# Staff Site Reliability Engineer - Kubernetes

**Company:** [Okta](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/okta)
**Location:** Bellevue, WA, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Washington, DC, San Francisco, CA
**Role:** DevOps / SRE
**Salary:** $174k – $267k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Kubernetes, Helm, AWS, Terraform, Karpenter, Istio, EKS, Docker, Prometheus, Grafana, Python, Bash, Go, CI/CD
**Posted:** 2026-03-24

> Staff SRE builds and manages scalable Kubernetes platforms on AWS, focusing on reliability, automation, cost optimization, and high availability using tools like Helm, Karpenter, and Istio. Requires 5+ years AWS, 4+ years Kubernetes/Helm/Terraform experience.

## Job Description

## Key Responsibilities

- **Kubernetes Platform Creation**: Design, implement, and maintain highly available, scalable, and fault-tolerant Kubernetes platforms. Ensure clusters are optimized for production workloads, providing high resilience and operational efficiency.
- **AWS Infrastructure Management**: Build, manage, and optimize AWS cloud infrastructure, including EKS, ECS, S3, VPCs, RDS, IAM, and more. Implement best practices for cost management, scaling, and security within AWS.
- **Helm Management**: Utilize Helm to automate and streamline the deployment of applications and services to Kubernetes clusters. Create, maintain, and manage Helm charts for production-ready deployments.
- **Karpenter Implementation**: Implement and manage Karpenter to dynamically scale Kubernetes clusters in response to workload demands.
- **Istio Service Mesh Management**: Configure and manage Istio to provide service-to-service communication, security, and observability within the Kubernetes clusters. Enable fine-grained traffic management, service discovery, and policy enforcement.
- **Platform Automation & Scaling**: Automate the deployment, scaling, and management of infrastructure and applications. Work with CI/CD pipelines to ensure a seamless flow from development to production with minimal downtime.
- **Incident Management & Troubleshooting**: Respond to incidents, troubleshoot, and resolve system issues related to performance, availability, and security in a timely and effective manner.
- **Security & Compliance**: Design and implement secure cloud infrastructure with appropriate access controls, network security, and compliance frameworks.
- **Documentation & Knowledge Sharing**: Create and maintain detailed documentation for Kubernetes platform setup, operational procedures, and best practices. Promote knowledge sharing across teams.

## Required Qualifications

- 4+ years of experience with Kubernetes/Helm
- 4+ years of experience with Terraform
- 5+ years of experience with AWS
- Experience with multi-region cloud environments
- Proven experience with AWS (EC2, RDS, S3, CloudFormation, IAM, etc.) and solid understanding of cloud-native architectures
- Strong expertise in Kubernetes platform creation, management, and optimisation (e.g., setting up highly available clusters, networking, and storage)
- Hands-on experience with Helm for Kubernetes application deployment and management
- Practical experience with Karpenter for dynamic scaling of Kubernetes clusters and optimising resource usage
- Expertise in managing and securing Istio for service mesh, including traffic management, security, and observability features
- Proficiency in CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, Terraform, Ansible, Spinnaker)
- Strong scripting and automation skills in **Python**, **Bash**, or **Go** for infrastructure management and platform automation
- Experience with monitoring, logging, and alerting tools such as **Prometheus**, **Grafana**, **CloudWatch**, and **ELK Stack**

## Preferred Qualifications

- Understanding of security best practices for cloud platforms and Kubernetes (e.g., role-based access control (RBAC), encryption, and compliance frameworks)
- Familiarity with **Docker** and containerization principles
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent professional experience)
- Certifications (Preferred): **CKA** (Certified Kubernetes Administrator), **CKAD** (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer), or **AWS Certified DevOps Engineer**

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