Staff Engineer (Kubernetes)

TL;DR

Staff Engineer (Kubernetes/Containers): Technical leadership for the hirify.global Hardened Images catalogue, focusing on the packaging and security of enterprise-grade container images and Helm charts. Focus on defining catalogue-wide architecture, solving complex upstream packaging challenges, and driving security hardening strategies.

Location: Must be based in Canada or the United States

Salary: $166.5K – $269.5K

Company

hirify.global is a developer tooling company providing sandboxed environments and secure infrastructure that enable trustworthy autonomous workflows.

What you will do

• Define technical direction, conventions, and architectural patterns for the hirify.global Hardened Images (DHI) catalogue.
• Solve complex packaging problems for images and Helm charts with intricate dependency chains and rapid release cadences.
• Author and maintain image definition files and shape the templates and tooling used for tracking upstream OSS releases.
• Adapt upstream Helm charts to align with security constraints, non-root contexts, and Kubernetes compatibility.
• Lead CVE triage approaches and drive supply chain security posture using Sigstore, SBOM, and SLSA.
• Design and implement Go-based integration test infrastructure to validate image and chart behavior in real Kubernetes environments.

Requirements

• 8+ years of backend engineering experience with production-grade systems.
• Deep expertise in the container and Kubernetes ecosystem (e.g., cert-manager, kyverno, grafana, istio).
• Mastery of YAML for designing scalable conventions and structures.
• Strong background in container security, including non-root users, image layers, and multi-arch builds.
• Proficiency in Go sufficient to design and review integration test infrastructure.
• Must be based in Canada or the United States.

Nice to have

• Experience as a package maintainer for Linux distributions or Homebrew.
• Hands-on experience with supply chain tooling like Sigstore, SBOM, or SLSA.
• Experience working in regulated or security-conscious environments (FedRAMP, FIPS, PCI).
• Prior Staff-level IC experience on a platform, security, or developer-tools team.

Culture & Benefits

• Remote-first culture with freedom and flexibility to fit work around your life.
• Quarterly Whaleness Days plus an end-of-year Whaleness break.
• Home office setup and a technology stipend of $100 USD net per month.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave after 6 months of employment.
• Comprehensive PTO plan, training stipends for courses/conferences, and equity options.