Principal Kubernetes Software Engineer

Overview Principal Kubernetes Software Engineer - Palo Alto, CA VMware by Broadcom is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is a full-stack Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform that provides a unified, self-service experience for deploying and managing virtual machines (VMs) and containers across on-premises and public cloud environments. It delivers consistent infrastructure and operations across a variety of clouds, enabling organizations to modernize their applications and optimize their cloud deployments. The Kubernetes Distribution team in VCF is focused on delivering up-to-date and secure Kubernetes and CNCF projects as packages for the vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) and vSphere Supervisor. The Kubernetes Distribution team is looking for a Principal Kubernetes Engineer with deep expertise in Open Source Software (OSS) and Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) contribution processes and community. The role is focused on Kubernetes internals, and other related projects. In this role, you will design and perform business-aligned contributions primarily for releases, security, manageability, scale, and integrations. This position is ideal for engineers who are highly skilled in Go, familiar with Kubernetes technology and processes and passionate about talking about and building technology for our customers with a global community of open source engineers. Responsibilities Leverage common patterns to develop fixes and features for Kubernetes and CNCF projects Design customer-oriented and community-aligned features by building consensus through Key Enhancement Proposals (KEPs) or related open source contribution process Ensure explicit Kubernetes version and feature compatibility with continual improvements to automation, pipelines and testing Timely delivery of releases which meet SLAs, architecture, security, and compliance requirements Leverage your own credibility through community interactions and positive contributions Collaborate internally with stakeholders from product, security, infrastructure, and operations teams Success in the Role Performance goals over the first 6-12 months Within your first six months: Be seen as an internal expert, advising and influencing across VCF Understand the vision, architecture, and data model of the VKS and Kubernetes Distributions Familiarity with common Kubernetes interfaces for runtime, networking, storage, and resource management Production experience with deploying additional packages Ensure different components and subsystems work well together In-depth understanding of Kubernetes extensibility and reconciliation logic Design, implement, test, and deploy services developed in Go Champion technologies that boost project speed and automation Understand how to meet Broadcom and industry standards After six months+: Align future customer needs with community interests in technical areas Be a recognized technical and community leader across various projects Design and obtain approval for a Kubernetes KEP Impact upstream projects through contributions to code, architecture, community management, and public representation Introduce a new CNCF software component or significantly impact features for VCF Define and implement process changes to reduce technical debt and improve architecture Lead developer efficiency efforts and foster a culture of innovation Mentor fellow engineers and grow influence within the department What type of work will you be doing? As part of the Kubernetes Distribution team: Develop primarily using Kubernetes controllers and patterns, mostly written in Go Collaborate with a global community of engineers in CNCF open source projects Deliver code changes to open source projects and satisfy contribution requirements Work with management to understand priorities and advocate for them on the team Collaborate with stakeholders, leads, and team members to make projects or contributions available as features Define high-level epics, break down work into actionable items, estimate and scope Write automated tests to validate and secure critical customer functionalities Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership on complex problems Identify issues, propose cost-reduction and quality improvements, and suggest process/policy enhancements Take on-call responsibilities to triage and mitigate production issues Requirements Kubernetes expertise and a material engineering contribution to at least 1 CNCF project and various OSS projects Experience with one or more cloud platform architectures History of leading system software projects/teams Knowledge of distributed systems, databases, algorithms, and data structures Good verbal and written communication skills Bachelor\'s degree plus 12+ years of related experience or Master\'s degree plus 10+ years of related experience Nice to have vSphere experience Extensive knowledge of complex container, kernel, packaging, and operating system functionality Operational knowledge of Kubernetes in production environments Contributions to 2+ CNCF projects or Kubernetes SIG projects Knowledge of Kubernetes, Cluster API, ContainerD/RunC, Cluster Autoscaler, Metrics Server, ArgoCD, Cert-manager, Flux, Gateway API, Etcd, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, KEDA, Kubeadm, Kubeflow, Kuve-vip, Kyverno, OPA/Gatekeeper, Opentelemetry Location Palo Alto, CA USA Compensation and Benefits The annual base salary range for this position is $127,100 - $226,000 This position is eligible for a discretionary annual bonus and equity per the relevant plan documents. Broadcom offers a comprehensive benefits package: Medical, dental, and vision plans; 401(k) with company matching; Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP); Employee Assistance Program (EAP); paid holidays, paid sick leave and vacation time. Paid Family Leave and other leaves of absence are provided as required by law. Equal Opportunity Employer : Broadcom is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship status, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records as permitted by local law. Note for international applicants : If you are located outside the USA, please provide a home address for future correspondence. Welcome! Thank you for your interest in Broadcom. 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