This is a remote position.
DevOps & Platform Engineering – Grid Asset System (PID 524-2026-023) 50Hertz / MCCS | Contract / Freelance
Contract / Freelance
Full-time
Remote with travel readiness required (Germany)
Start: Immediately
6 months (extensions possible)
About the role
We are seeking a Senior Principal Platform Engineer to join the MCCS (Modular Control Centre System) programme at 50Hertz, Germany's leading transmission system operator. You will help build and establish a cloud-native hybrid cloud engineering platform (Azure and on-premises) supporting approximately 20 product teams and 150 developers, acting as a central enabler for the efficient development and stable operation of MCCS products.
What you'll be doing
Designing, implementing and documenting a cloud-native, Kubernetes-based engineering platform
Adapting and customising standardised engineering services across code, build, deploy and run phases
Implementing Infrastructure-as-Code for reproducible, versioned environment and service provisioning, enabling developer self-service
Integrating centrally provided platform services including Kubernetes, Kafka, PostgreSQL and observability tooling
Designing, implementing and operating CI/CD pipelines and establishing SDLC standards aligned to best practices and security requirements
Introducing trunk-based development, automated testing and build and release best practices
Analysing existing systems and deriving migration strategies for applications and development teams transitioning to EDP
Providing technical consultancy on integration into the multi-tier platform architecture (EDP, GrASP, MCCS)
Empowering development teams to use the platform independently over time
Requirements
What you'll need
10+ years of experience as a DevOps and/or Platform Engineer
5+ years of experience as a Principal Platform Engineer and/or SRE
Excellent knowledge of setting up and migrating engineering platforms for very large development teams (20+ teams, 100+ developers)
Excellent knowledge and extensive experience in Developer Experience
Excellent knowledge of build and deployment tooling across Azure and on-premises environments
Extensive expertise in GitOps deployments and deployment strategies including ArgoCD and Helm
Excellent knowledge of cloud-native secure SDLCs
Excellent knowledge of monitoring with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki and OpenTelemetry
Fluent English (C1 minimum)
Desirable
Proven experience building engineering platforms and self-service platforms/Golden Paths
Experience designing platforms as products with clear APIs and roadmaps
Experience in large-scale cloud/platform migrations
Expertise in Kubernetes multi-cluster platform operation
Knowledge of CI/CD architectures including Azure DevOps and Harness.io
Knowledge of GitOps and deployment strategies including Blue/Green and Canary
DevSecOps and Security-by-Design experience in critical infrastructure or regulated systems
Benefits
As a freelancer / contractor with us, you will enjoy flexible working hours and the freedom to choose your own projects. Our platform gives you access to exciting projects in various industries and supports you in advancing your career. You'll benefit from competitive pay and a dedicated team to help you with any questions you may have. Work independently and utilise our strong network to achieve your professional goals.