Sr Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer

The Impact of a Sr Lead Cloud Platform Engineer at Coupa:

As a Sr Lead Kubernetes Engineer, you will be the technical cornerstone for our highly scaled, massively growing cloud environment. You will champion automation by default and apply FinOps principles to ensure efficiency, resilience, and scalable growth across our infrastructure of 140+ clusters. Your architectural vision and hands-on leadership will directly eliminate manual toil, optimize resource management, and empower Coupa to deliver highly available services to our global customers

What You'll Do:

• Architect, manage, and scale our enterprise Kubernetes infrastructure to ensure maximum availability and performance across a large fleet of clusters.
• Lead the implementation of automated continuous workload optimization, shifting the organization away from manual tuning and human toil.
• Manage and extend intelligent resource automation platforms to automate workload sizing, placement, and Karpenter configurations.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Cloud Engineering, FinOps, and Finance teams to drive sustainable cost avoidance and alignment.
• Drive the design of robust Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and deep observability tools for the Kubernetes ecosystem.
• Mentor senior and junior engineers, setting the standard for technical excellence, platform resilience, and security.

What You Will Bring to Coupa:

• 7-10 years + proven experience as a Principal or Lead Platform Engineer managing Kubernetes at a massive enterprise scale.
• 5 years + experience implementing, designing and maintaining Kubernetes clusters.
• Deep, hands-on experience with intelligent resource automation platforms and automated scaling tools like Karpenter or Cluster Autoscaler.
• Strong understanding of FinOps principles and a track record of driving cost-avoidance strategies in cloud-native environments.
• A good understanding of networking.
• Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform or OpenTofu).
• Deep technical mastery of AWS or GCP or Azure cloud services and containerization technologies.
• Exceptional cross-functional communication skills to align complex technical initiatives with business goals.