Staff Platform Engineer

Role Overview

We are seeking a Staff Platform Engineer to lead the design, evolution, and adoption of our internal platform ecosystem. This role combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership to build secure, scalable, and developer-centric cloud platforms.

As a senior technical leader, you will define platform architecture, establish engineering standards, and enable product teams through a world-class Internal Developer Platform (IDP). You will work across teams to improve developer experience, system reliability, security posture, and cloud networking foundations while driving innovation in cloud-native and AI-enabled engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture & Strategy

• Define and evolve the target architecture for cloud-native platforms on AWS
• Architect and govern AWS network topology, including multi-account and multi-region designs
• Design scalable, resilient systems leveraging Kubernetes, serverless, and event-driven architectures
• Establish and maintain platform standards, patterns, and “golden paths” for engineering teams
• Drive adoption of the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) across the organization

Cloud Networking & Infrastructure

• Design and implement secure, scalable AWS network architectures (VPCs, subnets, routing, NAT, load balancing)
• Define connectivity patterns including Transit Gateway, API gateway, VPC peering, and PrivateLink
• Architect hybrid connectivity solutions (VPN, Direct Connect) and private service access
• Establish network segmentation and zero-trust principles across environments
• Implement and enforce network security controls (security groups, NACLs, traffic inspection)
• Optimize network performance, availability, and cost across distributed systems
• Architect systems

Data & Database Architecture

• Design and govern database architectures across AWS services (e.g., RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, and data streaming platforms)
• Define best practices for data modeling, indexing, and query optimization across relational and NoSQL systems
• Architect scalable data access patterns for microservices and event-driven systems
• Ensure high availability and disaster recovery strategies (multi-AZ, multi-region replication, backup/restore)
• Optimize database performance, cost, and storage strategies across workloads
• Establish secure data handling practices, including encryption, access controls, and data classification
• Collaborate with engineering teams on schema design, data lifecycle management, and migration strategies

Technical Leadership

• Act as a technical authority across platform, infrastructure, and networking domains
• Lead complex cross-team initiatives and influence architectural decisions at an organizational level
• Mentor senior engineers and guide teams on platform engineering, cloud architecture, and DevSecOps best practices
• Provide architectural leadership on complex networking challenges, including cross-region and hybrid cloud designs

Developer Experience & Enablement

• Build and enhance self-service capabilities, reusable templates, and automation tooling
• Improve developer productivity through streamlined workflows, CI/CD, and platform abstractions
• Partner with engineering teams to reduce friction and accelerate delivery

Cloud Infrastructure & Automation

• Architect and manage AWS environments (EKS, Lambda, API Gateway, IAM, VPC, etc.)
• Lead Infrastructure as Code practices (Terraform preferred) for scalable and consistent environments
• Design and implement robust CI/CD pipelines with integrated testing and security controls

Security & Governance

• Define and enforce security best practices across platform, application, and network layers
• Implement DevSecOps practices, including automated security testing and compliance controls
• Drive adoption of zero-trust and identity-first security models
• Ensure governance across IAM, networking, encryption, and secrets management

Observability & Reliability

• Establish observability standards including logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting
• Define and implement SLOs, SLIs, and error budgets
• Drive reliability engineering practices and continuous improvement of incident response

Cost & Performance Optimization

• Promote FinOps practices and cost-aware architecture design
• Optimize infrastructure usage, network efficiency, and system performance

Innovation & Emerging Technology

• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies, including AI-native development workflows
• Guide safe and scalable use of AI/ML systems (data protection, model access, cost control)

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of experience in platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or cloud infrastructure roles
• Deep expertise in AWS cloud services and cloud-native architecture
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration
• Deep expertise in AWS networking, including VPC design, IP addressing, routing, and connectivity patterns (Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, peering)
• Proven experience designing multi-account and hybrid network architectures in AWS
• Strong understanding of cloud network security, segmentation, and zero-trust principles
• Proven experience designing and implementing Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)
• Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred)
• Strong understanding of microservices, serverless, and event-driven architectures
• Deep knowledge of CI/CD systems and DevSecOps practices
• Strong understanding of cloud security, IAM, and governance models
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g., Python, Go, or similar)

Desirable Skills

• Experience with service mesh technologies and advanced platform networking
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, CIS Benchmarks)
• Experience modernizing legacy systems (e.g., .NET to cloud-native)
• Knowledge of observability platforms (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, etc)
• Exposure to multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environments

Leadership & Personal Attributes

• Strong systems thinking with deep architectural expertise
• Ability to influence and drive alignment across teams and stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills, both technical and non-technical
• Passion for developer experience and platform usability
• Strategic mindset with a focus on scalability, resilience, and long-term impact
• Proactive and outcome-driven, with a bias for action and continuous improvement

Summary

This role is ideal for engineers who operate at the intersection of architecture, platform engineering, and technical leadership. As a Staff Platform Engineer, you will define the foundation—including cloud networking and platform architecture—that enables engineering teams to build, deploy, and scale securely and efficiently.