About the role

Job Title:

OpenShift Engineer L3 - SME

Band:

A3/E4

Location:

Noida (Onsite)

Job Type:

Full Time

Job Summary:

Airtel is making a strategic leap, launching its own hyperscale cloud service in India.

We're building an elite Platform Operations team to be the custodians of this vital infrastructure, delivering unmatched operational excellence from day one.

This role places you at the helm of overseeing a sophisticated and large cloud infrastructure built on cutting-edge technologies. You will be instrumental in creating a world-class core system that guarantee the availability, performance, security, and scalability of our sovereign cloud services, leveraging Airtel's robust network connectivity, extensive infrastructure backbone and deep enterprise relationships.

This L3 OpenShift Specialist role demands deep technical mastery, architectural insight, and operational foresight. You will lead complex initiatives in cluster architecture, platform hardening, automation at scale, and incident response. You will serve as the technical authority and escalation point for critical OpenShift issues while mentoring L2 and L1 engineers, influencing engineering decisions, and collaborating with development, and network teams.

We are looking for seasoned operations professionals with a passion for running resilient, secure, and highly performance distributed systems. If you are passionate about the challenge of running infrastructure at a gigantic scale while delivering world-class service delivery for a hyperscaler, Airtel Cloud offers a unique opportunity. Come build and run the future with us!

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

· OpenShift Platform Leadership & Operations

o Own the lifecycle of OpenShift clusters (on-prem and public cloud) including architecture design, provisioning, upgrades, patching, and high availability.

o Administer and support OpenShift Container Platform and other Kubernetes-based environments (EKS, AKS, GKE).

o Serve as the primary escalation point for complex incidents, ensuring root cause resolution and continuous improvement.

o Oversee cluster-wide networking, storage integration, ingress/egress configurations, and secure exposure of workloads.

o Drive incident response with precision-leading war rooms, coordinating stakeholders, and conducting post-mortem reviews.

o Assist in change management for container platform lifecycle events including OpenShift version upgrades, SysAdmin tasks, hotfix deployments, and feature enhancements.

o Contribute to Airtel's Enterprise Container Strategy by identifying opportunities for performance optimization, availability improvements, and resiliency enhancements

· Architecture , Configuration & Automation

o Architect GitOps-driven CI/CD workflows using Argo CD, Tekton Pipelines, AirFlow, Helm, and S2I.

o Lead implementation and optimization of monitoring and alerting systems using Prometheus, Grafana, Alert manager, and ELK stack.

o Automate operational processes using Python, Bash, and Ansible to reduce toil and improve system resilience.

o Enforce configuration consistency using Infrastructure-as-Code tools (Terraform, Ansible).

· Security , Compliance & Governance

o Define and enforce security policies including RBAC, Network Policies, Pod Security Policies, and image scanning tools.

o Lead security assessments, vulnerability remediation efforts, and policy enforcement aligned with compliance mandates.

o Collaborate with InfoSec teams to implement audit logging, incident response controls, and container hardening measures.

· Networking , Storage & System Integration

o Lead advanced OpenShift networking operations: ingress controller tuning, multi-tenant isolation, MetalLB, hybrid DNS, service meshes (Istio), and egress control.

o Integrate persistent storage (Ceph, SAN/NAS, Object Storage) using CSI drivers, dynamic provisioning, and performance tuning.

o Optimize performance for distributed workloads and troubleshoot resource bottlenecks across compute, network, and storage layers.

· Mentorship & Knowledge Leadership

o Mentor L2 and L1 engineers in best practices, diagnostics, and cluster operations.

o Conduct technical training, share insights from incident RCA, and lead efforts to improve documentation maturity.

o Serve as a thought leader in container orchestration, driving innovation and standardization across teams.

Technical Skills and Competencies:

· Deep OpenShift Expertise: Proven experience designing, deploying, and operating OpenShift 4.x clusters in production environments at scale.

· Container Ecosystem Proficiency: Skilled in container runtimes (docker, Podman), storage orchestration (CSI), network overlay models, and service meshes.

· Advanced Networking Knowledge: Skilled in OpenShift SDN, Calico, OVN-Kubernetes, service meshes, ingress controllers, DNS resolution, and Layer 4/7 traffic management.

· CI/CD and GitOps Proficiency: Expert in Argo CD, Tekton, Helm, S2I, and GitOps-driven multi-environment deployments.

· Scripting & Automation: Strong coding/scripting skills (Python, Bash, Ansible, terraform), with a focus on operational automation, monitoring, and infrastructure as code.

· Monitoring & Observability: Mastery of Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK, and custom metrics/alerting integrations.

· Security & Compliance: Skilled in security scanning (Aqua, Trivy, Clair), RBAC policy design, OpenShift compliance operators, audit logging, and TLS configurations.

· Incident Management: Advanced diagnostic ability using logs, traces, and metrics; adept at leading RCA and risk mitigation discussions.

Qualifications:

· Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in RedHat openshift, with a significant portion in design, architecture, and lead roles.

· Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a related field.

· Advanced industry certifications are highly expected (e.g., Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration, CKA, advanced Cloud Architect/Ops certifications)

· Demonstrated experience leading technical teams or projects.

Sr Lead SME - OpenShift - DGM

About the role