Senior Kubernetes Administrator (AKS / Azure / Terraform)
Location: Charlotte, NC
Duration: 6 Months+
Job Description
We are seeking a Senior Kubernetes Administrator with deep, hands-on experience in administering and operating Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters in production environments. The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing, deploying, securing, scaling, and troubleshooting AKS clusters, leveraging Azure-native services and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform). This role requires strong operational ownership, an automation mindset, and close collaboration with DevOps, SRE, and application teams.
Required Skills & Qualifications
Mandatory
Strong hands-on experience administering Kubernetes in production.
Deep expertise in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Solid experience with Microsoft Azure (compute, networking, security).
Proven experience with Terraform for infrastructure provisioning.
Strong troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes, networking, and cloud infrastructure.
Experience managing Linux-based systems.
Preferred / Nice to Have
Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab).
Knowledge of Helm, Customize, or similar Kubernetes packaging tools.
Exposure to SRE practices and reliability engineering.
Kubernetes certifications (CKA/CKAD) or Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-305).
Experience with multi-cluster or hybrid Kubernetes environments.
Key Responsibilities
Kubernetes & AKS Administration
Administer, operate, and maintain production-grade AKS clusters (single and multi-region).
Perform cluster lifecycle management: provisioning, upgrades, patching, scaling, and decommissioning.
Configure and manage node pools, autoscaling (HPA/Cluster Autoscaler), taints, tolerations, and resource quotas.
Implement and manage Kubernetes networking (Azure CNI, ingress controllers, services, DNS).
Troubleshoot cluster-level and workload-level issues (pods, nodes, networking, storage, performance).
Azure Platform Responsibilities
Design and manage AKS integrations with Azure services such as:
Azure Monitor / Log Analytics
Azure Load Balancer / Application Gateway / NGINX Ingress
Azure Key Vault
Azure Storage (Disk, File, Blob)
Azure Container Registry (ACR)
Ensure high availability, resilience, and disaster recovery for Kubernetes workloads.
Manage Azure IAM, RBAC, and managed identities for secure access.
Infrastructure as Code & Automation
Use Terraform to provision and manage:
AKS clusters
Networking (VNETs, subnets)
Supporting Azure resources
Maintain reusable, modular Terraform code following best practices.
Automate cluster operations and maintenance activities wherever possible.
Security & Compliance
Implement Kubernetes security best practices:
RBAC, Network Policies, Pod Security Standards
Secrets management (Key Vault integration)
Ensure secure container runtime and image practices.
Support compliance, audit, and governance requirements.
Monitoring, Logging & Reliability
Set up and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting for AKS and workloads.
Perform capacity planning and cost optimization.
Participate in incident response, root cause analysis, and preventive actions.
Collaboration & Leadership
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