Stacklok - Senior Forward Deployed Engineer - Kubernetes

• We do not expect every candidate to meet every point below. If this role excites you and you bring most of it, we encourage you to apply. • Strong software engineering fundamentals: writes well-structured production code with sound design and testing judgment. • Deep Kubernetes expertise across cluster architecture, workload types, networking, storage, RBAC, and resource management, with Helm authoring and GitOps via Flux or ArgoCD across managed Kubernetes. • Strong operator and CRD literacy: reasons about control loops, CRD versioning, status, and finalizers, and writes controllers in Go using Kubebuilder or the Operator SDK. • Solid grasp of observability across metrics, logs, and traces, and when each applies. Familiarity with Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and platforms like Datadog or Grafana is a plus. • Comfortable working directly with customers, including over-the-shoulder debugging across varied enterprise permission models, and clearly communicating root causes and remediation steps. • A track record of delivering production-grade systems, mentoring engineers, and contributing fixes upstream to the underlying platforms and tools. Hands-on experience with MCP servers or AI agent tooling is a strong plus. • AI-first mindset: an active user of AI coding assistants who brings agentic workflows (skills, agents, rules, hooks) into daily work and experiments with AI to automate and accelerate delivery. • Communication: excellent written and verbal communication, able to explain complex technical ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. • Startup mentality and intrinsic motivation: self-directed and hands-on, thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, and drives clarity through action. • Compensation: The anticipated base salary range for this position is $189,000 - $231,000. In addition to base salary, this role offers equity and a comprehensive benefits package.