Senior Staff Platform Operations Engineer

Role Overview

Join Cloudera’s IT team as a Senior Staff Platform Operations Engineer. You will design and operate the internal platform that powers Linux-based infrastructure and core IT services, ensuring reliable deployments and automated management. You’ll act as a technical leader with security-first thinking, combining Linux expertise with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), automation, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, and provide senior operational support for on-premise and cloud-based Linux infrastructure and core IT services.
• Develop and maintain automation frameworks and champion Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).
  • Build automation using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and Foreman/MaaS.
• Implement system-level security best practices:
  • Patching, hardening, and configuration management
  • Ensure compliance, resilience, and secure operations.
• Manage hybrid infrastructure, including deep on-premise expertise (e.g., virtualization/OpenStack and networking) and strong understanding of public cloud services (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Operate and support container platforms, including Kubernetes.
• Administer enterprise storage arrays, ideally Dell PowerStore and/or Pure Storage FlashArray (provisioning, performance tuning, upgrades, troubleshooting).
• Mentor junior team members and contribute as a technical SME.

Requirements

• Proven experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) and version control (e.g., GitHub/Git).
• Bachelor’s degree or 8+ years equivalent experience in a large-scale enterprise environment.
• Strong hands-on skills with Python and shell scripting for systems automation, tooling, and integration.
• Strong networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, and firewalls (including public cloud equivalents).
• Security-first mindset with experience designing/building/operating secure, automated infrastructure.
• Expert-level Linux systems administration experience (e.g., Red Hat, Rocky, Ubuntu) and strong command-line mastery.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools.
• Project management experience.

Nice to Have / Additional Qualifications

• Certifications such as RHCE, Terraform, or public cloud certifications (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Knowledge of enterprise security principles, including cryptography, PKI, and operational security practices.
• Experience in regulated/high-governance compliance environments (e.g., FedRAMP, PCI, ISO27001, SOC2).
• Experience with containerization (Docker) and Kubernetes.
• Mentoring experience for junior team members.
• Enterprise storage array administration experience (Dell PowerStore, Pure Storage FlashArray).