Hybrid Kubernetes & On-Premises Infrastructure | Hybrid role
Join a small SRE team at the start of an exciting build: we are shaping the next generation of our hybrid platform across company data centers and Microsoft Azure—not simply maintaining someone else’s established setup. You’ll have direct ownership and a real voice in the architecture, standards, and technologies we put into production. The platform will include production RKE2 clusters managed with Rancher, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), hybrid workloads, and disaster recovery, while storage, networking, and data-platform designs are still open to influence. This hands-on role spans racks to cloud, and what you help design will become what the company runs. You need not know every tool on day one, but should learn quickly and bring a practical, curious approach.
What You’ll Do- Operate production and non-production RKE2/Rancher Kubernetes clusters, including upgrades, node lifecycle, networking, ingress, DNS, certificates, and capacity; troubleshoot control-plane, scheduling, CoreDNS, and memory (OOM) issues, and improve observability, alerting, and runbooks.
- Run Kubernetes on physical HPE servers and virtual machines in company data centers, including hardware, firmware, RAID, and out-of-band management; partner with infrastructure teams on Cisco networking, SAN/NVMe/object storage, failure domains, and capacity planning.
- Support AKS, Azure Container Registry (ACR), and connectivity between data centers and Azure. Implement, test, and document disaster-recovery plans, and verify that backups can be restored.
- Join the on-call rotation; investigate and respond to incidents, escalating to the Staff SRE when appropriate. Reduce recurring toil through automation, infrastructure as code (IaC), safer CI/CD, SLIs/SLOs, and attention to single points of failure.
- 3+ years in SRE, platform, systems engineering, or DevOps, with hands-on experience operating and troubleshooting Kubernetes in production.
- Hands-on data-center, colocation, or equivalent experience with servers, virtualization, storage, and networking.
- Strong Linux fundamentals and working knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, and TLS.
- Experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident response; clear communication and a calm, methodical approach during outages.
- Scripting experience in Bash, Python, or Go; Git experience; and familiarity with CI/CD, GitOps, or IaC practices using any toolset.
Helpful but not required: RKE2/Rancher; AKS in a hybrid environment; Kyverno/OPA; 25/100GbE or Cisco Nexus; SAN/NVMe/object storage; stateful data platforms on Kubernetes; GPU/AI workloads; GitOps pipelines; Terraform or Ansible.
Why Join UsTake meaningful ownership of a platform being built for its next chapter. You’ll help shape it from the ground up, influence foundational decisions, and see your work become the systems the company relies on—from physical servers to cloud. If you want to build, improve, and own real infrastructure rather than inherit a ticket queue, this is your opportunity.
Skills Required
- 3+ years of experience in SRE, platform engineering, systems engineering, or DevOps
- Hands-on experience operating and troubleshooting Kubernetes in production
- Data-center, colocation, or equivalent experience with servers, virtualization, storage, and networking
- Strong Linux fundamentals
- Working knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, and TLS
- Experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident response
- Scripting experience in Bash, Python, or Go
- Git experience
- Familiarity with CI/CD, GitOps, or infrastructure as code practices
- Experience with RKE2/Rancher
- Experience with AKS in a hybrid environment
- Experience with Kyverno or OPA
- Experience with 25/100GbE or Cisco Nexus
- Experience with SAN, NVMe, or object storage
- Experience with stateful data platforms on Kubernetes
- Experience with GPU or AI workloads
- Experience with GitOps pipelines
- Experience with Terraform or Ansible
What We Do
Feeding What You Love—Including Your Career. Since 1963, Kalmbach Feeds has been a family-owned leader in animal nutrition. While we take pride in manufacturing the highest quality products for livestock, poultry, and companion animals, our absolute greatest asset isn't our feed—it's our people. We are built on core values that treat our team like family. We believe in fostering an environment of integrity, stability, and continuous innovation where every employee can grow a meaningful career. Why Build Your Career at Kalmbach Feeds? Family-First Culture: We operate with the care, respect, and long-term vision of a family-owned business. Driven by Innovation: Work with cutting-edge manufacturing technology and industry-leading professionals. Purpose-Driven Work: Be part of a vital team that helps feed and care for animals across the region. A Place to Grow: We invest in our people, celebrating milestones, internal promotions, and career development. ? Join Our Growing Family: Are you ready to take the next step in your career? Click the "Learn More" / "Visit website" button above to explore our open roles and find your fit on our team.
