Principal Cloud Kubernetes Engineer
InterSystems · Boston, MA
$140,000–$206,000
Jul 20, 2026
Boston, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual contributor role focused on designing, operating, and evolving enterprise-scale Kubernetes platforms across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises environments. The position owns platform architecture and roadmap, infrastructure automation via Terraform and GitOps, multi-cluster networking, observability, and security standards. It also carries significant technical leadership responsibilities, including mentoring engineers and guiding architecture decisions across multiple teams.
Principal level · 12+ years · Boston, MA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $140,000–$206,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 30 people in the Boston, MA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 6–55
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $169,742 (middle half $134,780–$187,781). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (13)
SOC classification is Medium confidence: this role writes and ships platform automation code (Terraform modules, Kubernetes Operators, controllers, Go/Python), which points to 15-1252 Software Developers; however, it also carries heavy infrastructure operations and architecture responsibilities that could support 15-1244. The code-authoring and platform-engineering framing ultimately tips it to 15-1252.
The 12+ years requirement is the stated overall experience floor; the 7+ years of Kubernetes is captured on that skill's years demanded.
AWS is listed as required alongside Azure and/or GCP — the JD says 'including AWS, Azure, and/or GCP', so AWS is the primary with Azure and GCP as alternatives on the same gate.
Go and Python are listed together as 'Go, Python, or similar languages' under Required Qualifications — Go is the primary with Python as the named alternative.
Argo CD, Flux, and Fleet are listed as interchangeable GitOps tools under Required Qualifications; Argo CD is the primary with Flux and Fleet as alternatives.
Cilium and Calico appear together in the responsibilities section as CNI options; Cilium is also explicitly called out under Required Qualifications alongside eBPF, so both are marked required.
Kyverno and OPA/Gatekeeper appear in the responsibilities narrative, not under a formal Required or Preferred heading — marked preferred accordingly.
Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Loki, Portworx, OpenEBS, Crossplane, and Backstage appear either in the responsibilities narrative or under Preferred Qualifications — all marked preferred.
EKS, AKS, and GKE appear in the responsibilities section as example platforms, not under a formal Required heading — marked preferred with alternatives.
Rancher and Spectro Cloud Palette are explicitly listed under Preferred Qualifications.
The posting does not specify a work location beyond InterSystems' Boston HQ; remote status is not stated, so remote is set to false.
Certifications (CKA, CKS, CKAD, AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform, CNCF) are listed under 'Preferred Certifications' — not extracted as skills per the schema's guidance on non-technology requirements.
Compensation is stated as a base salary range of $140,000–$206,000 USD annually, with a discretionary annual variable incentive noted separately.
Read the full posting
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