Kubernetes & Database Migration Engineer- Remote EST hours

About the Engagement
A large enterprise is migrating a mission-critical, in-house Perl-based warehouse and manufacturing operations platform from on-premises VMware infrastructure to AWS. The application runs across manufacturing facilities globally, orchestrates physical hardware (barcode scanners, laser cutters, label printers), and relies on a complex set of dependencies including Kafka, MySQL hub-spoke replication, RabbitMQ, message queuing systems, and terabyte-scale shared file mounts.

The migration strategy follows a Rehost (Lift-and-Shift) with Kubernetes Modernization approach. The first phase moves the QA cluster from on-premises into AWS, followed by production migrations to support international facilities. The role requires close collaboration with the Cloud Infrastructure team (VPC/networking), the application team, and the DBA team managing MySQL replication.

This is an embedded engineer role the successful candidate will work directly alongside the application and infrastructure teams throughout the migration, participating in planning, execution, cutover, and post-migration stabilization, and delivering structured knowledge transfer and team upskilling.

Key Responsibilities
Kubernetes & Application Migration
Assist the technical migration of the Kubernetes cluster from on-premises infrastructure into AWS EKS
Modernize and rewrite existing Helm charts to align with current Kubernetes standards and AWS EKS deployment patterns
Validate and implement container orchestration strategy including pod scaling, resource limits, and health checks
Establish GitOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines for Kubernetes deployment automation
Maintain connectivity to on-prem hardware (barcode scanners, laser cutters, label printers) via hybrid networking during and post-migration

Database Migration & Replication
Coordinate with the DBA team to plan and execute migration of the MySQL hub-spoke replication topology (hub + read replica per facility) to AWS RDS.
Validate binary log replication strategy across hub and spoke databases
Test and document read replica promotion procedures and DR runbooks in the AWS environment
Preserve existing AWS DMS BI reporting replication connectivity during migration
Ensure continued connectivity to downstream dependencies: Kafka clusters, RabbitMQ, message queuing systems, and MSSQL databases

Networking & Security
Collaborate with the Cloud Infrastructure team to validate VPC architecture, Transit Gateway, VPC peering, and security group rules across multiple AWS regions
Validate and implement TLS/certificate management.
Configure DNS routing and record management during cutover windows
Execute and validate network preflight connectivity tests across all identified application dependencies prior to each cutover
Design and document security group inbound/outbound rules based on port dependency analysis
Required Qualifications
5+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure and application migration, with demonstrated AWS hands-on experience
Strong Kubernetes expertise: cluster operations, Helm chart authoring and migration, namespace management, pod lifecycle, and troubleshooting
Hands-on experience with AWS EKS provisioning, configuration, and managed add-on management
Proficiency in AWS networking: VPC design, subnets, Security Groups, Transit Gateway, Route Tables, VPC Peering, and PrivateLink
Working knowledge of MySQL replication topologies (primary/replica, binary log replication) and RDS/Aurora MySQL migration
DNS management and TLS/certificate lifecycle experience (cert-manager, ACM, or equivalent)
Infrastructure as Code proficiency: Terraform or AWS CloudFormation
Experience designing and executing migration cutover plans with defined rollback criteria
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills able to translate technical findings into clear direction for application teams

Preferred Qualifications
Familiarity with Kafka connectivity and configuration within Kubernetes environments
RabbitMQ deployment and connectivity in containerized workloads
Experience with API integration and message queue dependency mapping in migrations
CI/CD pipeline configuration for Kubernetes deployments (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, ArgoCD, or Flux)
Experience with managed Kubernetes platforms
AWS CloudWatch implementation: custom metrics, alarms, log groups, and dashboards
Familiarity with AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) for ongoing replication scenarios
AWS certifications: Solutions Architect Professional, or DevOps Engineer Professional
Experience with Perl-based applications or understanding of asynchronous job processing patterns
Working Knowledge (Nice to Have)
Manufacturing, warehouse, or fulfillment center operational systems domain context
Hybrid on-prem/cloud connectivity for physical hardware (scanners, printers, laser cutters)
AWS Cost Optimization: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, right-sizing
AWS Backup policies and cross-region replication configuration
APM tooling: Datadog, New Relic, or Dynatrace in AWS environments
MSSQL Server awareness (adjacent database dependencies