Senior Kubernetes Engineer – Data Platform

<div><strong>Location:</strong> UK <br><strong>Department:</strong> Data Operations<br><strong>Reporting to:</strong> Head of Platform Engineering</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Role Summary</strong></div><div>We are hiring a <strong>Senior Kubernetes Engineer</strong> to help design and scale a <strong>Kubernetes‑native data platform</strong> powering large‑scale data ingestion, transformation, and analytics workloads. This role sits at the intersection of <strong>cloud‑native platform engineering and big‑data systems</strong>, focused on enabling reliable, observable, and cost‑efficient compute at scale.</div><div><br></div><div>You’ll work on <strong>core platform capabilities</strong>—from Kubernetes operators and data processing patterns to storage, metadata, and observability—supporting teams building modern data products.</div><div>This is a <strong>hands‑on engineering role</strong> with strong ownership, technical influence, and real production impact.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></div><ul style="margin-top:0in;" type="disc"><li>Design and build <strong>Kubernetes‑centric platform services</strong> for distributed data workloads</li><li>Implement <strong>scalable data processing patterns</strong> integrated with object storage (S3)</li><li>Develop and optimise <strong>data ingestion and transformation pipelines</strong> (Spark‑based)</li><li>Build and maintain <strong>metadata, lineage, and governance capabilities</strong></li><li>Improve <strong>platform observability</strong> using metrics, logs, and tracing</li><li>Collaborate with platform, data engineering, and infrastructure teams</li><li>Mentor engineers and contribute to <strong>best practices</strong> across Kubernetes and data platforms</li></ul><div><strong>What We’re Looking For</strong></div><ul style="margin-top:0in;" type="disc"><li>Strong, hands‑on experience with <strong>Kubernetes</strong> (including operators, CRDs, or advanced workloads)</li><li>Background in <strong>data platforms or big‑data ecosystems</strong></li><li>Experience with <strong>Spark</strong> and modern table formats (<strong>Delta / Iceberg</strong>)</li><li>Deep understanding of <strong>S3‑based storage patterns</strong></li><li>Familiarity with <strong>metadata, data governance, or lineage tooling</strong></li><li>Experience with <strong>Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry</strong>, or similar</li><li>Ability to operate in <strong>production environments</strong> with reliability and scale in mind</li></ul><div><strong>Nice to Have</strong></div><ul style="margin-top:0in;" type="disc"><li>Hadoop ecosystem exposure</li><li>Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)</li><li>Infrastructure‑as‑Code experience</li><li>Kubernetes or cloud certifications</li></ul>