The Role

The Senior Manager of Container Orchestration Services leads the design, delivery, and continuous improvement of Lumen's Rancher as a Service (RaaS) platform as a clearly defined Managed IT Service that advances service transformation across multi-cloud environments.

This leader is responsible for managing a high-performing team of Kubernetes platform engineers who operate and scale a large enterprise Rancher environment spanning AWS (EKS), Azure (AKS), GCP (GKE), and on-prem clusters.

The role focuses on transforming Kubernetes operations from fragmented platform support into a standardized, secure, automated, and customer-centered service model. This includes defining service capabilities, service levels, intake pathways, consumption patterns, and measurable outcomes that enable application teams to deploy and operate workloads at scale through self-service while maintaining operational excellence, governance, and reliability.

Location

This is a work from home position with the US.

The Main Responsibilities

• Implement and maintain security best practices across all clusters.
• Enforce role-based access control (RBAC) policies consistently.
• Ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.
• Manage user permissions using least-privilege principles.
• Monitor cluster access and security configurations.
• Conduct regular security audits and risk assessments.
• Apply security patches and updates in a timely manner.
• Strengthen identity and access management controls.
• Protect sensitive data through appropriate security measures.
• Establish and maintain compliance monitoring processes.
• Standardize security policies across cluster environments.
• Support governance and operational security requirements.
• Respond to and remediate identified security vulnerabilities.
• Maintain documentation for security and compliance controls.
• Continuously improve cluster security posture and resilience.

What We Look For in a Candidate

• Experience transforming technical platforms into customer-facing Managed IT Services with defined offerings, service levels, intake models, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes
• Deep experience managing Kubernetes platforms at enterprise scale, including multi-cluster and multi-cloud environments
• Strong expertise with Rancher or similar Kubernetes management platforms
• Hands-on knowledge of CSP-managed Kubernetes services (EKS, AKS, GKE)
• Proven experience leading platform engineering or SRE teams supporting production workloads
• Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform) and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab)
• Strong understanding of container ecosystems (Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, service meshes)
• Experience operating platforms with multi-tenant application workloads and self-service capabilities
• Demonstrated ability to improve service experience through self-service, automation, knowledge management, adoption tracking, and continuous feedback loops
• Knowledge of observability platforms (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana) and site reliability principles
• Strong understanding of cloud networking, identity (IAM), and security principles in Kubernetes
• Experience with compliance-driven environments (FedRAMP, NIST, etc.) preferred
• Proficiency in scripting or programming languages such as Python or Go
• Strong communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence across engineering and business teams
• Ability to communicate service value, operational performance, roadmap tradeoffs, and transformation progress to executive, engineering, and customer stakeholders

Compensation

This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.

Location Based Pay Ranges

$132,232 - $176,310 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY
$138,844 - $185,124 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI
$145,456 - $193,940 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA

Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process. Learn more about Lumen's:BenefitsBonus Structure

Requisition #: 342680