Kubernetes Platform Engineer Remote(No TP or Employer)

Job Title: Kubernetes & Database Migration Engineer- Remote EST hours Duration: 10 Months Location: Remote About the Engagement A large enterprise is migrating a mission-critical, in-house Perl-based warehouse and manufacturing operations platform from on-premises VMware infrastructure to AWS.

The application runs across manufacturing facilities globally, orchestrates physical hardware (barcode scanners, laser cutters, label printers), and relies on a complex set of dependencies including Kafka, MySQL hub-spoke replication, RabbitMQ, message queuing systems, and terabyte-scale shared file mounts.

The migration strategy follows a Rehost (Lift-and-Shift) with Kubernetes Modernization approach. The first phase moves the QA cluster from on-premises into AWS, followed by production migrations to support international facilities.

The role requires close collaboration with the Cloud Infrastructure team (VPC/networking), the application team, and the DBA team managing MySQL replication.

This is an embedded engineer role — the successful candidate will work directly alongside the application and infrastructure teams throughout the migration, participating in planning, execution, cutover, and post-migration stabilization, and delivering structured knowledge transfer and team upskilling.

Key Responsibilities Kubernetes & Application Migration · Assist the technical migration of the Kubernetes cluster from on-premises infrastructure into AWS EKS · Modernize and rewrite existing Helm charts to align with current Kubernetes standards and AWS EKS deployment patterns · Validate and implement container orchestration strategy including pod scaling, resource limits, and health checks · Establish GitOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines for Kubernetes deployment automation · Maintain connectivity to on-prem hardware (barcode scanners, laser cutters, label printers) via hybrid networking during and post-migration Database Migration & Replication · Coordinate with the DBA team to plan and execute migration of the MySQL hub-spoke replication topology (hub + read replica per facility) to AWS RDS. · Validate binary log replication strategy across hub and spoke databases · Test and document read replica promotion procedures and DR runbooks in the AWS environment · Preserve existing AWS DMS BI reporting replication connectivity during migration · Ensure continued connectivity to downstream dependencies: Kafka clusters, RabbitMQ, message queuing systems, and MSSQL databases Networking & Security · Collaborate with the Cloud Infrastructure team to validate VPC architecture, Transit Gateway, VPC peering, and security group rules across multiple AWS regions · Validate and implement TLS/certificate management. · Configure DNS routing and record management during cutover windows · Execute and validate network preflight connectivity tests across all identified application dependencies prior to each cutover · Design and document security group inbound/outbound rules based on port dependency analysis Required Qualifications · 5+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure and application migration, with demonstrated AWS hands-on experience · Strong Kubernetes expertise: cluster operations, Helm chart authoring and migration, namespace management, pod lifecycle, and troubleshooting · Hands-on experience with AWS EKS provisioning, configuration, and managed add-on management · Proficiency in AWS networking: VPC design, subnets, Security Groups, Transit Gateway, Route Tables, VPC Peering, and PrivateLink · Working knowledge of MySQL replication topologies (primary/replica, binary log replication) and RDS/Aurora MySQL migration · DNS management and TLS/certificate lifecycle experience (cert-manager, ACM, or equivalent) · Infrastructure as Code proficiency: Terraform or AWS CloudFormation · Experience designing and executing migration cutover plans with defined rollback criteria · Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — able to translate technical findings into clear direction for application teams Preferred Qualifications · Familiarity with Kafka connectivity and configuration within Kubernetes environments · RabbitMQ deployment and connectivity in containerized workloads · Experience with API integration and message queue dependency mapping in migrations · CI/CD pipeline configuration for Kubernetes deployments (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, ArgoCD, or Flux) · Experience with managed Kubernetes platforms · AWS CloudWatch implementation: custom metrics, alarms, log groups, and dashboards · Familiarity with AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) for ongoing replication scenarios · AWS certifications: Solutions Architect – Professional, or DevOps Engineer – Professional · Experience with Perl-based applications or understanding of asynchronous job processing patterns Working Knowledge (Nice to Have) · Manufacturing, warehouse, or fulfillment center operational systems domain context · Hybrid on-prem/cloud connectivity for physical hardware (scanners, printers, laser cutters) · AWS Cost Optimization: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, right-sizing · AWS Backup policies and cross-region replication configuration · APM tooling: Datadog, New Relic, or Dynatrace in AWS environments MSSQL Server awareness (adjacent database dependencies