Kubernetes for platform engineers
As a platform engineer, you are responsible for designing, managing, and evolving the infrastructure that supports modern applications. Kubernetes plays a central role in this stack, providing a consistent and extensible platform for running containerized workloads.
This page explains how Kubernetes fits into the work of platform engineers and highlights common patterns, tools, and best practices.
Why platform engineers use Kubernetes
Kubernetes helps platform engineers:
- Provide a consistent application runtime across environments (on-premises, hybrid, multi-cloud)
- Automate deployment and management of containerized workloads
- Manage infrastructure as code through declarative APIs and GitOps practices
- Enable self-service deployment models for developers
- Support scalability and high availability for critical workloads
- Integrate observability, security, and cost management into the platform
What platform engineers manage in Kubernetes
As a platform engineer, you typically manage:
- Kubernetes cluster lifecycle (provisioning, upgrades, scaling)
- Node pools and infrastructure (compute, storage, networking)
- Core platform services (Ingress, service mesh, monitoring, logging)
- Storage integration (CSI drivers, StorageClasses)
- Identity and access management (RBAC, cloud identity integration)
- Network policies and Pod security standards
- Backup and disaster recovery tooling
- Cost optimization and cluster resource tuning
You also provide tooling and workflows that enable application teams to deploy and manage their workloads on Kubernetes.
Common tools for platform engineers
- kubectl: Core CLI for interacting with the cluster
- kustomize / Helm: Manage Kubernetes manifests and releases
- Flux / ArgoCD: Implement GitOps pipelines
- Prometheus / Grafana / Loki: Observability stack for monitoring and logging
- Istio / Linkerd: Service mesh for advanced networking and security
- Velero: Backup and disaster recovery for Kubernetes resources and persistent volumes
- Cluster API (CAPI): Declarative cluster lifecycle management
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi): Automate cloud infrastructure for Kubernetes clusters
Common questions platform engineers ask
- How do I provision and scale Kubernetes clusters securely?
- How do I provide a good developer experience for application teams on Kubernetes?
- How can I implement GitOps for Kubernetes resource management?
- How can I monitor, alert, and troubleshoot Kubernetes workloads?
- How can I manage cost and optimize resource usage across clusters?
- How do I enforce network and security policies at the Kubernetes level?
- How do I manage multi-cluster environments?
Best practices for platform engineers
- Automate cluster lifecycle and configuration as much as possible
- Implement GitOps workflows for all cluster resources
- Use observability tools to provide visibility into cluster and application health
- Define standard, opinionated configurations for Ingress, StorageClasses, NetworkPolicies, and SecurityContexts
- Regularly test and validate cluster upgrades in non-production environments
- Design for multi-AZ high availability when supported by your cloud provider
- Build clear documentation and self-service portals for developers consuming your Kubernetes platform
Next steps
Explore additional role-based guides:
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