VP of Platform Engineering

Recruitics

6d•$200,000 - $250,000•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a Vice President of Platform Engineering to lead the design, evolution, and operational excellence of our cloud-native infrastructure and developer platform. This role is responsible for building and scaling the foundational systems that power our applications, data platforms, and AI-driven services. You will oversee Kubernetes architecture, infrastructure-as-code strategy, CI/CD systems, observability, reliability engineering, and cloud performance optimization across a complex AWS-based environment. Our platform stack includes Kubernetes (EKS, Vcluster), Apache Spark workloads, Snowflake analytics, Airflow orchestration, and Java-based microservices. You will lead the teams that ensure this ecosystem is scalable, secure, resilient, and engineered for long-term performance. This is a hands-on executive role for someone who understands distributed systems deeply, thinks in terms of architecture and platform leverage, and can elevate engineering standards across the organization.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in Cloud Infrastructure, Platform Engineering, or DevOps.
5+ years leading platform or infrastructure teams at scale.
Deep expertise in AWS architecture and cloud-native systems.
Strong hands-on knowledge of Kubernetes (EKS) and distributed systems.
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, and GitOps.
Familiarity with Spark, Airflow, and large-scale data processing systems.
Experience supporting Java-based microservices in containerized environments.
Strong understanding of observability, performance engineering, and reliability principles.
Proven ability to scale infrastructure while improving operational efficiency.
Excellent executive communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in high-growth SaaS environments.
Background in platform modernization or cloud transformation initiatives.
Exposure to AI/ML infrastructure workloads.
Experience implementing platform cost governance frameworks.
FinOps familiarity within engineering organizations.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the long-term platform engineering vision across cloud, data, and application infrastructure.
Own Kubernetes (EKS) architecture, cluster strategy, multi-environment governance, and workload isolation patterns (including Vcluster strategy).
Lead infrastructure modernization and simplification initiatives to reduce technical debt and increase scalability.
Establish engineering standards for microservices deployment, resource management, and platform resiliency.
Oversee AWS infrastructure design across compute, storage, networking, and data services.
Drive Infrastructure-as-Code maturity using Terraform and GitOps principles.
Ensure platform environments are secure, observable, and highly available.
Lead capacity planning, performance engineering, and system reliability improvements.
Own CI/CD platform strategy and deployment pipelines to improve velocity and reduce operational friction.
Improve developer experience through self-service infrastructure tooling and automation.
Oversee containerization standards (Docker, Helm, ArgoCD) and release management best practices.
Champion automation-first operational processes to reduce manual intervention and toil.
Provide architectural oversight for Spark-based distributed compute workloads.
Guide optimization of Airflow orchestration and Snowflake data platform usage.
Ensure data-intensive workloads are engineered for performance and scale.
Standardize patterns for resource efficiency across compute-heavy systems.
Establish SRE best practices including SLOs, SLAs, incident management, and performance monitoring.
Oversee implementation of observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, etc.).
Ensure security and compliance standards are embedded in platform design.
Improve resilience and disaster recovery strategies.
Build and lead a high-performing Platform Engineering organization.
Mentor senior engineers and platform leads.
Collaborate closely with Engineering, Data, and Security leadership.
Create a culture of operational excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement.

Benefits

Competitive salaries with growth incentives
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
#AnywhereAugust - We support remote work experiences to expand perspectives and personal growth
15 Vacation Days, 5 Flex Days, 5 Sick Days, and remote work options year-round
Fully paid parental leave for both parents
Summer Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day
Winter Recess between Christmas and New Years
Commuter and Parking Benefits through Wage Works
Eligible to contribute to your 401(K) Retirement Plan after six (6) months of employment.
Employee Assistance Programs to support your day to day