Job Information
Lumen Principal Site Reliability Engineer in Topeka, Kansas
About Lumen
Lumen connects the world. We are igniting business growth by connecting people, data and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Together, we are building a culture and company from the people up – committed to teamwork, trust and transparency. People power progress.
Lumen’s commitment to workplace inclusion and employee support shines bright. We’ve made the Newsweek 2024 Greatest Workplaces for Diversity list and achieved a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for the fifth consecutive year. Plus, we’re the top employer in the communications and telecom industry, ranking 12th overall across all industries in The American Opportunity Index.
We’re looking for top-tier talent and offer the flexibility you need to thrive and deliver lasting impact. Join us as we digitally connect the world and shape the future.
The Role
We are looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)/ Platform Engineer / DevOps Engineer with deep expertise in Kubernetesto design, implement, and manage high-availability, scalable systems primarily on AWS EKS. In this role, you will leverage tools like Terraform, ArgoCD, and GitHub Actions to automate infrastructure and workflows while implementing progressive deployment practices (e.g., blue-green, canary, or feature flagging). This position requires someone who can troubleshoot complex systems, implement robust monitoring and guardrails for databases and applications, and maintain a focus on optimizing performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
Location
This position is work from home within the US.
The Main Responsibilities
Kubernetes Management & Troubleshooting:
Design and manage Kubernetes clusters (AWS EKS) with a focus on networking, scalability, security, and reliability.
Troubleshoot complex, cross-system issues involving Kubernetes, databases, networking, and cloud infrastructure.
Implement and maintain guardrails to ensure consistent and secure operation of Kubernetes workloads.
Infrastructure Design & Automation:
Architect, build, and maintain highly available, fault-tolerant systems using AWS services.
Use Terraform to define infrastructure as code, enabling scalable, repeatable, and secure deployments.
Automate provisioning, configuration, and updates for cloud infrastructure with a focus on GitOps principles using ArgoCD and GitHub Actions.
System Guardrails & Application Monitoring:
Set up and enforce guardrails for databases, infrastructure, and applications, ensuring consistency and adherence to best practices.
Implement robust application and infrastructure monitoring using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and potentially Datadog.
Ensure proactive alerting and predictive monitoring to detect issues before they impact users.
Progressive Deployment & CI/CD:
Design and implement deployment strategies like blue-green deployments, canary releases, and feature-flag-based rollouts.
Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines to streamline application delivery, testing, and deployment.
Collaboration & Best Practices:
Partner with development teams to embed reliability and security best practices into the application lifecycle.
Drive a culture of operational excellence, ensuring teams build for reliability, scalability, and security from the ground up.
Resilience & Continuous Improvement:
Conduct post-incident reviews to identify root causes and prevent future incidents.
Implement practices like chaos engineering to test and enhance system resilience.
Networking & Security:
Design and manage secure networking solutions, including AWS VPCs, Kubernetes networking, and firewalls.
Ensure compliance with security best practices and industry standards.
What We Look For in a Candidate
Kubernetes Expertise:
Deep hands-on experience managing Kubernetes clusters (AWS EKS or similar) with a focus on networking, scaling, and security.
Strong troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes workloads, infrastructure, and networking.
Infrastructure as Code & Automation:
Expertise in Terraform for infrastructure as code.
Proven experience with ArgoCD and GitHub Actions for GitOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
Monitoring & Observability:
Proficiency in Prometheus, Grafana, and incident management workflows.
Experience implementing application-level monitoring and tracing to identify performance bottlenecks.
Guardrails & System Security:
- Demonstrated ability to set up guardrails for databases, Kubernetes clusters, and applications to ensure reliable and secure operations.
Cloud Expertise:
Advanced knowledge of AWS services, including EKS, EC2, CloudWatch, Route53, Aurora, and S3.
Familiarity with auto-scaling, load balancing, and cloud cost optimization.
Programming & Scripting Skills:
- Strong proficiency in Python, Go, or Bash for scripting and automation tasks.
Systems Troubleshooting:
- Proven ability to troubleshoot complex, distributed systems across cloud infrastructure, databases, and networking.
Nice-to-Have:
Experience with other cloud platforms such as GCP or Azure.
Familiarity with logging and observability tools like ELK, Loki, or Graylog.
Exposure to chaos engineering and resilience testing.
Knowledge of HashiCorp Vault, SOPS, and secrets management best practices.
Expertise in database systems, including setup, scaling, and optimization.
Compensation
This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.
Location Based Pay Ranges
$149,084 - $198,779 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY
$156,539 - $208,718 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI
$163,993 - $218,657 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA
Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process.
Learn more about Lumen's:
Benefits (https://www.lumenbenefits.com/httpdocs2/index.html)
Bonus Structure
Requisition #: 336312
Background Screening
If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page (https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/faq) . Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Equal Employment Opportunities
We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training.
Disclaimer
The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.
In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
Please be advised that Lumen does not require any form of payment from job applicants during the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings will be posted on our official website or communicated through official company email addresses. If you encounter any job offers that request payment in exchange for employment at Lumen, they are not for employment with us, but may relate to another company with a similar name.
Application Deadline
01/02/2025