Cloud Platform Engineer

Job Title: Cloud Platform Engineer - OpenShift
Location: San Jose, CA
Duration: 24 Months contract

Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced Cloud Platform Engineer with deep expertise in Red Hat OpenShift and strong Linux systems engineering background. This role will be responsible for designing, building, and operating large-scale OpenShift platforms within on-premises datacenter environments. The ideal candidate will work closely with SRE teams and Program Management to drive the successful implementation, scaling, and operationalization of enterprise-grade OpenShift infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities
1. Platform Engineering
•    Design, deploy, and manage enterprise-scale Red Hat OpenShift clusters in on-prem datacenter environments.
•    Architect highly available, scalable, and secure OpenShift platforms.
Implement cluster lifecycle management (installation, upgrades, patching, scaling).
Configure networking, storage, ingress, and security components for OpenShift.
2. Infrastructure Build & Automation
•    Build and automate infrastructure in datacenter environments (compute, storage, networking).
•    Integrate OpenShift with virtualization platforms (VMware/other hypervisors as
applicable).
•    Develop Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar.
•    Implement CI/CD pipelines for platform deployments and updates.
3. Linux Systems Engineering
•    Provide deep Linux system administration and troubleshooting support.
•    Optimize OS-level configurations for performance, reliability, and security.
•    Automate system configuration and compliance management.
•    Diagnose and resolve complex kernel, networking, and storage issues.

4. Reliability & Operations
•    Partner closely with the SRE team to establish SLOs, SLIs, monitoring, and alerting.
•    Drive observability implementation (logging, metrics, tracing).
•    Participate in incident management, root cause analysis (RCA), and remediation.
•    Ensure platform resiliency, performance tuning, and capacity planning.
5. Program & Cross-Functional Collaboration
•    Work with Program Management to drive large-scale OpenShift implementation
•    milestones.
•    Provide technical input into roadmap planning, timelines, and risk mitigation.
•    Collaborate with security, networking, storage, and application teams.
•    Document architecture, standards, and operational procedures.
6. Security & Compliance
•    Implement RBAC, security policies, and compliance controls within OpenShift.
•    Harden clusters according to enterprise security standards.
•    Support vulnerability management and patch governance processes.

Required Qualifications
•    5+ years of experience in Linux systems engineering (RHEL preferred).
•    3+ years of hands-on experience with Red Hat OpenShift (OCP 4.x preferred).
•    Proven experience building infrastructure in on-prem datacenter environments.
•    Strong understanding of:
o Kubernetes architecture
o Networking (DNS, load balancing, firewalls, SDN)
o Storage (SAN, NAS, CSI drivers)
o Virtualization platforms (VMware, etc.)
•    Experience with automation tools (Terraform, Ansible, GitOps).
•    Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications
•    Red Hat certifications (RHCE, OpenShift Certification).
•    Experience implementing OpenShift at enterprise scale (multi-cluster environments).
•    Experience working in SRE-driven environments.
•    Knowledge of DevOps/GitOps practices.
•    Experience with monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, etc.).

Key Competencies
•    Strong collaboration and communication skills.
•    Ability to work in cross-functional, matrixed organizations.
•    Ownership mindset and proactive problem-solving.
•    Ability to operate in large-scale, complex enterprise environments