Lead Platform Automation Engineer

RBC•Toronto, ON

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Are you interested in working as a Lead Platform Automation Engineer on the Global Payments Platform and DevOps team in Technology & Operations at the Royal Bank of Canada? RBC's Global Payments Platform and DevOps Team is responsible for building and evolving the internal developer platform that accelerates software delivery across our payment systems. We design self-service infrastructure, intelligent automation, and AI-augmented engineering workflows that enable development teams to ship faster, safer, and with less toil. Our mission is to empower developers with state-of-the-art platform capabilities, AI-driven tooling, and self-service infrastructure that enable them to create, test, and deploy their applications with speed and reliability. We pride ourselves on staying at the forefront of the industry, continuously integrating the latest advancements in platform engineering, context-aware AI, and intelligent automation to ensure our infrastructure is not only robust but also cutting-edge. By fostering a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and continuous improvement, we are dedicated to delivering best-in-class platform services that drive the success of our enterprise payment systems. As part of our team, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of our internal developer platform, designing intelligent automation systems, and integrating AI capabilities into engineering workflows. You will lead the evolution from traditional DevOps practices toward a modern platform engineering model where self-service, automation-first thinking, and AI literacy are foundational.

Requirements

8-10+ years of expertise in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or SRE roles with progressive responsibility
Proficient developer in at least one common object-oriented language (Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript) with strong Bash scripting and emphasis on building reusable platform tooling
Deep understanding of platform engineering principles including internal developer platforms (IDPs), self-service infrastructure, and golden paths
Strong AI literacy including context engineering, prompt engineering, context harness design, tool-use patterns (MCP, function calling), and AI agent orchestration
Experience evaluating and integrating AI-powered developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, Devin, or similar)
Hands-on experience with platform and automation tools (Terraform, Ansible, Dynatrace, GitHub, Backstage/Port, Elastic, Kibana)
Deep expertise with GitHub Actions and GitOps methodologies for CI/CD and platform automation
Advanced Kubernetes and OpenShift experience with enterprise-scale production deployments
Experience with distributed systems architecture and workflow orchestration platforms such as Camunda
Extensive experience across cloud environments (Azure, AWS, OCP), Linux/Unix systems, and APIs
Excellent communication skills with ability to present to technical and executive stakeholders
Experience leading technical teams and mentoring engineers in platform engineering and AI-augmented practices

Nice To Haves

Experience building internal developer portals using Backstage, Port, or custom solutions
Hands-on experience with AI tooling integration and AI-powered developer productivity solutions
Knowledge of context engineering methodologies for building AI agent systems, including context injection and multi-agent orchestration
Experience with progressive delivery techniques (Blue-Green, canary deployments, feature flags)
Experience developing custom platform tooling, CLI tools, and developer productivity frameworks
Familiarity with payment systems and financial services technology platforms
Relevant certifications such as CKA/CKAD, Red Hat OpenShift, or cloud platform certifications

Responsibilities

Lead the design and implementation of self-service platform capabilities, including golden paths, internal developer portals, and automated provisioning workflows that reduce cognitive load on development teams
Architect and build intelligent automation systems that leverage AI to optimize CI/CD pipelines, detect anomalies, auto-remediate incidents, and accelerate delivery cycles
Lead the development and maintenance of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) frameworks and platform abstractions that enable consistent, repeatable, and auditable infrastructure provisioning across multiple environments
Design and implement context engineering patterns for AI-assisted development workflows, including structured prompt systems, tool-use orchestration, and context harness architectures that maximize AI effectiveness in engineering tasks
Create, evaluate, and integrate AI-powered developer tools and coding assistants into the platform, establishing standards for responsible and effective AI usage across engineering teams
Lead the deployment and scaling of distributed workflow orchestration systems (such as Camunda) in multi-datacenter configurations, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and performance at enterprise scale
Build and maintain platform observability stacks, including metrics, logging, tracing, and AI-driven alerting systems that provide actionable insights into platform health and developer experience
Create and review technical design documents, facilitate architecture reviews, and drive alignment across teams on platform standards and patterns
Implement security best practices within pipelines and platform infrastructure, embedding security controls as code and shifting security left in the development lifecycle
Mentor and provide technical leadership to team members on platform engineering, AI-assisted development practices, and emerging technologies

Benefits

bonuses
flexible benefits
competitive compensation
commissions
stock where applicable
Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
A world-class training program in financial services
Flexible work/life balance options
Opportunities to do challenging work
Opportunities to take on progressively greater accountabilities
Opportunities to build close relationships with clients