Senior Cloud Platform Engineer Canada Apply for this job Senior Cloud Platform Engineer (GKE Specialist)

Location: Canada — Remote / Hybrid to Ottawa or Toronto

Employment Type: Fixed Term Contract, Full Time hours

Clearance Requirement: Active Government of Canada Secret Clearance (Level II) — Mandatory

Client/Project Context: Public Sector / Enterprise Federal Contract

About the Role Our client is seeking a Senior Cloud Platform Engineer with deep, production-grade expertise in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to architect, secure, and maintain critical cloud infrastructure. Operating within a highly regulated environment, you will bridge the gap between advanced container orchestration and Canada’s strict federal security compliance framework (ITSG-33 / Protected B).

Key Responsibilities • Cluster Architecture & Management: Design, deploy, and scale highly available GKE clusters (Standard and Autopilot) within Google Cloud Platform (GCP). • Security & Compliance: Harden Kubernetes environments to meet Protected B / Medium Profile (PBMM) and ITSG-33 security baselines. Implement Kubernetes RBAC and network policies. • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Build and maintain fully automated infrastructure deployments using Terraform. • Traffic Management: Configure and manage service meshes (Istio / Anthos Service Mesh) for secure, observable microservices communication. • CI/CD & DevSecOps: Integrate security scanning tools (vulnerability and static analysis) directly into automated deployment pipelines.

Must-Have Qualifications • Google Cloud Platform: Minimum 3+ years of hands-on experience with GCP core networking (Shared VPCs, Cloud NAT, Cloud DNS) and IAM. • Kubernetes / GKE: Deep understanding of K8s primitives, ingress controllers, private cluster architectures, and node pool management. • Automation: Strong proficiency with Terraform for state management and infrastructure provisioning. • Security Frameworks: Direct experience implementing Canadian data sovereignty and federal security standards (ITSG-33 or GC Cloud Security Profiles). • Overall Experience: 5+ years in DevOps / Cloud Engineering, with at least 3 years dedicated to production Kubernetes environments. • Clearance: Must explicitly hold an Active Secret Clearance (Level II) issued by PSPC or DND. Reliability status will not suffice.

Nice-to-Haves • Experience with Google Anthos / Google Distributed Cloud. • Familiarity with GitOps workflows (e.g., ArgoCD or Flux). • Bilingualism (English and French) is an asset for stakeholder engagement.

Preferred Certifications • Google Cloud Certified — Professional Cloud Architect or Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer. • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS).