OpenShift Solutions Architect

Job Title
OpenShift Solutions Architect (OpenShift on Nutanix)
(Stand-alone / Individual Contributor – Architecture + Automation)

Role Summary

The OpenShift Solutions Architect is the end-to-end technical authority for designing, validating, and operationalizing Red Hat OpenShift on Nutanix across enterprise and manufacturing environments.

This role defines the reference architecture, standardized deployment patterns, and fully automated, repeatable installation pipelines that meet production readiness, security, compliance, and governance expectations.

Operating as a hands-on thought leader, you will drive platform strategy and ensure consistent outcomes across centralized datacenters and dispersed manufacturing/edge locations, partnering with infrastructure, security, networking, identity, and Nutanix SMEs.

Key Responsibilities

1) Platform Architecture & Technical Strategy

• Define overall OpenShift on Nutanix architecture, including:
    o Cluster topology (single/multi-cluster, HA, scaling)
    o Networking (ingress/egress, load balancing, segmentation, OT/IT boundaries)
    o Storage (persistent patterns, performance tiers, backup/restore)
    o Security (RBAC, SCC/PSA, secrets, certificates)
    o Integration points (identity, DNS, PKI, observability, tooling)

• Maintain reference architectures supporting:
    o Enterprise workloads (multi-tenant, shared services)
    o Manufacturing/plant environments (resiliency, constrained connectivity, locality)

• Ensure compliance, governance, operational controls, auditability, and lifecycle management.
• Provide technical advisory, trade-off analysis, and risk mitigation.

2) Engineering Standards & Deployment Patterns

• Design standardized deployment patterns (cluster profiles, node roles, baseline operators, add-ons, workload onboarding).
• Align OpenShift configurations with Nutanix best practices (virtualization, networking, storage, tuning, resilience).
• Define guardrails for multi-tenancy, resource governance, security controls (policy-as-code, admission, image governance), and lifecycle processes (patching, upgrades, certificate rotation).

3) Enterprise Services Integration

• Guide integration of:
    o Identity & access (SSO, group-based RBAC)
    o Networking & DNS
    o PKI/certificates (internal CA, mTLS)
    o Monitoring, logging, alerting

• Ensure consistent integration across centralized and intermittently connected sites.

4) Validation, Testing & Reliability

• Validate performance, scalability, and reliability through workload validation, resiliency testing (failures/disruptions), and operational testing (backup/restore, upgrades, DR).
• Define production acceptance criteria and readiness checklists.

5) Automation & Zero-Touch Pipelines

• Develop fully automated OpenShift-on-Nutanix pipelines including:
    o Infrastructure provisioning (IaC)
    o Cluster install, configuration, hardening
    o Add-on bootstrap (identity, DNS, PKI, observability)
    o GitOps-driven configuration and drift management

• Ensure lifecycle support (upgrades, expansions, rotations) across centralized and distributed environments.

6) Documentation & Alignment

• Produce HLD/LLD, ADRs, diagrams, standards, runbooks, readiness assessments, and handover documentation.
• Present to review boards and influence outcomes with technical rigor.

7) Pilot & Scale-Out Enablement

• Support pilot planning (scope, success criteria, testing).
• Ensure scalable, repeatable multi-site deployments.
• Enable operations through knowledge transfer and reference implementations.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years in infrastructure/platform/cloud/SRE roles; 3+ years designing/operating OpenShift/Kubernetes.
• Experience in regulated and/or high-availability environments.
• Expertise in Kubernetes/OpenShift architecture, automation/IaC (Terraform, Ansible, GitOps), CI/CD for platform delivery, and enterprise integrations (identity, DNS, PKI, monitoring/logging).
• Ability to translate business/compliance needs into repeatable technical controls.
• Strong written and verbal communication; ability to lead through influence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on OpenShift ecosystem experience with Nutanix platform services.
• Exposure to manufacturing/OT constraints (isolation, segmented networks, latency, edge resilience).

Core Competencies

• Thought leadership and scalable standards.
• Deep end-to-end technical troubleshooting.
• Automation-first mindset.
• Cross-functional influence and alignment.
• Pragmatic, compliant, operationally sustainable execution.

Key Deliverables

• OpenShift-on-Nutanix reference architecture (enterprise + manufacturing).
• Standardized cluster blueprints and baseline services.
• Fully automated zero-touch installation and configuration pipeline.
• Performance/reliability validation reports and readiness checklists.
• Complete architecture documentation set (HLD/LLD, ADRs, diagrams, runbooks).

Measures of Success

• Reduced deployment time and manual effort.
• Production readiness/security/compliance with fewer exceptions.
• Successful pilot and repeatable multi-site scale-out.
• Improved reliability, upgrade success, reduced configuration drift.
• Positive stakeholder adoption and feedback.

Working Relationships

• Internal: Platform Engineering, Infrastructure, Network, Security, Identity, Manufacturing IT/OT, SRE/Operations, App Enablement.
• External: Nutanix SMEs/partners and enterprise tooling vendors.