Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) / Senior Software Engineer

Job Title: Senior Site Reliability Engineer / Platform Engineer (Java, Go & Kubernetes)

Location: Urbandale, IA 50322 (Hybrid split schedule between remote and onsite work Open to candidates willing to relocate to Urbandale/Des Moines)

Contract Duration: 12 Months Contract with possibility of Extension

Shift Structure: First Shift | Type 1 Shift, Monday through Friday

Pay Rate: $71.00 - $75.00/hr on W2

Portfolio Requirement: N/A

Assessment Requirement: Mandatory Glider technical assessment required prior to interview (Assessment ID: John_Deere-37043773). High scoring across both software engineering and Kubernetes infrastructure is required.

Relocation Policy: Open to candidates willing to relocate to Urbandale, IA at their own expense.

Visa Sponsorship: Standard onshore onboarding requirements apply.

Job Description:

Our client, a global leader in precision technology and advanced machinery, is seeking a high-caliber Senior Site Reliability / Platform Engineer to join their Platform Engineering team in Urbandale, IA. This unique role requires a true hybrid "unicorn" skill set—combining strong software engineering background with deep cloud-native infrastructure expertise. Working in a collaborative paired programming environment, you will build and maintain global multi-region Kubernetes clusters, write custom Kubernetes operators, develop embedded observability software in Go/Java, and maintain enterprise telemetry pipelines.

Key Responsibilities:

• Platform & Operator Development: Write production-grade code to build greenfield software, custom Kubernetes operators, and embedded observability tools in Java (70%) and Go (10%), alongside Scala and Python.
• Cluster & Infrastructure Engineering: Deploy, configure, and manage multi-region enterprise AWS EKS / Kubernetes clusters and long-term cloud storage solutions.
• Observability & Tracing: Architect and maintain end-to-end tracing and telemetry platforms using OpenTelemetry, Datadog, and Grafana.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Automate multi-region cloud infrastructure and provisioning scripts using Terraform.
• Paired Programming & Mentorship: Actively participate in daily paired programming sessions, lead Agile technical design reviews, and mentor junior software and platform engineers.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• Balanced Dual Experience: Proven, hands-on experience bridging both software engineering (writing/testing backend code) and SRE/infrastructure (managing cluster architectures).
• Programming Core: 3 to 6+ years of active software development experience with core proficiency in Java and Go, complemented by Python or Scala.
• Container Orchestration & Cloud: 3+ years of experience deploying, managing, and building custom tooling for Kubernetes / AWS EKS clusters.
• Observability & Tracing: 3+ years of hands-on experience with OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, and system health metrics.
• Infrastructure as Code: 3+ years of experience managing AWS Cloud topologies using Terraform.
• Paired Programming & Communication: Comfortable working in a paired programming environment with exceptional verbal, written, and collaborative communication skills.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or an equivalent technical discipline.

Stand-Out Skills (Preferred):

• Experience writing custom Kubernetes operators or CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions) from scratch.
• Advanced diagnostic proficiency with Datadog and Grafana dashboarding/alerting setups.
• Previous background operating within a Developer Experience, Core Platform, or SRE organization supporting multi-region production scale.