Principal Platform Engineer

Purple Squirrel Enterprises • Baltimore, MD

4d • $160,000 - $200,000 • Remote

About The Position

Purple Squirrel Enterprises has been supporting startups and global firms through growth, change, and expansion for 19+ years. We provide flexible HR and recruiting solutions that allow leaders to focus on strategy while we handle people operations — and this search is no exception. We are exclusively engaged by a high-growth health technology company to help them identify and hire exceptional engineering talent for this role. We are embedded directly with their leadership team, have deep knowledge of the company, the culture, and what it takes to succeed here — and we will be your dedicated recruiting partner from first conversation through offer. This is not a blind submission. When you apply, you are working with a team that knows this opportunity inside and out and will advocate for you every step of the way. Our client is a mission-driven health technology company on a high-growth trajectory. They build integrated software and technology solutions that help care organizations deliver safer, more consistent, and more compliant services to the populations they serve. Their work sits at the intersection of technology, operations, and human care — and the problems they are solving have real consequences for real people. They serve a growing network of specialized care providers across the United States, helping organizations replace fragmented, manual workflows with technology-guided processes that reduce errors, improve compliance, and give care teams greater confidence in their day-to-day work. This is a remote-first, early-stage company with a lean, high-performing engineering team. They move fast, hold themselves to high standards, and are deeply committed to the mission that drives their work. If you are looking for a role where your contributions have direct, measurable impact — and where the work actually matters — this is worth your attention. Our client is seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to take primary ownership of their existing platform infrastructure. Today, engineering leadership manages cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and compliance alongside other responsibilities. You will be the dedicated technical lead for this domain — the person who matures their practices, optimizes their workflows, and scales their infrastructure as the company grows. This is not a "build it from zero" role. The foundation exists. What they need is an experienced engineer who can quickly assess the environment, identify the highest-leverage opportunities for improvement, and drive solutions with a high degree of agency — without waiting to be directed. You will own their cloud infrastructure footprint end-to-end: a multi-account cloud organization setup, their Infrastructure-as-Code repository, CI/CD pipelines, containerization and orchestration strategy, and developer environment tooling. You will also be the primary technical lead for elevating their security and compliance posture — including HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, and likely upcoming work toward StateRAMP or FedRAMP. If you thrive in high-growth, mission-driven environments and are energized by complex infrastructure challenges where reliability, security, and usability truly matter — this role is for you.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience owning production cloud infrastructure, including direct, hands-on experience with multi-account cloud organization structures, governance policies, and cross-account access management
• Infrastructure as Code — deep hands-on experience with AWS CDK, Terraform, Pulumi, or comparable tooling; you treat infrastructure as software — code reviewed, tested, and version controlled
• CI/CD — proven experience designing, operating, and improving CI/CD pipelines in a production environment
• Containerization & Orchestration — strong production experience with containers and a container orchestration platform (ECS, EKS, or Kubernetes)
• Security & Compliance — direct experience operating infrastructure under HIPAA and/or SOC 2 Type II in a production environment
• Autonomy — a track record of owning ambiguous, high-stakes infrastructure and security problems end-to-end with minimal supervision in fast-paced startup environments
• Communication — excellent written and verbal skills; in a remote-first environment, your ability to document infrastructure decisions and compliance controls clearly enough for both engineers and auditors is critical
• Technical Leverage — demonstrated ability to build tools or infrastructure patterns that amplify the productivity of the broader engineering team
• U.S. work authorization — our client is not able to provide visa sponsorship at this time

Nice To Haves

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional
• Experience in healthcare, fintech, or another highly regulated industry
• Experience with StateRAMP or FedRAMP
• Familiarity with full-stack web and mobile development frameworks (useful for cross-team collaboration)
• Experience with IoT or hardware-connected systems

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the cloud infrastructure environment across a multi-account organization structure, including account boundaries, governance policies, cross-account access management, and cost and security governance
• Extend and maintain the Infrastructure-as-Code repository, treating infrastructure changes with the same rigor as application code — reviewed, tested, and versioned
• Own and improve CI/CD pipelines, pushing toward faster, safer, and more automated deployments across all applications
• Own the containerization strategy and container orchestration platform — including image standards, dependency security, and day-to-day orchestration operations
• Maintain and improve the developer environment so engineers get consistent, reproducible local environments
• Lead the technical work to elevate compliance and security posture — maintaining and evolving controls for HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II, and leading technical readiness for StateRAMP/FedRAMP
• Lead infrastructure-focused security work: secrets management, network security, vulnerability management, and incident response readiness
• Partner with engineering leadership to evolve platform strategy and formalize infrastructure practices as the company scales
• Proactively identify risk across cost, security, reliability, and audit readiness — and drive fixes to completion without being asked
• Elevate engineering culture by setting high standards, mentoring teammates, and simplifying processes that help the team move faster
• Ensure reliability and performance of critical systems by taking ownership of production issues and implementing sustainable fixes

Benefits

• Competitive base compensation: Target Base salary range of $160 - $200K base (commensurate with experience) with a benefits package built to support your whole life. Final offer will reflect the depth and relevance of your background.
• 100% company-paid medical coverage (base plan) via a leading national carrier
• Dental & vision coverage available
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Company-paid life, AD&D, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance
• Lifestyle Spending Account — monthly stipend for wellness, personal use, and company swag
• Flexible PTO + company holidays
• Fully remote work environment
• Mission-driven work with real, measurable impact on the populations our client serves

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed