Director, Platform Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, Platform Engineering based in the United States.

The Director, Platform Engineering will own the infrastructure and DevOps foundation that enables product, software, and data teams to build and operate reliable systems.

This hands-on leadership role combines technical strategy, people management, architecture, and direct contribution to critical infrastructure initiatives.

You will lead the evolution of cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes environments while ensuring they remain secure, reliable, scalable, and cost efficient.

A key focus will be establishing effective standards for AI-assisted engineering, ensuring AI-generated infrastructure and code meet rigorous production, security, and maintainability requirements.

You will drive modern engineering practices across infrastructure as code, CI/CD, GitOps, secrets management, observability, and developer experience.

The role also oversees database and data warehouse infrastructure and partners closely with Security and IT on platform-related responsibilities.

This is an opportunity for a technically strong leader who enjoys building teams while remaining close enough to the systems to architect, troubleshoot, and deliver alongside engineers.

Accountabilities

• Own and evolve Azure cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes environments, ensuring reliability, security, scalability, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Lead the adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices for platform infrastructure, establishing standards, guardrails, review processes, and quality expectations for AI-generated code and infrastructure.
• Define and drive infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and GitOps practices that enable engineering teams to deploy safely, efficiently, and consistently.
• Own secrets management and the DevOps tooling supporting secure deployment and operational workflows.
• Maintain and evolve database and data warehouse infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational resilience.
• Establish and improve observability, monitoring, incident response, and reliability engineering practices across the platform.
• Improve developer experience by providing reliable tooling, automation, infrastructure services, and engineering standards.
• Lead, manage, mentor, and develop platform engineers and engineering managers while remaining hands-on with architecture, coding, technical reviews, and incident response.
• Partner with Security and Corporate IT on responsibilities and handoffs spanning infrastructure, security, access, and operational tooling.
• Evaluate technical risks, architectural tradeoffs, and opportunities for continuous improvement across the platform engineering estate.
• Establish scalable engineering practices that support secure, maintainable, and efficient infrastructure operations.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in infrastructure, platform, or DevOps engineering, including hands-on experience with Azure, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, and data warehousing.
• 3+ years of experience managing engineers or engineering managers.
• Deep expertise in CI/CD, GitOps, and infrastructure as code.
• Demonstrated ability to direct AI coding and infrastructure tools to produce production-grade systems, including architecting desired outcomes, effectively guiding AI tools, and critically reviewing their output.
• Strong understanding of AI-assisted engineering with the judgment to remain fully accountable for the quality, security, reliability, and correctness of resulting systems.
• Experience owning secrets management and associated security and DevOps tooling.
• Experience operating databases and data warehouse infrastructure at scale.
• Proven ability to remain hands-on through coding, architecture reviews, technical problem-solving, and incident response rather than operating solely at a strategic level.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience building or scaling a platform engineering function within a lean, growing technology organization is preferred.
• Familiarity with Snowflake or other modern data warehouse technologies is preferred.
• Experience with observability platforms such as Datadog or Grafana is a plus.
• Background in regulated or compliance-focused environments, including exposure to SOC 2, is advantageous.
• Experience partnering with dedicated Security or IT teams is preferred.

Benefits

• Base salary range of $185,940-$227,260 USD.
• Eligibility for bonus and equity compensation.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Generous paid time off.
• 12 weeks of paid family bonding leave.
• Health Savings Account (HSA).
• Short-term and long-term disability coverage.
• Supplemental life and AD&D insurance.
• Critical illness, injury, and hospital insurance.
• Opportunity to work in a highly collaborative environment focused on building strong technical teams and innovative infrastructure.
• Flexibility to work remotely within the United States.
• Opportunity to combine senior technical leadership with hands-on engineering and AI-assisted infrastructure development.