Kubernetes Platform Engineer

📋 Job Overview

Oivan is looking for an experienced Senior Kubernetes Platform Engineer to join our team in the UAE. You will build, operate and troubleshoot enterprise Kubernetes platforms including GPU-enabled clusters for AI/ML workloads.

🏢 About Oivan

Oivan is a technology company focused on building and running Kubernetes platforms that host mission-critical and GPU-accelerated workloads.

🎯 The Role

We offer you the unique opportunity to apply and develop your skills with a diverse and geographically distributed technology team. You will play a key role in building and running Kubernetes platforms.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Install, configure and operate production Kubernetes clusters, primarily RKE2, across on-premise, air-gapped and hybrid environments
• Set up and operate SUSE Rancher Manager in high availability: installation, upgrades, backup and restore, authentication and RBAC, and provisioning or importing downstream clusters
• Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)
• Troubleshoot and investigate platform issues end to end (nodes, pods, CNI networking, DNS, ingress, storage, certificates, etcd and the control plane) and drive root-cause analysis to closure
• Deploy and operate the NVIDIA GPU Operator on RKE2, including driver and container toolkit configuration for RKE2's embedded containerd, the device plugin, GPU Feature Discovery and DCGM monitoring
• Configure GPU sharing (MIG and time-slicing) and support the scheduling and operation of AI/ML workloads on GPU nodes
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions) for application and platform delivery
• Implement GitOps with Rancher Fleet, Argo CD or Flux, keeping Git as the single source of truth for cluster configuration and deployments
• Package and manage workloads with Helm and Kustomize
• Deploy and operate Istio: traffic management, ingress and egress gateways, mTLS and authorization policies, and mesh troubleshooting
• Operate SUSE Virtualization (Harvester) to run VM workloads alongside containers and to host RKE2 guest clusters
• Implement monitoring, logging and alerting with Prometheus, Grafana and Rancher Monitoring and Logging
• Harden clusters using CIS benchmarks (including the RKE2 CIS profile), Pod Security Admission, network policies and secrets management
• Plan and execute Kubernetes, RKE2 and Rancher upgrades with minimal downtime
• Design and test backup and disaster recovery, including etcd snapshots, Rancher backups and workload backup (e.g., Velero)
• Create and maintain runbooks, playbooks and platform documentation
• Conduct knowledge transfer and training sessions for customer and internal teams
• Work closely with customer stakeholders in on-site engagements

📌 Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in IT, with 3+ years administering Kubernetes in production
• Strong Kubernetes troubleshooting and investigation skills: systematic debugging with kubectl, events, logs, crictl and node-level tools; diagnosing networking, DNS, storage, scheduling, certificate and control-plane issues; root-cause analysis and clear incident write-ups
• Hands-on experience with Rancher Manager setup and day-2 operations
• Experience deploying and operating the NVIDIA GPU Operator, ideally on RKE2
• Automation with CI/CD and GitOps: GitLab CI, Jenkins or GitHub Actions; Fleet, Argo CD or Flux; Helm and Kustomize
• Hands-on experience with Istio service mesh
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and Ansible
• Strong Linux administration (SLES / SLE Micro, RHEL or Ubuntu) and networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, TLS)
• Monitoring and observability: Prometheus, Grafana and centralized logging
• Strong Bash scripting; Python or Go is a plus
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• Strong experience working in on-premise enterprise environments, including air-gapped setups
• Ability to work independently in customer-facing roles
• English (advanced); Arabic language skills are a strong advantage

⭐ Desirable Experience

• RKE2, Rancher and SUSE Virtualization
• SUSE Security (NeuVector) and SUSE Storage (Longhorn)
• CNI expertise: Canal, Calico or Cilium
• Secrets management: HashiCorp Vault, Sealed Secrets or External Secrets Operator
• Private registries and air-gapped image management (e.g., Harbor)
• AI/ML platform tooling (e.g., Kubeflow, KServe, Ray)
• Other Kubernetes platforms: Red Hat OpenShift, EKS, AKS or GKE

🎁 Benefits

Competitive

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

Ability to work independently in customer-facing roles