About the Job :
The Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management team is looking for a Principal Software Engineer in India to help shape the future of multicluster management and cloud-native platform technologies.
In this role, you will provide architectural and technical leadership for a newly formed engineering group working on scalable Kubernetes-based control-plane and multicluster management capabilities. You will collaborate closely with globally distributed engineering teams across North America, APAC, and Europe to drive platform architecture, engineering consistency, and long-term technical strategy.
You will work on core Kubernetes multicluster management capabilities including placement, orchestration, GitOps integration, policy distribution, and fleet lifecycle management at enterprise scale.
This role provides a unique opportunity to influence the future of open multicluster management technologies through architectural leadership, upstream collaboration, and platform innovation across the Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystem.
A key part of this role includes contributing to OCM (Open Cluster Management), a CNCF Sandbox project, and collaborating with the broader cloud-native open source community.
What will you do?
Drive architecture and technical direction for multicluster management and cloud-native platform capabilities across globally distributed engineering teams.
Design and develop highly scalable Kubernetes control-plane components, operators/controllers, APIs, and distributed platform services using Go (Golang).
Architect and optimize reconciliation workflows, placement engines, policy distribution systems, and fleet lifecycle management capabilities for large Kubernetes environments.
Working with architects and partner teams on architecture and integration approaches for multi-cluster GitOps workflows, leveraging Argo CD and Kubernetes-native deployment models.
Participating in the technical direction and evolution of Advanced Cluster Management and OCM-related initiatives, contributing to discussions around platform abstractions, extensibility frameworks, engineering standards, and long-term platform strategy.
Collaborate with product management, engineering leadership, and architects to translate complex product requirements into scalable enterprise platform capabilities.
Influence upstream technical direction and collaborate with maintainers across Kubernetes, CNCF, OCM, and GitOps ecosystem projects.
Drive engineering excellence through technical mentoring, architecture reviews, design documentation, and engineering best practices.
Mentor senior engineers and help grow technical leadership capabilities across the organization.
Champion AI-assisted engineering practices and modern developer workflows to accelerate software delivery, improve software quality, and enhance engineering productivity.
Evaluate and adopt emerging AI-native software engineering patterns, tooling, and intelligent automation frameworks.
What will you bring?
8+ years of software development experience with strong expertise designing and building scalable distributed systems and enterprise platform products.
Strong experience designing Kubernetes-based platform architectures and cloud-native distributed systems.
Proficiency in Go (Golang) with deep experience developing Kubernetes components, operators/controllers, CRDs, APIs, and cloud-native platform capabilities.
Strong understanding of Kubernetes internals, control-plane patterns, reconciliation workflows, and cloud-native architecture principles.
Experience with multicluster management, fleet orchestration, GitOps workflows, or large-scale Kubernetes environments.
Familiarity with Kubernetes API machinery, controller-runtime, operator development patterns, and extensibility frameworks.
Strong product engineering mindset with experience balancing scalability, usability, reliability, and developer experience.
Proven ability to lead technical initiatives across multiple teams and globally distributed organizations.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to influence technical direction across teams and stakeholders.
Demonstrated leadership in AI-native engineering workflows and modern developer productivity tooling, with a focus on driving innovation and adoption.
The following are considered a plus:
Maintainer or active contributor experience in CNCF or Kubernetes ecosystem projects.
Experience designing multicluster orchestration, fleet management, or GitOps platforms at enterprise scale.
Experience with Argo CD, GitOps platforms, and Kubernetes-native application delivery workflows.
Familiarity with OpenShift, hybrid cloud platforms, or enterprise Kubernetes distributions.
Contributions to OCM (Open Cluster Management), Argo CD, or related CNCF ecosystem projects are a strong plus.
Experience with AI-assisted developer tooling such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Gemini Code Assist, or similar platforms.
#LI-AK1
About Red Hat
Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Spread across 40+ countries, our associates work flexibly across work environments, from in-office, to office-flex, to fully remote, depending on the requirements of their role. Red Hatters are encouraged to bring their best ideas, no matter their title or tenure. We're a leader in open source because of our open and inclusive environment. We hire creative, passionate people ready to contribute their ideas, help solve complex problems, and make an impact.
Inclusion at Red Hat
Red Hat’s culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration, and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. When this is realized, it empowers people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to come together to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. Our aspiration is that everyone experiences this culture with equal opportunity and access, and that all voices are not only heard but also celebrated. We hope you will join our celebration, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all the beautiful dimensions that compose our global village.
Equal Opportunity Policy (EEO)
Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
