OpenShift Architect (On-Premises Infrastructure & GitOps)

Role Overview We are seeking an expert OpenShift Architect to lead the technical design, build, and implementation of our on-premises Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) infrastructure. In this end-to-end technical role, you will take full ownership of the platform lifecycle - facilitating design workshops, building GitOps-driven architectures, driving application onboarding, and executing greenfield deployments from scratch in a highly regulated environment. This can be remote if you are based in Europe and outside of Ireland. Key Responsibilities - End-to-End Execution: Drive all technical deliverables across the full project lifecycle, from initial concept and High-Level Design (HLD) / Low-Level Design (LLD) to hands-on build and infrastructure implementation. - Greenfield OCP Deployment: Deploy, configure, and validate on-premises Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters from scratch across multiple client environments. - Application Onboarding & Team Engagement: Actively engage with platform engineering and application teams to establish onboarding patterns, developer workflows, and migration strategies to successfully onboard applications onto the platform. - Advanced On-Premises Container Networking: Architect and implement enterprise container networking architectures, including OVN-Kubernetes, User-Defined Networks (UDN), Multus CNI (for multi-network Pod interfaces), NMState / NNCP for host node networking, MetalLB / BGP for on-prem load balancing, Ingress/Egress routing, and Service Mesh (Istio / Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh). - GitOps & Continuous Delivery: Implement GitOps practices using Argo CD / OpenShift GitOps for automated, version-controlled cluster provisioning, configuration management, and application lifecycle management. - Virtualization & Workload Migration: Design and advise on OpenShift Virtualization (OVE) architectures, leading virtual machine migration strategies away from legacy hypervisors (specifically Broadcom/VMware vSphere). - Infrastructure & Security Integration: Integrate platform architecture with enterprise storage (CSI, persistent storage solutions), physical datacenter hardware, and strict security baselines. - Design Workshops & Stakeholder Communication: Lead interactive architecture workshops, effectively articulating complex technical concepts, trade-offs, and deployment strategies to technical teams and client advisors. Key Qualifications - Platform Track Record: Proven history of building and deploying enterprise-grade Red Hat OpenShift (OCP) on-premises from scratch for multiple client environments. - Proven Hands-On Capability: Deep background in hands-on implementation and administration. You must possess the practical, low-level technical ability to actually build, debug, and execute the exact architectures you propose. - Application Onboarding Expertise: Mandatory hands-on experience working directly with application teams and platform engineering groups to architect and execute application onboarding onto OCP. - Deep Networking & Tooling Expertise: Hands-on mastery of OVN-Kubernetes, UDN, Multus, NMState, MetalLB, Istio Service Mesh, and GitOps workflows powered by Argo CD. - OpenShift Virtualization & VM Migration (Preferred): Hands-on experience with OpenShift Virtualization (OVE) and migrating virtual machine workloads from Broadcom/VMware environments. - Regulated Environment Mandate: Mandatory experience operating within strictly compliant, high-security industries (e.g., Banking, Healthcare, Defense, or Telecoms). - Clear Communication & Advising: Excellent verbal and written technical communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to advise client stakeholders and justify architectural decisions. - Datacenter & Storage Fundamentals: Strong background in bare-metal datacenter infrastructure, enterprise storage integrations, and automation (Ansible, Terraform). For more info you can contact david@db-recruitment.ie