VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) Consultant-Freelancing

VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) Consultant
Experience: 15+ Years
Position: Consultant / Senior Consultant
Location: [Location] | [Hybrid/Remote]
Employment Type: Consultant
Job Summary
We are looking for an experienced VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) Consultant with 15+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, virtualization, and cloud technologies. The candidate should have strong hands-on expertise in Kubernetes, VMware vSphere, VKS/Tanzu, Linux, networking, storage, security, automation, and production support.
The role will involve designing, implementing, managing, upgrading, securing, and troubleshooting enterprise Kubernetes platforms running on VMware infrastructure. You will work closely with enterprise client stakeholders, platform engineers, and Cloud Ops teams to evaluate existing hypervisor environments, design containerization strategies, automate deployment pipelines, and ensure enterprise-grade security and compliance for Kubernetes workloads.
Key Responsibilities
Design, deploy, configure, and manage Kubernetes clusters using VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) / Tanzu.
Manage VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, HA, DRS, vMotion, clusters, and VM resources supporting Kubernetes.
Perform Kubernetes cluster provisioning, scaling, upgrades, patching, and lifecycle management.
Troubleshoot production Kubernetes issues including Pod failures, CrashLoopBackOff, ImagePullBackOff, Pending Pods, Node NotReady, OOMKilled, DNS, API Server, and scheduling issues.
Configure and troubleshoot Kubernetes Services, Ingress, CNI, DNS, Load Balancing, and Network Policies.
Manage Kubernetes persistent storage including PV, PVC, StorageClass, CSI, and dynamic provisioning.
Work with VMware storage technologies such as vSAN, VMFS, and NFS.
Implement Kubernetes security controls including RBAC, authentication, authorization, secrets, TLS, and Network Policies.
Monitor Kubernetes platforms using Prometheus, Grafana, and centralized logging/alerting tools.
Automate infrastructure and Kubernetes operations using Ansible, Terraform, Bash, Python, and Git.
Support CI/CD and DevOps integration with Kubernetes environments.
Perform capacity planning, performance optimization, backup/restore, and disaster recovery activities.
Provide L3/L4 production support, incident management, troubleshooting, and Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
Develop technical documentation, operational runbooks, and knowledge-transfer materials.
Work with networking, storage, security, application, and DevOps teams to resolve complex infrastructure issues.
Required Technical Skills
Kubernetes
Strong hands-on experience in Kubernetes administration and production support.
Good understanding of Kubernetes architecture and components.
Experience with Pods, Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps, Secrets, Namespaces, Jobs/CronJobs.
Experience with PV/PVC, StorageClasses, CSI, RBAC, Service Accounts, Resource Requests/Limits, Taints/Tolerations, and Affinity.
Strong knowledge of Kubernetes networking, CNI, DNS, Ingress, Load Balancing, and Network Policies.
Experience with Kubernetes cluster upgrades, patching, scaling, backup, and recovery.
Hands-on experience with Helm and YAML.
Strong troubleshooting and RCA capabilities.
VMware / VKS
Strong experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.
Hands-on experience with VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) and/or Tanzu Kubernetes.
Understanding of Kubernetes integration with VMware infrastructure.
Experience with HA, DRS, vMotion, clusters, resource management, and capacity planning.
NSX/NSX-T experience is highly desirable.
Knowledge of vSAN is preferred.
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF): Experience with VCF SDDC Manager, automated workload domain deployments, and VCF-integrated VKS is a strong added advantage (non-mandatory).
Linux, Automation & DevOps
Strong Linux administration experience with RHEL, Ubuntu, SUSE, or equivalent.
Good knowledge of Linux networking, systemd, filesystems, CPU/memory, and performance troubleshooting.
Knowledge of container technologies such as Docker/containerd.
Monitoring & Security
Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, logging, monitoring, and alerting.
Knowledge of Kubernetes security, RBAC, authentication, authorization, TLS, secrets, and container/image security.
Experience with enterprise identity integration such as AD/LDAP/OIDC is desirable.
Understanding of Kubernetes backup, HA, and DR concepts.
Qualifications & Experience
15+ years of overall experience in IT infrastructure, virtualization, cloud, or platform engineering.
Strong hands-on experience supporting enterprise production environments.
Minimum 5+ years of Kubernetes experience preferred.
Strong VMware virtualization experience.
VKS/Tanzu production experience is highly preferred.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Preferred Certifications
CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator)
CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
VCP / VCAP (VMware Certified Professional / Advanced Professional)

Work arrangement
Yes