Senior DevOps Engineer (Contractor)

SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER (CONTRACTOR) Location: Remote (LATAM only) Engagement: Contractor Experience: Senior (7+ years) Timezone: Must overlap with US working hours ROLE SUMMARY We are hiring a Senior DevOps Engineer (Contractor) to own and evolve our cloud infrastructure and deployment pipelines on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This is a hands-on senior IC role with responsibility for designing, operating, troubleshooting, and migrating infrastructure toward infrastructure-as-code (IaC). You will work closely with backend and platform engineers deploying Java, Kotlin, and Python services on Kubernetes (GKE). This role is outcome-driven and requires strong technical judgment, independence, and clear communication. AI-FIRST INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING We are intentionally building an AI-assisted engineering organization. AI tools are part of the daily workflow. What this means in practice: - Daily use of tools like Claude (Opus), Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot - AI-assisted generation of Terraform / OpenTofu, Helm charts, Kubernetes manifests, and automation scripts - AI-assisted log analysis, troubleshooting, and observability improvements - AI-assisted documentation, runbooks, and post-mortems You are responsible for reviewing, validating, and securing all AI-generated output. Speed matters, but correctness and security matter more. This role is not a fit for engineers who are resistant to AI-assisted workflows. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES INFRASTRUCTURE & CLOUD OPERATIONS - Design, operate, and maintain production infrastructure on GCP - Manage and optimize GKE (Kubernetes) clusters, workloads, and networking - Administer Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) and Redis - Own IAM roles, service accounts, and least-privilege access - Manage DNS using OctoDNS across Google DNS and Cloudflare - Ensure infrastructure security, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE & AUTOMATION - Lead migration from bash-based provisioning to Terraform / OpenTofu - Introduce and maintain Helm charts for Kubernetes deployments - Eliminate click-ops through declarative, version-controlled infrastructure - Review and improve Kubernetes manifests and deployment practices CI/CD & DEPLOYMENT - Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using: - Google Cloud Build - GitHub Actions - Support automated builds, testing, and deployments for Java/Kotlin/Python services - Improve deployment safety through rollout strategies, health checks, and rollback mechanisms MONITORING & INCIDENT RESPONSE - Configure monitoring and alerting using: - Google Operations (Cloud Monitoring & Logging) - New Relic - UptimeRobot - Act as an escalation point for production incidents - Diagnose complex system issues using logs, metrics, and traces - Improve observability and reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) SECURITY & SECRETS - Manage secrets using Google Secret Manager, GKE Secrets, and Keeper - Enforce secure configuration and credential rotation - Partner with engineering to ensure secure runtime and deployment patterns REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS - 7+ years of experience in DevOps, SRE, or Cloud Infrastructure roles - Strong hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform - Deep production experience with Kubernetes (GKE preferred) - Strong Linux and bash fundamentals - Production experience with Terraform or OpenTofu - Experience creating and maintaining Helm charts - Experience with Cloud Build and/or GitHub Actions - Strong troubleshooting skills in distributed systems - Experience with PostgreSQL and Redis - Solid understanding of IAM, DNS, networking, and cloud security NICE TO HAVE - Multi-environment Kubernetes setups (dev/staging/prod) - Experience with deployment strategies (blue/green, canary, rolling) - GCP cost optimization experience - Experience setting DevOps standards or mentoring engineers WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - Infrastructure is reproducible, auditable, and managed via code - CI/CD pipelines are reliable, fast, and secure - Production incidents are diagnosable and resolved quickly - Manual operations steadily disappear in favor of automation - Engineering teams can deploy independently and safely CONTRACTOR & LOCATION NOTES - This is a contractor role, not full-time employment - Candidates must be based in LATAM - Senior-level ownership and communication are expected - Consistent overlap with US time zones is required