Sovereign Infrastructure Operations Engineer

📋 Job Overview

As a Sovereign Infrastructure Operations Engineer, you'll take operational ownership of ICEYE's secure bare-metal infrastructure, virtualization platforms, and production Kubernetes environments, keeping the dedicated air gaped collaboration platform reliable, secure, and audit-ready under some of the strictest information security frameworks in Europe.

🏢 About ICEYE

ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth. ICEYE owns the world's largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system. ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future. Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1000 employees across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

🎯 The Role

Your day-to-day responsibilities include managing configuration state across physical and virtual assets using GitOps with Infrastructure as Code tools, maintaining and supporting production Kubernetes clusters in restricted environments, administering secure platform core services, running weekly meetings with stakeholders, maintaining technical security controls, maintaining secure infrastructure networking and identity integrations, and executing backup and disaster recovery procedures and routine hardware maintenance.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Manage configuration state across physical and virtual assets using GitOps with Infrastructure as Code tools (Git/Gitlab, Ansible, Terraform, or Puppet), removing manual configuration drift in secure environments in alignment with the strict change policies of the given security controls
• Maintain and support production Kubernetes clusters in restricted environments, covering upgrades, storage integration, and registry management
• Administer secure platform core services (Mattermost, Nextcloud, Keycloak, OpenBao), including deployment, upgrades, and integration with local IAM and storage
• Run weekly meetings (change management, vulnerability management) with stakeholders on the infrastructure side
• Maintain technical security controls to satisfy Finnish Katakri, German VS-NfD, and related European frameworks (e.g. NIS2, ISO 27001), including patch management, hardening, and access control
• Maintain secure infrastructure networking (VLAN isolation, mTLS, PKI) and identity integrations, in coordination with network and security teams
• Execute backup and disaster recovery procedures and routine hardware maintenance across air-gapped or high-security sites

📌 Required Qualifications

• 5+ years hands-on experience in Systems Administration, IT Systems Engineering, or Infrastructure Operations, with a focus on Linux environments
• Practical experience running and maintaining production Kubernetes clusters
• Expert-level Linux administration (Debian/Ubuntu or RHEL/Rocky), including system hardening and vulnerability patching
• Practical knowledge of Katakri, VS-NfD, or equivalent European security/compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, NIS2)
• Solid understanding of enterprise networking fundamentals (VLAN segmentation, firewalls, DNS/DHCP, VPN protocols, PKI)
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain a high-level national security clearance in Finland

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Experience with Ceph or ZFS storage systems
• Experience with at least one Infrastructure as Code tool (Ansible, Terraform, or Puppet), with the ability to manage configurations
• Experience with Keycloak, Vault, or internal PKI management
• Familiarity with Kubernetes operations specifically in secure or air-gapped environments

🎁 Benefits

Our benefits are designed to support your health and wellbeing, at work and beyond. We keep improving them based on employee feedback, and offerings vary by location. Talent Acquisition will confirm what applies for this role and location during the process.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required).