Sovereign Cloud Engineer (m/w/d)

Introduction

Overview For our growing team, we are looking for an experienced Sovereign Cloud / Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to support the secure, reliable, and continuous operation of modern cloud-native and Kubernetes platforms. You will work with an experienced DevOps/SRE team on highly secure, business-critical platforms, taking responsibility for platform operations, automation, monitoring, incident management, security, and continuous improvement. The role focuses particularly on Kubernetes, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, observability, logging, and operational excellence within a highly available Unified Observability Platform in a 24x7 operational environment.

Tasks

Kubernetes & Platform Operations

• Operate and maintain Kubernetes clusters using Gardener.
• Manage Kubernetes workloads, deployments, configurations, and platform components.
• Maintain Helm charts, repositories, and Jenkins agents.
• Troubleshoot availability, deployment, and performance issues.
• Ensure platforms are secure, scalable, resilient, and highly available.

CI/CD & Automation

• Configure, operate, and optimize Jenkins and ArgoCD pipelines.
• Support automated deployments for Unified Observability, GOON, and OctoBus platforms.
• Implement and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions.
• Develop automation and operational tooling using Python, Go, and/or Bash.
• Automate environment provisioning, health checks, compliance checks, alerting, and operational reporting.
• Follow Git-based configuration and deployment workflows.

Monitoring & Observability

• Configure and maintain Prometheus monitoring environments.
• Manage scrape jobs, alert rules, PromQL queries, and custom monitoring requirements.
• Operate Thanos for scalable and long-term metrics storage.
• Configure and maintain OpenTelemetry for metrics, logs, and distributed tracing.
• Develop and maintain Grafana dashboards for real-time and historical monitoring.
• Continuously improve monitoring, alerting, and observability capabilities.

Logging & Log Management

• Deploy, operate, secure, and optimize Elasticsearch/OpenSearch environments.
• Maintain and optimize Logstash pipelines for data ingestion and transformation.
• Configure and maintain Kibana dashboards.
• Monitor log ingestion, storage capacity, performance, and reliability.
• Support anomaly detection and troubleshooting through centralized logging.
• Ensure log management meets enterprise security, scalability, and compliance requirements.

Integration & Operations

• Integrate observability and logging platforms with ServiceNow, PagerDuty, and other enterprise tools using secure APIs.
• Process service requests related to monitoring and observability operations.
• Participate in NetObs Scrum meetings and DevOps calls.
• Contribute to service improvement and operational optimization initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal teams, SAP, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Incident & Problem Management

• Participate in a 24x7 on-call/shift rotation, including weekends and public holidays.
• Respond to platform, monitoring, logging, deployment, and performance-related incidents.
• Perform detailed Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Actively participate in Major Incident Management (MIM).
• Troubleshoot issues affecting Kubernetes deployments, CI/CD pipelines, dashboards, and log ingestion.
• Drive continuous improvements to platform stability, resilience, and operational processes.

Security, Compliance & Documentation

• Operate platforms in accordance with EU data protection requirements, GDPR, VS-NfD, VSA/GHB, and relevant enterprise security standards.
• Enforce access-control policies and regularly review permissions.
• Maintain secure, version-controlled technical documentation.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, configuration documentation, operational procedures, and runbooks.
• Develop and maintain knowledge-management materials.
• Provide knowledge transfer and training for Unified Observability Operations.

Profile

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Several years of professional experience as an SRE, DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, or similar.
• Strong Linux knowledge, particularly in Kubernetes-based environments.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, preferably Gardener.
• Strong experience with Helm and Kubernetes configuration management.
• Practical experience with Jenkins and ArgoCD.
• Strong understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.
• Programming/scripting skills in Python, Go, and/or Bash.
• Strong understanding of Git-based configuration and deployment workflows.
• Solid knowledge of networking fundamentals and REST APIs.
• Experience with Prometheus, PromQL, Grafana, Thanos, and/or OpenTelemetry.
• Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Logstash, and Kibana.
• Experience integrating enterprise monitoring and incident-management platforms via APIs.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly operational and international environment.
• Fluent English communication skills, written and spoken.
• German language skills are advantageous.

Preferred Certifications

• Elastic Certified Engineer
• LPIC-2
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

Operational & Security Requirements

• Willingness to participate in a 24x7 on-call/shift rotation, including weekends and public holidays.
• Willingness to actively participate in incident response and Major Incident Management.

Additional Information

Citizenship The candidate must hold valid citizenship in a country that is a full member of both the European Union (EU) and NATO. If the candidate holds multiple citizenships, all citizenships must be from countries that are members of both the EU and NATO. Employment in Germany The candidate must:

• Be employed directly by a legal entity registered in Germany.
• Hold a German employment contract.
• Be subject exclusively to German labor law.
• Comply with all applicable German tax, social-security, and employment regulations.
• Reside in Germany.

Employment through non-German entities, including foreign subcontractors or affiliates, does not meet this requirement.

Security Clearance – Ü2 Must hold a valid and verifiable Ü2 security clearance in accordance with the German Security Clearance Act (Sicherheitsüberprüfungsgesetz – SÜG) and applicable preventive personnel sabotage-protection requirements.