Platform Engineer

Who we are Ilkari is a privately-held start-up based in Dublin, Ireland. We deliver hyper-private scale innovation and technology to safeguard and secure data, enabling true data sovereignty even as the pace of change accelerates. Our best-in-breed sovereign technology delivers privacy and control over where companies’ data resides, where it flows, and how it’s accessed. We’re here to rewrite the story of data sovereignty – empowering innovators, pioneers and visionaries to make their mark. We believe the sky is not the limit. We strive for the perfect balance of simplicity and excellence in everything we do, and we’re looking for people who are ready to join our journey and rewrite the story of data sovereignty. Role overview We are looking for a practical, hands-on Platform Engineer to own and evolve our Kubernetes and Developer support platforms. You'll automate the everyday (Helm, Ansible, Terraform, etc.) with a GitOps, code first mentality. You'll help keep our core services healthy and build reliable monitoring systems to ensure that we know about issues and fix them before customers notice; whilst also joining an on-call rota to handle out-of-hours issues. You'll work closely with other engineering teams and other stakeholders throughout the company to realise the team's vision of providing systems that are well-documented, secure by default, easy to run, and ready to scale. What you'll do Operate and evolve our Kubernetes platforms built on private clouds for greater performance, reliability, and security.Automate with Terraform, Ansible, and/or Python; driven by a GitOps/code first philosophy for predictable, auditable changes.Improve our observability and logging stacks with actionable alerting and clear dashboards, ensuring all critical components are monitored with meaningful alerts to the correct teams.Perform day-to-day operational activities including patching, upgrades, maintenance, monitoring, backup validation, provisioning, and routine platform support tasks.Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Security, and Operations to turn needs into repeatable solutions.CI/CD pipelines with both static and dynamic scanning, templating, security hardening, version control.Testing and Quality Assurance through automation, health checks, unified testing, environment progression.General ITSM activities incident, problem, PIR, risk assessment and change management activities.Resiliency and HA.Documentation and knowledge sharing (service maps, operational documentation, runbooks, standards).Supporting microservices architecture and Optimizing resource utilization.Join the on-call rota and support incident response as needed. What are we looking for Experience: 3+ years in Platform/DevOps/SRE (or equivalent hands-on experience).Hands-on experience administrating Kubernetes (RKE2 preferred) in addition to Helm, Service Mesh (Istio preferred), and CD tool (ArgoCD preferred).Experience with IaC (Terraform preferred) and configuration management (Ansible preferred).Hands on end-to-end observability management with metric creation, alert definitions, log parsers, etc.; both monitoring (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, etc.) and logging (Elastic Stack preferred) stacks.Experience with CICD pipelines (Gitlab CI/CD preferred).Hands-on experience with OpenStack or equivalent public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.).Experience with a server virtual management solution (Proxmox preferred).Strong Linux administration (performance, troubleshooting, hardening, etc.).Experience with Python/Bash to automate tasks, create tools, and remediate issues.Track record of on-call/incident response and change management in a live environment.Good grasp of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, routing basics, load balancing concepts. Education: A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline is desirable. Equivalent hands-on experience, self-directed learning, and relevant vendor certifications will also be considered when supported by strong practical technical capability. Technical proficiency: * Some or all the following are preferred, but not essential depending on experience and demonstration of ongoing learning: Relevant certifications across cloud, Linux, Kubernetes, automation, virtualization, or infrastructure technologies (e.g., AWS, Azure, Red Hat, OpenStack, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Cisco, or similar) are beneficial.ITIL Foundation or equivalent operational governance certification desirable.Experience with automated code scans: DAST/SAST, Sonarqube, etc.Experience with security vulnerability scanning tools.Experience configuring and modifying Cloudflare. Communication skills and teamwork: Ownership mindset, you see BAU and projects through to done; you automate and document by default.Ability to identify gaps and propose solutions to fill them.Pragmatic problem-solver with a can-do, agile mindset; open to feedback.Self-managing, well-organised, and a clear communicator.Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly and work effectively across Infrastructure, Engineering, Security, TOC, Architecture, Service Delivery, and Product teams.Comfortable contributing within technical reviews, operational discussions, incident response activities, and cross-functional planning sessions.Able to build positive working relationships across teams and support collaborative problem-solving in fast-moving operational environments.Demonstrates a structured and professional approach to documentation, operational handovers, and knowledge sharing. What's in it for you A friendly, inclusive and multicultural environment - We are made up of over 20 nationalities.Private life and health insurance for you and your family.Four weeks per year to work from anywhere for eligible employees.Gym reimbursement.Learning Pocket: annual budget for courses, tools, or certifications.Three paid volunteering days each year.Generous referral bonus programme.A hybrid working model with flexible hours.