Senior Rancher Platform Engineer - Remote / Telecommute
Senior Rancher Platform Engineer Pay Range: $65hr - $70hrWe are seeking a Senior Rancher Platform Engineer with strong hands-on experience in designing, building, and operating Rancher-managed Kubernetes platforms in enterprise environments. The ideal candidate will act as a Subject Matter Expert, providing technical leadership, architectural guidance, and operational best practices across multi-cluster, hybrid, and on-prem environments. This role requires a detail-oriented professional capable of managing complex Kubernetes ecosystems and ensuring high availability, scalability, and security.Responsibilities: Design, deploy, and operate Rancher-managed Kubernetes clusters across on-prem and hybrid environments.Architect and maintain highly available, scalable, and secure Kubernetes platforms using industry best practices.Install, configure, upgrade, patch, and decommission Kubernetes clusters using Rancher tools and automation workflows.Implement multi-cluster governance using projects, namespaces, RBAC, and global policies.Integrate Kubernetes platforms with enterprise identity providers and authentication systems.Manage and troubleshoot control plane, etcd, node, networking, and storage issues in production clusters.Perform root cause analysis for platform incidents and implement preventive improvements.Implement and maintain observability solutions including monitoring and centralized logging.Support application onboarding, deployments, and standardized platform patterns for development teams.Collaborate with security, infrastructure, and application teams to ensure compliance and platform security.Provide technical leadership, troubleshooting support, and architectural recommendations.Create and maintain architecture documentation, runbooks, and operational standards.Support container platform integrations and interoperability across environments.Requirement/Must Have: Strong hands-on expertise with Rancher managing Kubernetes clusters using RKE and RKE2.Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture, internals, and day-to-day operations.Proven experience managing high availability control planes and etcd.Experience handling node lifecycle including provisioning, scaling, replacement, and decommissioning.Expertise in Kubernetes upgrades and patching with minimal downtime.Experience with Kubernetes networking including CNI, ingress controllers, and load balancing.Strong knowledge of persistent storage and CSI drivers.Hands-on experience with CI/CD and GitOps workflows.Experience supporting mixed Linux and Windows Kubernetes worker nodes.Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in production environments.Excellent communication and collaboration skills.Ability to work independently and within cross-functional teams.Should Have: Experience with OpenShift environments and platform integrations.Exposure to enterprise environments such as banking, healthcare, or pharmaceutical industries.Skills: Kubernetes and container orchestration.Rancher platform management.Cloud and on-prem infrastructure.CI/CD and GitOps practices.Monitoring, logging, and observability.System troubleshooting and performance optimization.Qualification And Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.Equivalent practical experience in platform engineering or DevOps environments.