Staff SDET (Kubernetes) – Remote
Must be a Kubernetes expert—admin / operator level proficiency required. CKA
certification is a major plus.
We are seeking a Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) who will lead the quality
strategy, test architecture, and automation across our Kubernetes-based products and
open-source platforms. This is a highly technical role for an experienced engineer who thrives in
startup environments and has deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes, test automation
frameworks, and CI / CD pipelines.
This is not a traditional QA role — it’s a critical technical leadership position focused on ensuring
product reliability, scalability, and performance through automation, architecture-level quality
thinking, and hands-on collaboration across engineering teams.
What You’ll Do
- Lead the design, development, and maintenance of robust, scalable automated test
frameworks for backend services and UI components.
Define and drive the end-to-end test strategy across services, features, and CI / CDpipelines.
Collaborate with engineering, product, and infrastructure teams to build quality intothe product at every phase.
Participate in architecture and design discussions, advocating for testability,observability, and long-term reliability.
Integrate and manage automated test suites into CI / CD systems like GitHub Actionsand Argo CD.
Mentor developers and QA engineers in best practices around testing, automation,and quality engineering.
Conduct hands-on exploratory testing to discover edge cases, regressions, andusability issues not easily caught through automation.
Operate effectively across multiple fast-moving, parallel projects within a startupenvironment.
What You Bring
5+ years of experience in software quality engineering or SDET roles, with 2+ yearsin a senior or staff capacity.
Deep Kubernetes expertise—you’ve operated and maintained Kubernetes at theadmin or operator level. CKA certification is a big plus.
Strong programming skills in Go and optionally JavaScript for test development andautomation tooling.
Experience writing and integrating tests within CI / CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, etc.).
Strong understanding of distributed systems and modern cloud-native infrastructure.Strong communication and leadership skills—able to advocate for quality andinfluence engineering direction.
A high degree of initiative, ownership, and accountability.Experience and comfort working in early-stage or startup environments with evolvingpriorities.
Preferred Qualifications
Hands-on experience with test orchestration in Kubernetes-based environments.Experience testing and validating infrastructure-level functionality (e.g., CRDs,controllers, operators).
Background contributing to or maintaining open-source projects—particularly CNCFprojects.
Familiarity with Kubernetes virtualization and multi-tenancy use cases.Track record of mentoring engineers and elevating team quality standards.Prior experience testing Golang-based distributed systems.Why You’ll Love This Role
Lead the testing strategy for innovative Kubernetes-based developer platforms.Collaborate with top cloud-native engineers and CNCF contributors.Contribute to open-source and commercial products used by global enterprises.Be part of a remote-first, fast-paced startup culture that values autonomy andtechnical excellence.
Get access to real ownership over testing infrastructure and quality culture.
If you are a passionate test engineer with deep Kubernetes knowledge and a vision for
automation-first quality engineering, we’d love to hear from you.