Google Cloud DevOps Engineer (Temporary Contract)

Job Description

About You

You’re looking for a challenge where you can take ownership of building and maintaining Google Cloud infrastructure for a large-scale operational platform. You will work closely with a platform lead to stand up GKE/Kubernetes clusters, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native monitoring, with the heaviest infrastructure work taking place during the first two months as the platform comes online, followed by pipeline maintenance and deployment support through acceptance.

This is a platform-focused DevOps role where strong Terraform, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and Git expertise are essential. You will work within defined Dev/QA access boundaries and contribute to a structured delivery process.

Note: This role operates under a 5-month contractor model, with at least 4 hours of daily overlap with U.S. Eastern business hours required.

You Bring to Applaudo the Following Competencies:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field is desired, or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of professional experience with Terraform on Google Cloud, including building and maintaining infrastructure from an existing baseline.
• Strong hands-on experience with GKE and Kubernetes cluster setup and management.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and environment promotion workflows, preferably using GCP-native tooling such as Cloud Build and Artifact Registry.
• Experience implementing and maintaining Google Cloud-native monitoring, alerting, and logging using Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging.
• Strong Git fundamentals, including branching strategies, pull requests, and structured commit practices.
• Experience working within structured engineering environments involving documented designs, code reviews, and ticket-based delivery.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code or similar tools as part of daily development workflows.
• Excellent communication skills in English, required to collaborate effectively with U.S.-based teams and stakeholders.
• Ability to maintain at least 4 hours of daily overlap with U.S. Eastern business hours.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Cloud Build and Artifact Registry.
• Experience working in security-conscious or government environments.

You Will Be Accountable for the Following Responsibilities:

• Build and configure GKE clusters and Google Cloud project environments using an existing Terraform baseline.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines and environment promotion workflows.
• Configure and maintain Google Cloud-native monitoring, alerting, and logging.
• Produce, maintain, and support deployment packages through system acceptance.
• Maintain disciplined Git practices, including branching, pull requests, and commit hygiene across infrastructure and deployment work.
• Troubleshoot infrastructure, deployment, and CI/CD pipeline issues within assigned environments.
• Collaborate with platform and engineering teams to align infrastructure implementation with broader architecture and delivery standards.
• Operate within defined Dev/QA environment access boundaries and follow applicable security and operational requirements.
• Contribute to technical documentation, code reviews, and ticket-based delivery processes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience with Terraform on Google Cloud Platform.
• Hands-on experience with GKE/Kubernetes cluster setup and management.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and environment promotion workflows.
• Experience with GCP-native Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging.
• Strong Git fundamentals, including branching, pull requests, and commit discipline.
• Conversational English proficiency.

Additional Information

About Us

We Are Engineered Different.

At Applaudo, talented people design, build, and scale meaningful, AI-powered solutions that create real business impact. As an AI-native organization, we collaborate across design, development, cloud, data, and artificial intelligence to turn ideas into scalable products that transform how companies operate, make decisions, and grow.

We are building a high-performance culture grounded in five values: Empowering Excellence, Collaborative Teamwork, Unsolicited Respect, Consistent Transparency, and Efficient Communication. These define how we work, how we support one another, and how we hold ourselves accountable.

Applaudo is a place for people who want to learn fast, take ownership, and work alongside strong teams they are proud to belong to. Joining us means being part of an organization that is evolving intentionally, investing in modern ways of working, and leading AI-native transformation at scale.