Remote W2 role : OpenShift Solutions Architect (OpenShift on Nutanix) || No H1bs

Job Title: OpenShift Solutions Architect (OpenShift on Nutanix)

Location: Remote, MN

Duration: 3 months

Travel Type: Remote (no expenses)

Visa Restrictions: No H1bs

Role Summary:
The OpenShift Solutions Architect is the end-to-end technical authority for designing, validating, and operationalizing Red Hat OpenShift deployed on Nutanix across enterprise and manufacturing environments. This role establishes the reference architecture, defines standardized deployment patterns, and delivers fully automated, repeatable installation pipelines that meet production readiness, security, compliance, and governance expectations.
As a stand-alone architect, you will operate as a hands-on thought leader driving technical direction, influencing platform strategy, and ensuring consistent outcomes across diverse sites and constraints (centralized datacenters and dispersed manufacturing/edge locations). You will partner with infrastructure, security, networking, identity, and Nutanix SMEs to align implementation with best practices and enterprise standards.

Key Responsibilities
1) Platform Architecture & Technical Strategy (Thought Leadership)
Define the overall OpenShift on Nutanix architecture, including:
o Cluster topology (single/multi-cluster strategy, HA, scaling model)
o Networking (ingress/egress, load balancing, segmentation, OT/IT boundaries)
o Storage (persistent storage patterns, performance tiers, backup/restore design)
o Security (RBAC, SCC/PSA, secrets management, certificate strategy)
o Integration points (identity, DNS, PKI, observability, enterprise tooling)
Establish and maintain a reference architecture and standard design patterns supporting both:
o Enterprise workloads (shared services, scalable multi-tenant clusters)
o Manufacturing/plant environments (resiliency, constrained connectivity, locality)
Ensure platform design meets production readiness, security, compliance, and governance requirements including operational controls, auditability, and lifecycle management.
Act as a technical advisor to stakeholders, providing clear decision-making frameworks, trade-off analysis, and risk mitigation.

2) Engineering Standards & Deployment Patterns
Lead the design of standardized deployment patterns (e.g., cluster profiles, node roles, baseline operators, add-on services, and workload onboarding approaches).
Collaborate with Nutanix SMEs to align OpenShift configurations with Nutanix best practices (virtualization, networking, storage, performance tuning, resilience).
Define platform guardrails for:
o Multi-tenancy and namespace strategy
o Resource governance (quotas, limits, priority classes)
o Security controls (policy-as-code, admission controls, image governance)
o Platform lifecycle processes (patching, upgrades, certificate rotation)

3) Enterprise Services Integration
Guide selection and integration of enterprise services such as:
o Identity and access (SSO integration, group-based RBAC)
o Networking and DNS (service routing, name resolution patterns)
o PKI/certificates (internal CA integration, mTLS considerations)
o Monitoring, logging, and alerting (platform + workload observability)
Define integration approaches that are consistent across centralized and dispersed environments, including low-bandwidth or intermittently connected sites.

4) Validation, Testing, Performance & Reliability
Review and validate platform performance, scalability, and reliability via:
o Workload validation (representative workloads, peak scenarios)
o Resiliency testing (node failures, storage/network disruption scenarios)
o Operational testing (backup/restore, upgrade simulations, disaster recovery)
Set acceptance criteria and readiness checklists for production deployments.

5) Automation & Zero-Touch Installation Pipelines
Design and develop automated pipelines for OpenShift installation on Nutanix with zero manual steps, including:
o Infrastructure provisioning (IaC)
o Cluster installation, configuration, and post-install hardening
o Add-on services bootstrap (identity, DNS, PKI, monitoring/logging)
o GitOps-driven cluster configuration and drift management
Ensure pipelines support the intended architecture and lifecycle processes (upgrades, expansions, rotations), and run reliably across both centralized and distributed environments.

6) Documentation & Stakeholder Alignment
Produce architectural deliverables required for review and approval, such as:
o High-level and detailed design documents (HLD/LLD)
o Diagrams, ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), standards, runbooks
o Platform readiness assessments and operational handover documentation
Present designs to cross-functional review boards and influence outcomes through clarity and technical rigor.

7) Pilot Planning & Scale-Out Enablement
Support pilot deployment planning (scope, success criteria, test approach).
Ensure the solution is scalable across multiple sites with consistent, repeatable outcomes.
Enable operational teams through knowledge transfer, training materials, and reference implementations.

Required Qualifications
10+ years in infrastructure, platform engineering, cloud architecture, or SRE/DevOps roles, with 3+ years directly designing/operating OpenShift/Kubernetes platforms.
Demonstrated experience architecting and operationalizing platforms in regulated and/or high-availability environments.
Strong expertise in:
o Kubernetes/OpenShift architecture (control plane/worker design, operators, networking, storage, security)
o Automation and IaC (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, GitOps patterns)
o CI/CD and pipeline engineering for platform delivery (installation + configuration automation)
o Enterprise integration (identity, DNS, PKI, monitoring, logging)
Ability to translate business and compliance requirements into pragmatic technical controls and repeatable deployment patterns.
Excellent written and verbal communication; proven ability to lead through influence in cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications
Hands-on experience with OpenShift Containerization ecosystems and integration with Nutanix platform services.
Exposure to manufacturing/OT constraints: site isolation, segmented networks, latency/throughput constraints, and operational resilience at the edge.