👋 We are 4Sale International Co., one of the largest online marketplaces in the Middle East, particularly in Kuwait.
We connect millions of users to hundreds of thousands of listings through our mobile apps and website. Established, profitable, and funding our own expansion, we operate primarily out of Zamalek, Cairo, and are constantly innovating to become the largest online marketplace in the region.

We’re hiring a Senior DevOps Engineer (3+ YOE) to lead our DevOps initiatives, manage our AWS infrastructure, and scale our EKS clusters.

🕓 Start Date: Immediate
🌍 Location: Hybrid (Cairo-based preferred)
💰 Salary: 60,000 - 80,000 EGP 

🛠️ How the Hiring Quest Works

1. Register for the quest

2. Receive full instructions via email after registration closes

3. Submit your solution before the deadline

4. Top candidates will be invited to a live review session

5. One candidate will be hired — others may be considered for freelance or future roles

🔍 Who We’re Looking For

1. 3+ years in DevOps / Cloud Infrastructure roles

2. Deep hands-on experience with AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, CloudFront, EKS, OpenSearch, ElastiCache, WAF, etc.)

3. Skilled with Kubernetes (EKS, Helm, Operators) and containerized workloads

4. Strong CI/CD experience (GitHub Actions, CircleCI)

5. Solid Linux administration and troubleshooting skills

6. Knowledge of networking (VPC, DNS, Load Balancing, Firewalls, VPNs)

7. Proven ability to mentor and lead DevOps practices

📌 Preferences (Not mandatory but a big plus):

1. AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Professional)

2. Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or CKS

3. Prior experience in large-scale marketplaces

🎯 Your Mission: Build a Secure, Observable, Scalable Cloud Environment

Business Context

4Sale is continuously scaling to support millions of users. We need a robust, secure, and observable DevOps setup that balances performance with cost efficiency.

🛠️ Your Tasks

1. Application (Core)

1. Build a simple 3-tier application consisting of:

   1. Frontend (very simple app served via NGINX inside the cluster -out of the evaluation, just for testing-).

   2. Backend (simple API service):

      1. Choose any simple domain (e.g., Tasks, Notes, Products, Bookmarks). Create endpoints like this:

      2. POST /addTask, DELETE /deleteTask, GET /listTasks

   3. Postgres DB deployed via Helm/Kustomize.

2. Provide a Docker Compose file for local testing before Kubernetes deployment.

3. Apply HPA for scaling (document your chosen scaling criteria).

4. Apply Pod Security Admission (PSA) standards to ensure non-root execution.

5. Create a Helm chart that deploys the app and DB using templates (bonus points).

6. Restrict database access using NetworkPolicies (only app namespace can reach it)

⚠️ Note: You may use any open-source three-tier application, or leverage ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate the application.

2. Infrastructure (AWS)

1. Supply Terraform/Terragrunt (or other IaC tool) to provision:

   1. Networking (VPC, subnets, SGs, etc.)

   2. EKS cluster with core add-ons for storage and networking

2. Support two accounts (dev & prod) operating in different regions.

3. We will apply your Terraform plan and evaluate it, so make sure it works.

4. Include a README with clear steps, notes, and scripts to automate as much as possible.

⚠️ If you don’t have enough AWS credits, you can use MicroK8s, Minikube, K3s, or another local Kubernetes option. Be sure to document the trade-offs (e.g., lack of LoadBalancer support, storage differences). Keep all AWS-related files intact so we can still validate them

3. Stress Testing

1. Write a Locust script to test scalability & HPA.

2. Script should be configurable using environment variables.

3. This script will be used in evaluation to validate autoscaling

4. CI/CD Pipelines

1. Use GitHub Actions/CircleCI to build a complete DevSecOps pipeline.

2. Create two pipelines:

   1. App deployment pipeline

   2. Infrastructure pipeline

3. You should decide the tools and security measures yourself.

4. We expect to see a complete DevSecOps approach (e.g., image signing, scanning with Trivy/Snyk/Grype, secret management, RBAC, etc.).

5. Justify your tool choices with simple comparisons.

5. Security

1. Demonstrate how you enforce (Add your answers to README file):

   1. Access control

   2. DDoS protection & WAF

   3. Data encryption at rest & in transit

   4. Secrets management

   5. Role-based access control (RBAC)

2. Add tests/checks to validate these security measures

5. Monitoring & Alerts (Advanced)

1. Add monitoring for logs, uptime, latency, resources, and disk usage for either app or DB or both.

2. Dashboard for database metrics

3. Deploy OpenTelemetry and Jaeger on the cluster and ensure application traces appear (bonus points).

4. Create alerts for:

   1. High CPU (>80% for 5 mins)

   2. Pod crash / restart loops

   3. Postgres down/unavailable

   4. Configure alert delivery via email or webhook.

5. Describe how you will (Bouns):

   1. Detect anomalies & vulnerabilities

   2. Ensure compliance with regional data regulations

   3. Track costs and apply FinOps principles

🧰 Tech Stack

1. Cloud: AWS (EKS, RDS, S3, CloudFront)

2. IaC: Terraform, Helm, or Kustomize

3. CI/CD: GitHub Actions / CircleCI

4. Containers: Docker, Kubernetes

5. Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch

6. Security: IAM, RBAC, NetworkPolicies, WAF

📝 What You Should Submit

1. GitHub repo including:

   1. Source code for app

   2. Docker Compose setup

   3. Kubernetes manifests / Helm charts

   4. Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Terragrunt)

   5. GitHub Actions pipeline configuration

   6. Locust stress test script

   7. README with setup, deployment, and evaluation notes
      
      

2. Short video walkthrough (≤ 15 mins) showing:

   1. Files structure

   2. Terraform architecture

   3. Pipeline design

📊 Evaluation Criteria

1. Infrastructure as Code (AWS & IaC Design) – 25%

2. CI/CD Automation & DevSecOps Integration – 25%

3. Kubernetes Deployment & Scaling (HPA, Helm, policies) – 20%

4. Monitoring, Logging & Observability – 15%

5. Security & Compliance Practices – 10%

6. Documentation & Presentation – 5%

📩 After Submission

Top candidates will be invited to a live review session where we’ll:

1. Walk through your code, manifests, and pipelines

2. Discuss your approach to scaling, cost optimization, and security

3. Assess your leadership potential in driving DevOps culture at 4Sale

👉 Final hiring decisions will be made within 3–5 business days after your review.