DevOps / SRE Test Bench Engineer

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a DevOps / SRE Test Bench Engineer based in India.** We are looking for a technically strong engineer to design and validate realistic infrastructure troubleshooting challenges for AI systems. In this fully remote, hourly contract role, you will build intentionally broken Linux and containerized environments that simulate complex, production-like incidents. You will investigate failures across interconnected services, identify root causes, and develop reliable recovery solutions. Your work will also include creating automated verification scripts to confirm that issues are genuinely resolved. This opportunity is ideal for an engineer who enjoys deep technical debugging, infrastructure automation, and solving ambiguous problems without relying on predefined runbooks. You will contribute to challenging, reproducible test scenarios that help evaluate practical engineering capabilities. ### Accountabilities - Design realistic, multi-service infrastructure failure scenarios that require systematic investigation, root-cause analysis, and recovery. - Build, configure, and maintain test environments involving Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, databases, message queues, storage systems, and interconnected services. - Create intentionally broken infrastructure setups that reflect real-world production incidents and operational challenges. - Develop detailed reference solutions, troubleshooting guidance, and automated verification scripts with clear, measurable success criteria. - Validate each scenario for technical accuracy, fairness, reproducibility, and sufficient complexity to require genuine problem-solving rather than following a fixed runbook. - Diagnose complex issues involving networking, storage, permissions, service configuration, replication, container orchestration, and system recovery. - Write setup scripts, automation utilities, and testing tools using Python or Bash. - Track working hours accurately, communicate project progress, and participate actively in the project’s WhatsApp community. - Maintain strict confidentiality regarding project tasks, test environments, technical documentation, and all related materials. ### Requirements - At least 2 years of hands-on experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related technical field. - Strong Linux administration and command-line skills, including SSH, shell scripting, process management, log analysis, file permissions, networking, and system services. - Strong practical expertise in Docker and Kubernetes, including diagnosing container failures, broken deployments, service connectivity issues, and orchestration problems. - Experience with databases and infrastructure components such as PostgreSQL, Redis, message queues, storage systems, replication, and recovery mechanisms. - Proven ability to troubleshoot production-like environments involving multiple interdependent services. - Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and cloud infrastructure. - Strong analytical and investigative skills, with the ability to work independently through ambiguous failures, identify underlying causes, and implement effective solutions without depending on predefined procedures. - A testing-oriented mindset and experience creating automated checks, validation scripts, and deterministic verification mechanisms. - Proficiency in Python or Bash for environment setup, troubleshooting automation, and test development. Good-to-have skills: - Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure. - Familiarity with Nginx, systemd, Logical Volume Manager (LVM), and Linux security hardening. - Understanding of distributed systems, service dependencies, and fault-recovery mechanisms. - Experience using AI coding agents or AI-assisted software engineering tools. ### Benefits - Hourly compensation: USD 20–25 per hour, based on approved and accurately logged working hours. - Flexible remote work: Fully remote arrangement for candidates based in India. - Part-time daily commitment: Approximately 5–6 hours per day. - Ongoing contract: Opportunity to contribute to a continuing technical project. - Hands-on technical challenges: Work with complex Linux, container, orchestration, and infrastructure troubleshooting scenarios. - AI-focused engineering experience: Contribute to the development and validation of challenging infrastructure tasks for AI systems. - Technical screening and onboarding: Shortlisted candidates may be invited to a brief technical assessment, followed by onboarding instructions for selected candidates.