Staff Platform Engineer, Platform Development

This is the platform that the program's product surface runs on. The team has matured into a focused capability function, and the next phase is not greenfield product building. It is hardening, scaling, and getting the architecture into a state that can support a meaningful expansion of the customer footprint over the next 24 months. You would own the cloud network design across a sizeable AWS environment, the IaC patterns that govern how the platform evolves, and the security controls that have to hold up under regulated scrutiny. This is a role for a senior IC who can own architecture and execution and represent the function credibly in any cross-functional forum.

A growing technology company operating in a regulated, mission-critical infrastructure space. Engineering operates as a distributed team with a focused capability model. The platform function within this program owns the cloud infrastructure, cloud networking, hosted services, security tooling infrastructure, and the directory services environment that support delivery.

• Technical strategy and architecture for the platform end-to-end, from initial concept through delivery and ongoing maintenance
• Cloud network architecture across a multi-account AWS estate (VPCs, subnets, Route53, Transit Gateways, network firewalls, multi-account traffic routing). This is the single biggest current focus area.
• The IaC backbone (CloudFormation or Terraform), Python or Node.js automation, and pipeline-driven infrastructure changes that govern how the platform evolves
• Replatforming and rehosting work as services are modernized and consolidated within AWS
• Identity and access architecture across the AWS estate, including IAM at scale, AWS Organizations, SCPs, and federated access patterns
• The Windows domain environment, hybrid identity, and the security tooling infrastructure that supports the security function
• Observability, reliability, and disaster recovery design including monitoring, alerting, SLOs, and runbook automation
• CI/CD pipeline standards and testing rigor for platform components
• Cross-functional representation of the platform function in technical and leadership forums across engineering, product, and operations
• Mentorship and technical leadership across the team through design reviews, code reviews, and standards-setting

A small dev plus ops team within the program's engineering organization. The hiring leader is looking for a senior technical partner who can own architecture and execution and step into any meeting and represent the function credibly. The split is roughly 60% deep technical contribution on the hardest implementations and 40% planning, cross-team representation, scope definition with product owners, work breakdown, and process improvement. Expect a meaningful share of time in technical and leadership meetings; this is not a heads-down IC role. The current emphasis is expanding the production footprint, not greenfield product development. Expect a small-company environment with real technology constraints. Additional mid-level and senior engineers are planned to grow the team beneath this hire over the coming year.

• Deep AWS expertise, including cloud networking at scale (VPCs, Route53, Transit Gateways, network firewalls, multi-account traffic routing)
• Production-grade Automation and IaC (CloudFormation or Terraform; Python or Node.js)
• Working knowledge of security controls and compliance for regulated workloads

• 7 to 15 years of professional engineering experience building, delivering, and operating scalable, secure, reliable cloud systems
• Deep AWS expertise across compute, systems management, databases, scaling strategies, and resilient multi-AZ architecture (EC2, SSM, RDS or equivalent, Auto Scaling, Load Balancers)
• Strong AWS cloud networking depth: VPCs, subnets, Route53, Transit Gateways, network firewalls, PrivateLink, peering, multi-account traffic routing
• Production-grade IaC in CloudFormation or Terraform, and proficiency in Python or Node.js
• Demonstrated experience replatforming or rehosting services and applications within AWS
• Working knowledge of security controls and compliance for regulated and federal workloads, including IAM at scale, KMS, secrets management, audit logging, and least-privilege patterns
• A track record at Staff or Principal level navigating significant technical ambiguity and leading large-scale cross-functional technical efforts
• Strong written and verbal communication. This role represents the platform function in meetings constantly.
• Ability to use AI tooling as an accelerator without depending on it for core technical thinking. Internal AI tool availability is constrained by contracting policy.

• Professional AWS Certifications (Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Engineer Professional)
• Windows domain and Active Directory at depth (hybrid identity, GPO, DC operations)
• Observability and monitoring at scale: Splunk, Datadog, CloudWatch, Prometheus or Grafana
• Operational intelligence, industrial technology, or federal mission environments
• Container orchestration at production scale (Kubernetes or ECS)
• Formal SRE practice exposure, chaos engineering, or service mesh patterns
• Prior experience in a sub-100 person company, or comfort adapting from a larger org into one

• Compensation: $180,000 to $265,000 base, depending on experience and location
• Location: Denver metro strongly preferred. Other US metros considered for the right candidate, but the hiring leader has a clear preference for local.
• Work model: hybrid for local candidates with regular in-office presence. Quarterly in-person team time at minimum for any non-local hire. Travel is otherwise minimal.
• US citizenship required. Must be able to obtain a federal network account, CAC, and Secret Clearance. Candidates may start without active clearance. Security-relevant certification (Security+, Cloud+, AWS Solutions Architect, or AWS DevOps Engineer) required for production access within 90 days of hire.