family migrations, patching, and maintenance with minimal application disruption.

- Strong GCP infrastructure knowledge across Compute Engine, VPC, load balancing, IAM/service accounts, DNS, certificates, Artifact Registry, quotas/reservations, and monitoring/logging.

- Strong Linux and networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, routing, firewalls, and load balancing.

- Hands-on Python/Bash automation, Git, GitLab CI/CD, Docker, Terraform, and Kubernetes deployment/configuration practices. - Hands-on Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and ELK experience for production monitoring and troubleshooting.

- Production Kafka experience and a strong understanding of distributed-system reliability, backpressure, consumer lag, capacity, and recovery behavior.

- Experience with vulnerability remediation, dependency/image scanning, secure access/secrets practices, and patch management. - Experience with backup/restore, disaster recovery, capacity planning, and troubleshooting across application, Kubernetes, network, and data-service layers.

- Excellent communication and technical leadership: able to work with application/product teams and client-facing stakeholders, lead incidents and technical discussions, mentor engineers, and make sound risk-based decisions.