About the role

Role overview

Hands-on Kubernetes Platform Engineer (individual contributor) for a 1-year contract supporting the operation, administration, and continuous improvement of Kubernetes platforms for critical research and scientific networking systems.

Type: W-2 only (United States authorization required; no C2C/third-party)
Contract dates: May 27, 2026 – May 26, 2027
Location: Remote
Schedule: Full-time, Monday–Friday

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters: upgrades, patching, scaling, and capacity planning across on-prem and cloud
Administer and troubleshoot Kubernetes using K3s, RKE2, GKE, and EKS
Implement and maintain Cilium CNI and secure network policies for multi-tenant environments
Troubleshoot complex issues across clusters and networking, including:
- control plane failures
- node issues
- DNS
- service connectivity
Manage etcd health, backups, and disaster recovery processes
Coordinate with datacenter and network teams for infrastructure changes and maintenance windows
Support development teams by reviewing deployment manifests and assisting with workload troubleshooting
Contribute to internal developer platform initiatives plus platform documentation, runbooks, and best practices
Apply Kubernetes security best practices including:
- RBAC
- Pod Security Standards
- secrets management

Required qualifications

8+ years of relevant experience (or equivalent education/experience)
Hands-on experience administering on-prem Kubernetes (e.g., K3s, RKE2, or similar)
Experience with cloud-managed Kubernetes (e.g., GKE and/or EKS)
Strong Linux and networking fundamentals (routing, DNS, TCP/IP, firewall concepts)
Experience with Cilium CNI (or equivalent container networking)
Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools such as ArgoCD or Flux
Scripting/automation skills using Bash, Python, and/or Go
Experience in collaborative, production-focused engineering environments
Cloud experience with GCP and/or AWS

Preferred qualifications

Go experience for platform tooling/operator development
CKA or CKS certification
Experience with BGP, IPv6, or service mesh technologies
Infrastructure as Code experience (e.g., Terraform or Ansible)
Experience supporting internal developer platforms/tools such as Backstage
Strong familiarity with GitHub or GitLab workflows and code review practices

About Perfect Timing Personnel Services

Perfect Timing Personnel Services is a staffing and personnel services firm that recruits and places candidates for contract roles with client organizations. In this posting, the hiring organization is Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which supports research and scientific networking systems.