Sr Kubernetes Platform Engineer

We are the movers of the world and the makers of the future. We get up every day, roll up our sleeves and build a better world -- together. At Ford, we’re all a part of something bigger than ourselves. Are you ready to change the way the world moves? 

Join a team building an enterprise-grade private cloud platform from the ground up, treating on-premise and hybrid infrastructure as a scalable, living software product rather than a set of manually operated systems. This role goes beyond configuring platforms — the candidate will help build them, developing and scaling OpenShift/Kubernetes clusters end-to-end through GitOps practices.

The ideal candidate has a strong engineering (not purely operational) mindset, with hands-on coding and automation skills. This includes experience with GitOps tools (Argo CD, Github Actions, Tekton), Infrastructure as Code (YAML/IaC), Ansible playbooks, and proficiency in Go and/or Python (or a similar object-oriented systems language), along with API development experience. A deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture, its components, and Operators is essential. The role blends platform engineering, infrastructure automation, and developer enablement, applying software engineering best practices to reliability, scalability, and self-service capabilities for application teams.

Responsibilities

What you'll do...

• Design, build, architect, and maintain OpenShift/Kubernetes platforms for on-premise, bare-metal, and hybrid cloud environments, including virtualized (OpenShift Virtualization/OSV) and containerized workloads.
• Develop and support custom Kubernetes/OpenShift Operators, APIs, and developer tooling to enable seamless, self-service platform capabilities for application teams.
• Write clean, testable, and robust infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Go, Python, and Ansible to eliminate manual toil and drive the private cloud transformation.
• Implement and manage GitOps-based CI/CD deployment pipelines using tools such as Argo CD, Tekton (OpenShift Pipelines), GitHub, Helm, Kustomize, and related build tools.
• Enhance platform reliability through monitoring, alerting, observability, and automated recovery/self-healing mechanisms, applying a software-driven SRE approach (including auto-scaling and disaster recovery automation).
• Build and integrate observability solutions and dashboards using Prometheus, Grafana, Dynatrace/AppDynamics, and logging platforms (ELK/Splunk).
• Support distributed systems, microservices, API gateways, and service mesh (e.g., Istio) architectures, including secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp Vault) and Zero-Trust security models.
• Explore and integrate emerging capabilities such as AI/ML pipelines (e.g., Vertex AI) and chaos engineering into private cloud operations.
• Collaborate closely with architects and application teams to improve platform usability, share ideas, and tackle platform constraints.
• Mentor team members (junior and senior developers), champion coding standards, and promote best practices in software craftsmanship, platform engineering, and GitOps workflows.

Qualifications

You'll have... 

• 6+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or DevSecOps, with a strong automation and software development skillset (engineering mindset, not purely operational).
  • Deep, hands-on expertise with Kubernetes/OpenShift (OCP) platform administration and internals — cluster builds, upgrades, and integrations — implemented entirely through code, scripts, and automation (not manual/GUI-driven).
  • Strong object-oriented programming background with demonstrated development skills in Go and/or Python (or a similar systems language); comfortable as a hands-on developer/individual contributor.
  • Practical experience with CI/CD and GitOps tooling (e.g., GitHub, Argo CD/OpenShift GitOps, Tekton/OpenShift Pipelines).
  • Hands-on experience with API development, integration, and an "API-first" mindset.
  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and infrastructure automation.
  • Solid understanding of distributed systems, microservices, and cloud-native design principles.
  • Experience with Kubernetes Operators and custom controllers.

Even better, you may have...

• Experience with OpenShift internals such as Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), MachineConfig, Multus CNI, Trident, Ceph, and OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF).
• Experience with OpenShift Virtualization for running mixed container and VM workloads.
• Experience with service mesh technologies (e.g., Istio) and API gateways.
• Experience with observability and analytics tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics), including writing custom exporters/dashboards.
• Experience with storage solutions (Ceph, ODF) and secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp Vault).
• Exposure to hybrid cloud or private cloud environments, bare-metal/VMware infrastructure, and Zero-Trust security models.
• Familiarity with additional developer pipeline tools such as SonarQube, Maven, Polyrepo/Monorepo workflows.
• Interest or experience integrating AI/ML platforms (e.g., Vertex AI) and chaos engineering into infrastructure operations.

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company, we encourage you to apply!

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage

• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more

• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more

• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases

• Tuition assistance

• Established and active employee resource groups

• Paid time off for individual and team community service

• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day

• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time. 

For a detailed look at our benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSR

This position is a range of salary grades 7-8 | $99,600 –$192,900

SOUTHEAST MI RESIDENTS: This role is posted as remote unless you reside within 50 miles of Dearborn, MI—in which case we request on-site presence up to 4 days a week.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.

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