Principal OpenShift Kubernetes Engineer - Remote

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.  

Do you want the opportunity to build and innovate with autonomy? Do you enjoy pushing platforms and infrastructure to new levels of performance and reliability? Do you want to work alongside talented teammates who value collaboration, trust, and positive intent? At UnitedHealth Group, technology isn't just a support function—it's a strategic differentiator helping improve healthcare outcomes for millions of people. We operate some of the largest and most sophisticated infrastructure environments in the industry, and we're looking for a Senior OpenShift Kubernetes Administrator to help lead our cloud-native platform transformation. This is an opportunity to engineer, automate, and operate enterprise-scale OpenShift environments that power mission-critical healthcare applications. You'll work with cutting-edge technologies, solve complex platform challenges, and influence the future direction of our Kubernetes strategy.

What You'll Do

As a senior member of our Kubernetes Platform Engineering team, you will be responsible for the reliability, scalability, security, and automation of our OpenShift ecosystem. Join our team to help steward our on-prem Cloud deployed on High-Performance Compute infrastructure.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Administer, maintain, and optimize enterprise OpenShift Kubernetes platforms deployed to our High-Performance Compute infrastructure
• Manage large-scale OpenShift clusters using:
  • OpenShift Console
  • OpenShift CLI (oc)
  • Advanced Cluster Manager (ACM)
  • Infrastructure automation tools
• Design and implement automated deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management solutions
• Develop Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks using Ansible and scripting
• Troubleshoot complex Kubernetes, container, networking, and platform issues
• Collaborate with developers to improve application reliability, observability, scalability, and performance
• Implement enterprise security controls and platform hardening standards
• Support high availability, disaster recovery, and multi-cluster architectures
• Drive platform modernization initiatives and operational excellence through automation
• Participate in architecture reviews and help define the future state of enterprise container platforms

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• 5+ years administering Kubernetes platforms in production environments
• Experience with Ansible and automation frameworks
• Experience with container technologies and image creation
• Experience troubleshooting enterprise-scale platform issues
• Experience deploying and administering OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt) to support both containerized and virtual machine workloads
• Experience implementing and supporting enterprise monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions using Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, AlertManager, and Thanos
• Experience with Git Action pipeline deployments for OpenShift, bash scripting using oc for controls, deployments, and working closely with application teams on deployments, new namespaces, affinities, and sizing
• Experience with cross-datacenter, high availability failover, and load balancing (F5 & haproxy) between multiple datacenters and K8s clusters
• Solid knowledge of Kubernetes internals including:
  • Scheduling
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Ingress and load balancing
  • Operators
  • Cluster lifecycle management
• Proficiency in shell scripting and at least one programming language such as Python or Go
• Proven deep expertise with Red Hat OpenShift
• Proven solid Linux administration skills, preferably Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Proven excellent communication and technical documentation skills
• Demonstrated security-first mindset with expertise in platform hardening, identity and access management, vulnerability remediation, encryption, and regulatory compliance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Red Hat OpenShift certification
• Candidates with experience in any of the following will stand out:
  • OpenShift deployed to IBM LinuxONE and IBM Z environments
  • s390x Linux architecture
• Experience with GitOps, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure-as-Code
• Experience supporting high-availability Kubernetes environments
• Experience supporting mission-critical applications with strict uptime requirements
• Knowledge of enterprise networking concepts and Kubernetes networking architectures
• Familiarity with GPFS (IBM Spectrum Scale) or other distributed storage technologies

Why You'll Love This Role

• Work on one of the industry's largest OpenShift deployments
• Influence platform strategy and architecture decisions
• Solve complex scalability and reliability challenges
• Partner with elite engineers and architects
• Build technology that directly impacts healthcare outcomes for millions of people

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $112,700 - $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes — an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.    

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.