Principal, Centralized Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world's most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Job Title: Principal, Centralized Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Location: Pune

Experience: 15+ Years (10+ in Cloud/Platform Engineering with Azure Kubernetes)

Role Summary

The Principal – Centralized AKS Engineer will lead the architecture, engineering, and governance of enterprise-grade AKS platforms within the Cloud Foundation framework. This role is responsible for building and operating a secure, centralized, multi-tenant AKS platform, enabling standardization, governance, and developer self-service at scale while balancing security and agility.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, build, and evolution of a Centralized AKS platform aligned to Cloud Foundation strategy.
• Drive standardization and reusable platform capabilities across AKS environments.
• Architect and manage central AKS clusters (multi-tenant, shared services model) with strong isolation and scalability.
• Define and enforce platform governance, security, and compliance standards.
• Implement GitOps-driven platform operations using ArgoCD.
• Drive automation using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Bicep).
• Integrate AKS with enterprise-grade services:
• Azure Networking (Hub-Spoke, Private Link, Azure Firewall).
• Identity & Access (Azure AD, RBAC, Managed Identities).
• Observability (Dynatrace, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Prometheus, Grafana).
• Enable secure workload onboarding into central AKS clusters.
• Implement policy enforcement and security controls (Azure Policy, OPA/Gatekeeper, Secrets Management).
• Lead secrets management and encryption strategies (Azure Key Vault, CSI drivers).
• Support CI/CD integrations (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Helm, ArgoCD pipelines)
• Lead platform reliability engineering, incident management, and performance optimization
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and architectural governance
  

Qualifications

• Education & Experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of experience in Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure, or Platform Operations with 15+ years of total work experience in Technology Infrastructure.
• Strong experience in Cloud Foundation / Azure Kubernetes / Platform Engineering models
• Technical Skills
  

Central AKS & Kubernetes Expertise

• Deep hands-on experience in Centralized AKS platform design and operations
• Experience managing shared / multi-tenant AKS clusters
• Strong understanding of:
• Cluster architecture (node pools, scaling, upgrades)
• Ingress controllers (NGINX, AGIC)
• Workload isolation and namespace strategies
• Networking (CNI, private clusters, service endpoints)
  

Automation & GitOps

• Strong experience with:
• ArgoCD (mandatory) for GitOps-based deployments and lifecycle management.
• Helm charts and deployment standardization.
• Git-based release workflows and environment promotion strategies.
  

Cloud & Platform Skills

• Azure Networking (VNet, Hub-Spoke, NSG, Firewall).
• Identity & Security (Azure AD, RBAC, Key Vault).
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred).
• DevOps and CI/CD practices.
  
  

Governance & Security

• Strong experience in policy enforcement and compliance frameworks.
• Kubernetes security, secrets management, and workload protection.

Soft Skills

• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities
• Effective cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Proven mentoring and leadership capabilities
• Ability to influence outcomes without direct authority
• Strong ownership mindset with focus on platform stability and customer experience
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with multi-cloud environments (AWS/EKS)
• Exposure to service mesh
• Certifications:
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) / CKAD
• Exposure to FinOps and cost optimization practices
  

Leadership Expectations

• Act as the technical authority for centralized AKS platforms
• Drive adoption of a platform-first, centralized engineering model
• Champion Cloud Foundation standardization and governance
• Promote GitOps and automation-first culture
• Enable enterprise-wide AKS platform adoption and modernization
  
  

Success Measures

• Successful implementation and adoption of a centralized AKS platform
• Increased developer productivity via self-service and GitOps (ArgoCD)
• Strong platform stability, scalability, and security posture
• High levels of automation and reduced operational overhead
• Ability to balance governance requirements with developer productivity
• Reduced incidents and improved platform reliability (MTTR, availability)
  
  

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust's history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [HIDDEN TEXT], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.

About Our Pune Office

The Northern Trust Pune office, established in 2016, is now home to over 3,000 employees. The office handles various functions, including Operations for Asset Servicing and Wealth Management, as well as delivering critical technology solutions that support business operations across the globe.

Our Pune team takes our commitment to service to heart. In 2024, they volunteered more than 10,000+ hours into the communities where they live and work. Learn more.