Staff Platform Engineer, (Senior Consultant, Engineering & Technical Services)

Fearless•Washington, DC

13d•$120,588 - $195,955•Remote

About The Position

Fearless is seeking a Staff Platform Engineer on its Senior Consultant, Engineering & Technical Services career path to lead platform modernization efforts supporting federal student aid programs. The role designs and implements a shared engineering platform that enables software delivery across a large federal organization, with a focus on cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, and developer experience improvements using tools such as GitLab, Datadog, and Databricks. The work supports technology powering student loans, financial aid, and borrower services by creating scalable, secure, and reusable platform capabilities that improve delivery speed and reliability across engineering teams. This is a fully remote role. The Senior Consultant collaborates with cross-functional teams to align technical vision, implementation, and software quality across development, reliability, testing, and operations. The role bridges business objectives with technical execution in software development, infrastructure, security, and testing at an advanced application level. The Senior Consultant helps deliver scalable, secure, and reliable solutions while mentoring engineers, fostering collaboration, and aligning stakeholders with product and project goals. The position also provides technical leadership and customer advisory support, promotes engineering best practices, manages delivery risks, and cultivates stakeholder relationships. The role may require occasional travel to client sites or company meetings.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in platform engineering, infrastructure automation, or related technical roles.
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or four additional years of relevant professional experience in lieu of a degree.
Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.
Proven ability to standardize observability, environment consistency, and release controls across multiple applications.
Extensive experience designing and supporting cloud-native platforms and shared engineering services.
Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD pipelines using GitLab, and platform automation.
Deep understanding of DevSecOps principles and modern software delivery practices.
Experience implementing enterprise observability, monitoring, and logging using tools such as Datadog.
Experience integrating enterprise engineering tools, including GitLab, Jira, Confluence, and Databricks.
Demonstrated experience designing and evolving internal platforms that improve delivery speed, deployment safety, and reliability across teams.
Deep expertise in infrastructure automation, delivery pipelines, environment design, and secure provisioning for mission-critical systems.
Experience reducing operational toil by building self-service platform capabilities and reusable engineering patterns.
Ability to act as a hands-on platform leader who sets standards, drives adoption, and prevents fragmentation across teams.
Advanced application proficiency in the listed skills and competencies, including analytical and synthetic thinking, adaptability, ownership and accountability, consultative advising, communicating with influence, and managing priorities and client alignment.
Ability to sit for extended periods while working on a computer or during meetings.
Ability to communicate effectively via phone, email, and in person, including clear speech, listening, and written communication.
Ability to move within an office environment, reach for files, use office equipment, and occasionally lift up to 10 pounds.
Ability to travel occasionally to client sites or company meetings, potentially by driving or flying.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting large-scale enterprise modernization or platform engineering initiatives in federal government environments.
Hands-on platform leadership experience establishing engineering standards, driving adoption, and preventing platform fragmentation across teams.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of the enterprise platform supporting software delivery across the customer ecosystem.
Design and build scalable cloud infrastructure, shared platform services, and reusable engineering capabilities that reduce operational overhead.
Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, and deployment automation across multiple development teams.
Establish and standardize platform engineering best practices, architecture patterns, and engineering standards organization-wide.
Design and implement observability capabilities, including logging, monitoring, dashboards, alerting, and operational metrics using Datadog.
Build self-service platform capabilities and reusable engineering patterns that improve developer productivity and accelerate software delivery.
Integrate security, compliance, and DevSecOps practices into platform architecture and engineering workflows.
Partner with software engineers, product managers, and security teams to improve the developer experience and drive platform adoption.
Provide technical leadership, mentor engineering teams, and drive consistency across the enterprise platform to prevent fragmentation.
Troubleshoot complex platform challenges and continuously improve platform reliability, scalability, security, and operational excellence.
Foster collaboration with cross-functional teams by taking initiative and driving conversations.
Coach, mentor, and develop peers to elevate team capability and technical expertise, communicating engineering solutions clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
Build trust with customers and teammates by delivering high-quality services.
Ensure project objectives are met on time and aligned with client priorities and Fearless standards; anticipate risks and implement proactive solutions.
Monitor team deliverables, identify risks early, coach teammates on mitigation strategies, and keep leadership informed.
Cultivate stakeholder relationships, synthesize insights across client organizations and partner ecosystems, and provide actionable recommendations to Fearless leaders.
Deliver high-quality code and maintainable systems.
Offer and implement innovative solutions using engineering best practices, tools, frameworks, and methodologies.
Lead and align stakeholders with product and project goals that advance customer satisfaction and Fearless objectives, strategy, and mission.
Serve as a trusted advisor in the role's area of expertise.