Hybrid Kubernetes Platform Engineer – Control Plane, AI Infrastructure

at Cisco

• Job title: Kubernetes Platform Engineer – Control Plane, AI Infrastructure
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: $126,500 - $182,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: Distributed Systems, Kubernetes, Node.js, OpenShift, Go
• Location requirements: Hybrid, RTP, United States

About the role

• Kubernetes Platform Engineer working with self-managed clusters and AI infrastructure. Collaborating with a team to design and operate Kubernetes solutions and automate operational tasks.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate self-managed Kubernetes clusters (OpenShift / Anthos)
• Manage and maintain etcd (backup, restore, quorum management, defrag)
• Perform control plane upgrades and lifecycle management
• Tune API server, scheduler, and controller manager for performance and reliability
• Debug node-level and control-plane issues across large clusters
• Implement networking (CNI), storage (CSI), and ingress integrations
• Implement and extend runbook automation frameworks to reduce operational toil
• Integrate AI agents that monitor cluster telemetry, detect anomalies, and trigger automated workflows
• Apply statistical or ML-based models on operational data to predict failures, capacity saturation, or workload misbehavior
• Build self-healing controllers and automated remediation pipelines
• Implement predictive capacity planning and intelligent alert suppression workflows
• Build Kubernetes controllers and operators (Go + controller-runtime)
• Develop CRDs and admission webhooks to extend platform functionality
• Automate cluster lifecycle and multi-cluster operations
• Implement policies for workload isolation, governance, and compliance
• Enable GPU and high-performance infrastructure for AI/ML workloads
• Optimize scheduler and resource allocation for memory- and compute-intensive workloads
• Support orchestration of AI/ML pipelines

Requirements

• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• 3+ years operating Kubernetes in production with hands-on control plane experience
• Experience managing etcd (backup, restore, recovery) and performing control plane upgrades
• Strong Go programming skills
• Experience building Kubernetes operators/controllers and developing CRDs/webhooks
• Deep understanding of scheduler, API server, controller loops, and reconciliation
• Experience debugging and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems
• Candidates without on-prem or self-managed Kubernetes control plane experience will not be considered.

Benefits

• medical, dental and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability coverage
• basic life insurance
• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year
• 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
• paid year-end holiday shutdown
• 4 paid days off for personal wellness
• 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year
• flexible vacation time off program
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
• additional paid time away may be requested
• 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
• potential grants of Cisco restricted stock units