As more companies adopt Google’s open-source software management system, demand for talented individuals with Kubernetes skill is rising rapidly

Originally developed by Google, Kubernetes started as a project within the company in the early 2000s with the goal of managing the company’s growing fleet of containers. Simply put, Google wanted to create a platform for its standard units of software, packaging up code and all its dependencies, so that applications would run consistently across different environments.

Because containers provide an isolated environment, this means that applications will behave the same regardless of where they are deployed. Over time, the platform evolved into a robust and scalable system for managing containers, and, in 2015, Google open-sourced the project, which then led to wide-scale adoption.

Now, Kubernetes has become one of the most popular ways for managing containers. While it is often talked about in the context of the cloud, it is flexible, and can be used on-premise too. It can also be deployed in a hybrid environment (cloud and on-premise) or be deployed across multiple cloud locations.

Accelerated adoption

The pandemic accelerated adoption of Kubernetes, largely due to the increase in cloud take-up. In April 2020, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months,” as companies rushed to accelerate digitisation and ensure business continuity and resilience.

A 2021 Kubernetes Adoption Survey found that 68 per cent of respondents had increased their use of Kubernetes during the pandemic, and that 89 per cent expected Kubernetes to play a larger role in the management of their infrastructure over the next two to three years.

That adoption is accelerating for a number of reasons. Robust and reliable, Kubernetes is designed to manage and orchestrate microservices, making it an ideal choice for organisations using this architecture. Scalability is another attractive feature, as it allows for easy scaling of applications, making it useful for companies with rapidly growing and changing demands.

Portability, too, is key. Kubernetes allows for the deployment of applications on any infrastructure, and it has wide community support in the form of a large and growing open-source community which provides continual development, innovation and support for the platform.

Kubernetes skill

As more companies move to containerised environments, the demand for talented individuals with Kubernetes skill is rising rapidly. With applications across multiple industries including tech, finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, government and telecoms, it is being adopted across many other industries due to its ability to manage modern applications efficiently and effectively.

Those with relevant Kubernetes skill and experience, for example in designing self-service applications, autoscaling infrastructure based on workload, and supporting users around the clock are in a great career position.

Companies hiring Kubernetes experts right now

If you are looking to accelerate your Kubernetes career now, the Information Age Job Board should be your first port of call. It contains thousands of open roles all across the tech sphere, including the three below.

Kubernetes platform engineer, Third Republic, London

Recruitment company Third Republic is looking for a Kubernetes platform engineer to work at a global technology service provider for a long list of Fortune 500 companies.

You’ll have responsibility for cross-functional engineering projects, take care of supportable, sustainable and reliable services and handle large-scale, complex projects. You will take care of continuous integration/delivery and handle architectures such as microservices and cloud technology.

To be eligible, you’ll need a deep knowledge of GNU/Linux, prior knowledge of building infrastructure in AWS using Terraform and having AWS certification (SysOps/Developer/Architect) would be an advantage. Find out all about the job here.

Multi-cloud Kubernetes infrastructure engineer, Siemens Healthineers, Newbury

As a senior multi-cloud Kubernetes infrastructure engineer, you’ll be responsible for the planning, implementation, and growth of the AWS cloud infrastructure, supporting a Kubernetes Runtime environment used for the development of cloud native applications. You’ll build, release, and manage the configuration of all production systems and manage Kubernetes and associated services in AWS and on-premise data centres. Interested? Experience using AWS, experience designing and building web environments on AWS and a solid background in Linux/Unix and Windows server system administration are all required as is experience using dev-ops tools in a cloud environment, such as Terraform, Ansible, Artifactory, Docker, GitHub, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Maven, and SonarQube. Apply for this position now.

Senior dev-ops engineer, PlayStation Global, London

PlayStation Studios is looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to support its partner platform, whereby content creators interact and publish their content onto PlayStation, including games, apps, movies, music and more. You’ll support and maintain large scale production workloads, web applications, microservices deployed in the cloud (AWS) and actively build and support the move from monolithic to services-based architecture. To apply, you will need experience working in an Agile/SCRUM development style, experience with Kubernetes and cloud native tools, as well as experience of architecting/ building scalable and highly available services. Find out more here.

Kirstie McDermott works for our job board partner, Jobbio. Based in Dublin, she has been a writer and editor across print and digital platforms for over 15 years

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