Peraton is seeking an experienced Senior Kubernetes Engineer to support development, modernization, and migration of containerized and agentic workloads in a government multi-cloud environment with 70+ customer tenants and growing.
The applicant must have extensive engineering experience and deep Kubernetes and Azure expertise, including designing and leading implementation of container-platform requirements and architecture on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), as well as standing up and operating Agentic Runtime for Kubernetes (ARK) to host AI-agent workloads. The Senior Kubernetes Engineer will serve as a technical escalation point, drive root cause analysis on complex incidents, and provide mentorship and knowledge sharing across engineering teams. A passion for performance, strong desire for quality conformance, and attention to detail are prerequisites for this position.
Location: RemoteWork Hours: This position requires working online from 8:00 AM Eastern to 5:00 PM Eastern
Day to Day Roles and Responsibilities:
Incident Response and Troubleshooting
- Serve as the Tier 3 escalation point for complex incidents and outages across the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and ARK agentic-runtime environment
- Lead investigation and resolution of issues across the Kubernetes stack including AKS clusters, the control plane, CNI networking, ingress, CSI storage, and workload scheduling, as well as the ARK control plane and its Custom Resources (Agents, Models, Teams, Tools, and Queries)
- Drive root cause analysis on high-severity incidents and own implementation of solutions to prevent recurrence
- Manage high-priority incident communications with stakeholders, leadership, and affected tenants
Platform Monitoring and Optimization
- Define and enforce observability standards across tenant clusters using Azure Monitor, Managed Prometheus, Container Insights, Azure Log Analytics, and OpenTelemetry, including the agent-level telemetry emitted by ARK
- Lead proactive identification and mitigation of cluster, node-pool, and workload risks before they impact tenants
- Analyze performance, cost, and capacity trends and architect optimizations to improve stability, efficiency, and security at scale
Kubernetes and ARK Platform Engineering
- Lead management and maintenance of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters and the ARK agentic runtime across a 70+ tenant environment
- Deploy, upgrade, and operate ARK on Kubernetes — managing its CRDs, controllers, and model and tool integrations (including MCP servers) to host AI agents declaratively and provider-agnostically
- Ensure all tenant resources are secure, FedRAMP compliant, and continuously optimized, enforcing Kubernetes RBAC, network policy, and Azure workload identity
- Partner with the Architecture team to design solutions aligned with the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Kubernetes best practices, and own and enforce Change Management procedures across the team
Collaboration, Mentorship, and Knowledge Sharing
- Serve as technical lead for incident intake, triage prioritization, and team workload management
- Mentor and train Tier 2 engineers on Kubernetes and agentic-runtime operations; lead knowledge transfer sessions to build team capability
- Drive improvements in team metrics and service delivery in coordination with the Service Delivery Manager and Product Owner
- Maintain comprehensive documentation of incident response procedures, architecture decisions, and lessons learned
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelors degree and 8 years of experience or a Masters degree and 6 years of experience or an Associates degree and 10 year of experience or a High School diploma/equivalent and 12 years of experience.
- Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust clearance.
- Engineering and systems analysis experience, with a deep hands-on focus on Kubernetes in production
- Extensive hands-on expertise operating Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and the broader Kubernetes stack — control plane, CNI networking, ingress, CSI storage, RBAC, Helm, and workload scheduling
- Hands-on experience deploying and operating Agentic Runtime for Kubernetes (ARK) or comparable Kubernetes-native agent or operator platforms built on the CRD-plus-controller pattern (e.g., Argo), including ARK Custom Resources (Agents, Models, Teams, Tools, and Queries) and MCP/A2A integration
- Proven experience leading incident management and root cause analysis in large-scale, multi-tenant government environments, with deep knowledge of FedRAMP compliance and Kubernetes and Azure security best practices
- Strong leadership, communication, and technical documentation skills; ability to communicate effectively with both technical teams and senior stakeholders
Preferred Qualifications:
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), plus Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
- Proficiency with GitOps and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, Helm, and Argo CD or Flux) and CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions)
- Advanced scripting with Python, PowerShell, or Go for automation and remediation, including use of the ARK Python SDK (ark-sdk)
- Experience integrating LLM providers (Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or local models) behind an agentic runtime
Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can’t be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.
Target Salary Range$104,000 - $166,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. EEOEEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of experience, or equivalent combinations of master’s, associate’s, or high school education with 6–12 years of experience
- U.S. citizenship
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust clearance
- Engineering and systems analysis experience with deep hands-on Kubernetes production experience
- Extensive hands-on experience operating Azure Kubernetes Service and the broader Kubernetes stack, including control plane, CNI networking, ingress, CSI storage, RBAC, Helm, and workload scheduling
- Experience deploying and operating Agentic Runtime for Kubernetes or comparable Kubernetes-native agent or operator platforms using CRD and controller patterns
- Experience with ARK Custom Resources and MCP/A2A integration
- Experience leading incident management and root cause analysis in large-scale, multi-tenant government environments
- Knowledge of FedRAMP compliance and Kubernetes and Azure security best practices
- Strong leadership, communication, and technical documentation skills
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
- Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate or Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification
- Proficiency with GitOps, infrastructure as code, Terraform, Bicep, Helm, Argo CD or Flux, and CI/CD pipelines
- Advanced scripting with Python, PowerShell, or Go, including ARK Python SDK experience
- Experience integrating LLM providers such as Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or local models behind an agentic runtime
Peraton Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Peraton and has not been reviewed or approved by Peraton.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare offerings are described as broad, including medical, dental, vision, mental health support, and specialty programs like virtual physical therapy and surgical/cancer care navigation. Medical coverage is also characterized as a standout part of the overall package in terms of perceived quality.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support includes a 401(k) with employer matching and is repeatedly positioned as a strong component of total rewards. The 401(k) benefit is frequently singled out as one of the most valued parts of the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits are positioned as robust, including PTO, holidays, paid sick days, and floating holidays, with some roles offering notably generous accrual. Leave breadth is reinforced by related programs such as short/long-term disability and bereavement leave.
Peraton Insights
What We Do
Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can’t be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.
Why Work With Us
We are fearlessly solving the world’s most complex challenges to keep people safe and secure. You can be a part of protecting and promoting that freedom around the world.
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