DevOps Engineer

Senior Dev Ops / Infrastructure Engineer — Kubernetes, Service Mesh, AI Ops

Location: Hybrid – Schaumberg, IL (ON-SITE 3 DAYS per week, WFH 2 days per week.)

Type: 3 month Contract with possible extension

Focus: Kubernetes Networking, Service Mesh, AI-Driven Operations

This is not a standard Dev Ops position.

You’ll be working on a mission-critical, enterprise Kubernetes platform
, solving complex real-world networking issues and helping pioneer AI-powered infrastructure operations using next-generation tooling.

Immediate impact: diagnosing and resolving live production service communication issues across a sophisticated Kubernetes networking stack.

Longer term: helping build AI-integrated infrastructure automation that changes how operations teams function.

• Troubleshoot live production service communication issues inside Kubernetes
• Deep dive into Istio service mesh (sidecars, mTLS, Envoy proxy debugging)
• Debug and optimize Flannel CNI networking (VXLAN, host-gw, MTU tuning)
• Resolve kube-proxy issues (iptables/IPVS, conntrack, endpoint sync)
• Improve CoreDNS performance and reliability
• Use advanced diagnostic tools including:
• tcpdump
• Wireshark
• packet captures
• distributed tracing

You’ll also help build AI-enabled infrastructure operations
, including:

• Developing and deploying Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers
• Connecting AI systems directly to:
• Kubernetes
• Logs
• Metrics
• Incident systems
• Building AI tools for:
• Automated troubleshooting
• Root cause analysis
• Log intelligence
• Infrastructure querying
• Integrating AI assistants with platforms like:
• Git Lab
• Jira
• Slack
• Pager Duty

Required:

• Strong production Kubernetes experience
• Deep expertise with Kubernetes networking
• Hands-on Istio troubleshooting experience
• Experience debugging CNI networking (Flannel preferred)
• Strong Linux and networking fundamentals
• Experience using packet-level diagnostic tools

Highly Valuable:

• Experience integrating AI into infrastructure or operations
• Experience building automation for observability or incident response
• Experience with Prometheus, Elasticsearch, or distributed tracing

This role is perfect for engineers who have worked as:

• Senior Dev Ops Engineer
• Platform Engineer
• Kubernetes Engineer
• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
• Infrastructure Engineer

• Solve real production infrastructure challenges
• Work with cutting-edge Kubernetes and AI tooling
• High ownership and technical impact
• Extremely modern, forward-thinking environment
• Rare opportunity combining Kubernetes AI Infrastructure