We are looking for a skilled and experienced Istio Service Mesh Engineer to support, manage, and optimize Istio-based environments in production. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud-native networking, and microservices architectures, with hands-on experience deploying, scaling, and maintaining Istio in enterprise-grade environments. This role requires a strong balance of technical acumen, problem-solving ability, and collaboration with development and operations teams.

Key Responsibilities:

Deploy, configure, and manage Istio service mesh for Kubernetes-based applications.

Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize service mesh components to ensure high availability and performance.

Implement and enforce security best practices, including mTLS, authentication, and authorization policies.

Partner with development and operations teams to optimize microservices communication, reliability, and observability using Istio.

Design and implement advanced traffic management strategies (routing, circuit breaking, load balancing, canary deployments).

Automate deployment and configuration of Istio using Helm, Terraform, and other DevOps tools.

Perform upgrades, maintenance, and lifecycle management of Istio and related components.

Provide technical guidance, documentation, and training on Istio best practices and usage.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

Strong understanding of service mesh architectures, cloud networking, and security principles.

Proven hands-on experience deploying and maintaining Istio in production.

Proficiency with observability tools: Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, Datadog.

Experience with automation tools such as Helm, Terraform, or Ansible.

Hands-on knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).

Strong scripting skills in Bash or Python.

Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and GitOps methodologies.

Knowledge of certificate management and PKI.

Excellent problem-solving, troubleshooting, and communication skills.