Sr. Platform Engineer—Compute Kubernetes (Remote) — Lititz, PA

Job Summary

As the largest online distributor of restaurant supplies and equipment, 3AK4JSdjfavhMJ9K offers a catalog of more than 430,000 products backed by fast, dependable shipping. Unlike most e-commerce companies, we handle nearly all of our technology design, development, and systems management in-house. This lets us build custom solutions for a fast-changing market. That steady, organic growth has created an opening for a Senior Platform Engineer focused on on-premises Kubernetes who wants to take the next step in their career.

You'll help own our on-prem Kubernetes platform end to end: bare-metal clusters, networking, storage, deployment pipelines, and observability. We're looking for someone who understands why Kubernetes behaves the way it does, not just which command to run.

If your expertise is mainly in cloud technologies or managed services, we encourage you to explore other opportunities in our organization that may be a better fit.

Responsibilities

• Build, operate, and upgrade on-premises Kubernetes clusters and the infrastructure underneath them.

• Write and maintain Helm charts that are clean, reusable, and follow best practices.

• Run GitOps-driven deployments with Argo CD or similar tools such as Flux or GitLab CD.

• Diagnose issues across pods, nodes, workloads, and the network. This includes tracing traffic from the client through firewalls, load balancers, and ingress; and between services inside the cluster.

• Manage cluster networking with Cilium. Configure ingress controllers such as HAProxy, NGINX, or Traefik, including support for long-lived connections like WebSockets.

• Help application teams set appropriate resource requests, limits, and health probes; and choose the right workload type for the job.

• Investigate performance regressions and resource saturation using metrics, logs, and profiling before reaching for a rollback.

• Build and refine dashboards, alerts, and log queries in Grafana and Loki while helping expand our OpenTelemetry instrumentation.

• Manage secrets with HashiCorp Vault.

• Research new platforms and tools and help guide the team's technology decisions.

• Respond to production incidents, contribute to post-incident reviews, and take part in the on-call rotation.

Physical Requirements

• Work is performed while sitting/standing and interfacing with a personal computer.

• Requires the ability to communicate effectively using speech, vision, and hearing.

• Requires the regular use of hands for simple grasping and fine manipulations.

• Requires occasional bending, squatting, crawling, climbing, and reaching.

• Requires the ability to occasionally lift, carry, push, or pull medium weights, up to 50lbs.

Remote Work Qualifications

• Access to a reliable and secure high-speed internet connection. Cable or fiber internet connections (at least 75mbps download/10mbps upload) are preferred, as satellite connections often cannot support the technologies used to perform day-to-day tasks.

• Access to a home router and modem.

• A dedicated home office space that is noise- and distraction-free. The space should have strong wireless connection or a wired Ethernet connection (wired connection is preferred, if possible).

• A valid, physical address (apartment, suite, etc.). PO Boxes are not supported, as a physical address is required for you to receive your computer equipment.

• The desire and ability to work and communicate with other team members via chat, webcam, etc.

• Legal residents of one of the following states: (AK, AL, AR, AZ, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, or WY). H-1B Visa Sponsorship Not Available, W2 only.

Experience

• 3+ years in a Platform Engineer, SRE, or adjacent role with hands-on experience building and managing on-prem Kubernetes clusters.

• Thorough, hands-on Kubernetes knowledge. This includes core workload types (Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets), scheduling and resource management, health probes, and what the control plane does when changes are applied.

• Strong Helm experience: writing, reviewing, and troubleshooting charts.

• Experience with Cilium for cluster networking and network policy.

• Solid Linux and networking fundamentals, including DNS, routing, TLS, HTTP (host headers and virtual hosting), load balancing, and firewalls.

• A structured, layer-by-layer approach to troubleshooting with the ability to explain your reasoning as you go.

• Observability experience with metrics, logs, and dashboards. Grafana and Loki are strongly preferred, and OpenTelemetry is a plus.

• Proficiency in Go and/or Python.

• Configuration management experience (Ansible, Terraform, etc.).

• Experience researching technologies and guiding a team's selection in an enterprise environment.

• Version control experience. We use Git, but if you've never used it, we can train you.

• A collaborative, team-first mindset. You share knowledge freely, communicate clearly during incidents, and enjoy helping teammates and application developers succeed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with Argo CD.

• Deep experience with Helm.

• Familiarity with eBPF-based tooling such as Hubble for network visibility.

Education

This role does not require a degree. We value relevant skills and experience and alignment with our core values above all else.

Desired Traits & Skills

Hungry:

• Passionate for their work.

• Goes above and beyond to get the job done.

• Looks for opportunities in all aspects of the company.

• Process improvement focus.

Humble:

• Easily admits to mistakes.

• Acknowledges his/her weaknesses.

• Displays a grounded confidence but not arrogance.

Smart:

• Shows empathy.

• Attentive listener.

• Adjusts his/her own behavior to fit the nature of a conversation.

• Understands what others are thinking.

One Part of the Bigger Picture

5eswGQmVCUJMWQak’U parent company, Clark Associates, has made the Central Penn Business Journal’s list of “Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies” in Pennsylvania for 9 years in a row. The base of Clark’s success comes from our key directives: Hiring great people, creating value for customers, and investing in employees and their communities. These pillars drive each of Clark Associates’ multi-million-dollar businesses forward, including 3AK4JSdjfavhMJ9K and other industry-leading names like 11400, Clark Food Service Equipment, The Restaurant Store, and Clark National Accounts.

Are You Ready?

Entrepreneurial Spirit is the driving force behind 5eswGQmVCUJMWQak’U work environment. Making things better for our customers is our goal every single day. Achieving that goal means taking risks, accepting failure, and learning from our mistakes. If that sounds like a mission you’re ready to be a part of, we’d love to discuss this role with you further, and we’re excited to meet you!

Never heard of us? That’s okay! We love sharing our stories.

• 3AK4JSdjfavhMJ9K | About Us

• Video Message from Leadership

• Clark Associates Timeline [Parent Company]

Check us out on:

• LinkedIn

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• Facebook

• YouTube

• TikTok

• Pinterest

• X/Twitter

Working Environment

This role includes participation in our on-call rotation, which currently works out to about one week every eight weeks with a fully staffed team.

Company Overview

The foodservice professional’s premier source for restaurant equipment, supplies, and knowledge online. Our purpose is to empower and equip people to run their businesses more profitably and efficiently.

Benefits

• Medical

• Vision

• Dental

• PTO

• Paid Maternity Leave

• Paid Parental Leave

• Life Insurance

• Disability

• Dependent Care FSA

• 401(k) matching

• Employee Assistance Program

• Wellness Incentives

• Company Discounts

• AT&T & Verizon Discount

• Bonus Opportunities

• Accident Insurance

• Critical Illness Insurance

• Adoption Assistance

Available at HQ Locations Only

• On-Site Fitness Centers

• Dog-friendly Offices