Principal Platform Engineer – Kubernetes Reliability, Distributed Systems

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

. Serve as the senior technical authority for Kubernetes platform architecture, reliability, and operational behavior .

Posted 11/10/2026full-timeUnited StatesLead💰 $157,000 - $361,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive expertise in Kubernetes platform architecture, high availability, and reliability engineering, with a strong focus on incident resolution and operational best practices. Proven ability to lead cross-team technical initiatives and mentor engineers in distributed systems.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Kubernetes Platform ArchitectureHigh Availability and Failure RecoveryGo, Python, and Bash ProgrammingObservability and Reliability EngineeringIncident Response and Root Cause Analysis

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

KubernetesLinux SystemsNetworkingContainersInfrastructure-as-CodeAutomation DevelopmentPerformance AnalysisService-Level ObjectivesCluster Upgrade ProcessChaos Engineering

Soft Skills

Excellent Communication SkillsMentoringTechnical LeadershipProblem-SolvingCollaboration

Tools & Technologies

EKSAKSGKEOpenShiftGitOpsArgo CDFluxHelmCNI PluginsCSI Storage Systems

Certifications & Qualifications

CKACKAD

Industry Keywords

Distributed SystemsCloud InfrastructureService MeshesControl-Plane TechnologiesMulti-Cluster Environments

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudDistributed SystemsDNSFluxKubernetesLinuxNode.jsOpenShiftPythonTCP/IPGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Serve as the senior technical authority for Kubernetes platform architecture, reliability, and operational behavior
Investigate and resolve complex issues involving pod failover, service availability, load balancing, control-plane and node failover, timeouts, resource management, cluster capacity, and distributed-system recovery
Define and drive improvements to Kubernetes high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster-recovery strategies
Establish technical ownership and operating models for platform capabilities
Lead architecture, design, and implementation of platform improvements across multiple engineering teams
Develop repeatable approaches for diagnosing failures across application, Kubernetes, networking, storage, and infrastructure layers
Improve observability through metrics, logs, traces, alerts, dashboards, and health indicators
Define and monitor service-level objectives and reliability measures
Lead or support major incident response, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action programs
Create technical standards, reference architectures, runbooks, and operational best practices
Mentor senior engineers and raise organizational expertise in Kubernetes and distributed systems
Partner with application, infrastructure, networking, security, and operations teams
Evaluate new Kubernetes capabilities and platform technologies
Balance short-term incident resolution with long-term architectural improvements
Own cross-team technical problems, make architecture decisions, drive technical direction, and create reusable platform capabilities

Requirements

What you’ll need

Significant experience designing, building, and operating production Kubernetes platforms
Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture and core components
Strong knowledge of high-availability and failure-recovery patterns for distributed systems
Experience troubleshooting complex production failures involving Kubernetes, networking, infrastructure, and application services
Experience diagnosing Kubernetes failover behavior, service timeouts, partial failures, network partitions, and degraded cluster states
Experience with Kubernetes cluster upgrade process
Strong understanding of Linux systems, networking, DNS, TCP/IP, containers, and storage fundamentals
Experience with cloud or on-premises infrastructure and infrastructure-as-code practices
Proficiency in Go, Python, and Bash programming or scripting
Experience developing automation, platform tooling, or operational frameworks
Strong observability and reliability engineering experience using metrics, logs, traces, alerting, and performance analysis
Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives across organizational boundaries
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Ability to operate effectively during high-severity incidents and drive issues through root cause and permanent resolution
Preferred: experience with Kubernetes distributions such as EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift, or upstream Kubernetes
Preferred: experience with service meshes, ingress controllers, CNI plugins, CSI storage systems, or cluster-autoscaling technologies
Preferred: experience with distributed databases, consensus systems, or control-plane technologies such as etcd
Preferred: experience designing multi-cluster, multi-region, or edge-oriented Kubernetes environments
Preferred: knowledge of Linux performance analysis, kernel behavior, and container isolation
Preferred: experience with chaos engineering, failure injection, load testing, and resilience testing
Preferred: experience establishing SLOs, error budgets, production-readiness reviews, and reliability governance
Preferred: familiarity with GitOps and deployment technologies such as Argo CD, Flux, or Helm
Preferred: relevant Kubernetes or cloud certifications, such as CKA or CKAD, or equivalent practical experience

Benefits

Comp & perks

Comprehensive benefits supporting physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing
Personal and professional development programs
Flexible work and personal needs management
Inclusive workplace
Variable incentives may also be offered