Who we are

Ilkari is a privately-held start-up based in Dublin, Ireland. We deliver hyper-private scale innovation and technology to safeguard and secure data, enabling true data sovereignty even as the pace of change accelerates. Our best-in-breed sovereign technology delivers privacy and control over where companies’ data resides, where it flows, and how it’s accessed.

We’re here to rewrite the story of data sovereignty – empowering innovators, pioneers and visionaries to make their mark. We believe the sky is not the limit. We strive for the perfect balance of simplicity and excellence in everything we do, and we’re looking for people who are ready to join our journey and rewrite the story of data sovereignty.

Role overview

We’re looking for a hands-on Platform Engineer to help shape, operate, and continuously improve our OpenStack, Proxmox, and Kubernetes platforms. You’ll design smart automation (using Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps), keep our core services healthy, and build observability that spots issues before they reach our customers.

You’ll also take ownership of the day-to-day platform operations—patching, upgrades, backups, maintenance, change management, and incident response—ensuring stability as we scale. Collaborating closely with our Engineering, Product, Security, and Operations teams, you’ll turn complex platform needs into repeatable, secure-by-default solutions that are easy to run, well-documented, and built to grow.

New to OpenStack? No problem. If your Linux, Automation, and other required skills and expertise are strong and you’re eager to learn, we’ll help you get production-ready.

What you'll do

• Operate and evolve OpenStack/Proxmox/Kubernetes for availability, performance, and security across environments.

• Own BAU run-ops, patching & upgrades, backups/restore, routine maintenance, change management, incident response, and on-call.

• Automate with Terraform, Ansible or Python; drive GitOps for predictable, auditable changes.

• Build observability (logs, metrics, traces) with actionable alerting and clear dashboards.

• Plan and execute lifecycle activities: cluster/OS upgrades, migrations, hotfixes - aiming for minimal downtime.

• Set up high availability and disaster recovery. Test restores and keep clear runbooks

• Create documentation & runbooks; share knowledge via reviews, demos, and postmortems.

• Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Security, and Operations to turn needs into repeatable solutions.

• Join the on-call rota and support incident response as needed.

What are we looking for

Technical Skills

• 2+ years in Platform/Infrastructure/DevOps (or equivalent hands-on experience). 

• Hands-on with OpenStack, Proxmox and Kubernetes in production (or) platform fundamentals with a clear willingness to learn OpenStack; you’ll ramp up via self-study, mentoring, and incremental ownership. 

• Track record of on-call/incident response and change management in a live environment.

• Strong Linux administration (performance, troubleshooting, hardening). 

• Experience with Python/Bash skills to automate ops tasks, create tools, and remediate issues. 

• Comfort with IaC (Terraform) and configuration management (Ansible); GitOps mindset.

• Hands-on with end-to-end observability in Datadog; Prometheus + Alertmanager; Grafana; centralized logging (Loki or ELK); tracing fundamentals. 

• Good grasp of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, routing basics, load balancing concepts. 

• Clear communicator who writes concise docs/runbooks and collaborates well with stakeholders. 

Soft Skills 

• Ownership mindset, you see BAU and projects through to done; you automate and document by default. 

• Pragmatic problem-solver with a can-do, agile mindset; open to feedback. 

• Self-managing, well-organised, and a clear communicator.

What's in it for you 

• Private life and health insurance for you and your family.

• Four weeks per year to work from anywhere for eligible employees.

• Gym reimbursement.

• Company bus applicable for employees based in Málaga city.

• Learning Pocket for personal development.

• A hybrid working model with flexible hours.

• 3 volunteering paid days each year.

• Generous referral bonus programme.