COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Rancher Government Solutions (RGS) is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers, and Kubernetes.
Rancher is a complete open-source software stack for teams adopting containers. It addresses the operations and security challenges of managing multiple Kubernetes clusters at scale, while providing DevOps teams with integrated tools for running containerized workloads.
RGS supports all Rancher products with U.S. based American citizen with the highest security clearances who are currently supporting programs across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies.
POSITION SUMMARY
As a Senior Support Engineer at RGS, you will be a player-coach, blending deep technical expertise with leadership skills to guide a team of talented Support Engineers while also directly assisting US Government customers with complex challenges related to the SUSE Rancher portfolio and the broader cloud-native ecosystem. This critical role involves acting as a technical escalation point, fostering strong customer relationships, and ensuring the highest level of support delivery within secure government environments. This position reports within the RGS Professional Services organization.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Provide expert-level technical guidance on best practices and troubleshooting to customers on the SUSE Rancher portfolio and underlying technologies (Kubernetes, Docker, Linux OS, Networking, Storage, Virtualization).
- Maintain an expert-level understanding of the SUSE Rancher products and the evolving cloud-native landscape
- Build and maintain strong relationships with government customers, ensuring their satisfaction and success with RGS.
- Effectively communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
- Understand, document, and champion customer needs (bug reports, feature requests) internally with Product Management and Engineering teams.
- Operate with a strong understanding of federal security requirements (e.g., DoD STIGs, NIST guidelines) relevant to customer environments.
- Other duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Must be a U.S. Citizen. (Eligibility for security clearance may be required).
- 5+ years of progressive experience in technical support, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), DevOps, platform engineering, or a similar role.
- Deep understanding and practical experience with containers and container orchestration with Kubernetes.
- Strong Linux administration skills
- Excellent troubleshooting skills spanning OS, networking, storage, and application layers.
- Demonstrable experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP) or on-premise virtualization platform (e.g., vSphere, Harvester).
- Familiarity with DevOps concepts, CI/CD pipelines, and automation tools.
- Proven aptitude for learning new technologies quickly and continuously.
- Ability to manage priorities, work independently, welcome feedback, and contribute positively to team goals.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Direct experience supporting or managing SUSE Rancher products (Rancher Manager, RKE2, K3s, Longhorn, NeuVector, Harvester).
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, Ansible, or SaltStack.
- Experience working within government cloud environments and adhering to strict security compliance standards.
- Scripting or programming experience (Python, Go, Bash).
- Experience contributing to or actively participating in open-source communities.
- Relevant certifications (e.g., CKA, CKAD, Cloud Provider certifications).