Professional Services Engineer (Technical Operations)

Location: Tel Aviv (TLV) (IL)

Description

Kela is a defense technology startup pioneering next-generation command & control and data infrastructure systems. We empower defense organizations with robust, scalable, and secure platforms that integrate diverse sensors and AI to deliver real-time battlefield intelligence. Backed by leading investors, Kela combines Israeli innovation with global mission impact.

This role sits on the TechOps team and owns the full technical lifecycle for customers - from initial deployment and system integration, through ongoing maintenance, to fixing things when they break.

Most of the work is from the office, with occasional travel to customer sites when hands-on presence is needed.

What you'll do

• Lead site setup and integration: stand up new deployments, configure systems, and integrate the full stack (cameras, radars, networking, edge compute, the Kela platform)
• Be the group's technical owner for one or more projects - you'll follow them from day one, know the mission, know the customers, and hold the deepest context on every detail
• Own ongoing maintenance and upgrades across the production fleet - version rollouts, config changes, hotfixes
• Troubleshoot issues that span application, infrastructure, and network layers - the kind that don't have an obvious owner
• Act as an escalation point for support and field ops engineers, and work closely with R&D, systems, algo, design, and most of the other teams when issues need to go deeper
• Write and maintain the runbooks, docs, and tooling that make the next deployment easier than the last one
• Communicate clearly with customers and internal teams, especially when things are time-sensitive

Requirements

• 3+ years in professional services, production engineering, or a similar customer-facing role in mission-critical environments
• Strong Linux fundamentals and hands-on experience operating Kubernetes in production
• Networking across the stack - complex network setups, cellular, satellite, VPN/overlay networks - with real experience debugging connectivity issues on live sites
• Proficient in Bash and Python for automation and one-off investigations
• Hands-on with databases and storage - queries, diagnostics, understanding what's happening under the hood
• Able to read code and debug logs to trace issues to root cause
• Fluent with GitHub as a daily tool
• Strong ownership instinct - the kind of person who sees a half-finished thing and finishes it
• Strong sense of ownership and a ״can-do״ mindset - someone who takes initiative and drives tasks to completion.
• Precise, analytical, and reflective. You draw conclusions from data, not instinct, and you make sure the same problem doesn't bite you twice
• Ability to learn quickly and operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Clear communicator, in writing and on calls, with both technical and non-technical people

Willing to participate in the team's on-call rotation as part of the regular routine