Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer

Lead Platform Engineer (Kubernetes | AWS | Go/Python | Infrastructure as Code)

Location: Hybrid / Chicago or Dallas

Salary: $170-200k + 15% + Excellent Benefits

We're looking for an experienced Lead Platform Engineer to shape and deliver the cloud platform that underpins critical financial systems. You'll lead the design and evolution of a modern Kubernetes-based platform, enabling engineering teams to build, deploy, and operate secure, resilient, and highly scalable applications.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you'll influence architecture, mentor engineers, and drive platform engineering best practices across a complex, cloud-native environment.

If you're passionate about automation, developer experience, reliability, and building platforms that scale, we'd love to hear from you.

We're looking for a Kubernetes Subject Matter Expert.

What you'll be doing

• Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of our Kubernetes (EKS) platform on AWS.
• Build secure, scalable, and highly available cloud infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code.
• Develop platform tooling and automation using Go or Python.
• Champion Platform Engineering, DevOps, GitOps, and Site Reliability Engineering best practices.
• Drive improvements in CI/CD, observability, security, and operational excellence.
• Work closely with Architecture, Security, and Engineering teams to define technical strategy.
• Mentor and coach engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence.
• Establish engineering standards, reusable platform capabilities, and self-service developer tooling.
• Lead incident reviews and drive improvements in resilience, performance, and reliability.

What we're looking for

We're interested in experienced engineers who have spent 8+ years in DevOps, Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or Software Engineering roles, ideally within financial services, banking, payments, fintech, or other highly regulated environments.

Essential skills

• Deep expertise with Kubernetes in production environments.
• Strong experience designing and operating cloud platforms on AWS.
• Professional software development experience using Go or Python.
• Extensive experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred).
• Strong understanding of Linux, networking, containers, and distributed systems.
• Experience building CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation.
• Experience implementing monitoring, logging, and observability solutions.
• Strong understanding of cloud security, IAM, secrets management, and compliance.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical direction.

Nice to have

• Experience with GitOps tools such as Argo CD or Flux.
• Experience operating multi-cluster Kubernetes environments.
• Advanced knowledge of AWS EKS, ECS, or serverless technologies.
• Exposure to Kafka or event-driven architectures.
• Financial services, banking, trading, payments, or fintech experience.
• Experience leading engineering teams or acting as a technical lead.

Why join us?

You'll be joining a team building mission-critical platforms that support large-scale financial systems where reliability, security, and performance matter.

In return, you'll have the opportunity to:

• Influence the technical direction of a modern cloud platform.
• Work with talented engineers solving complex technical challenges.
• Drive adoption of Platform Engineering best practices.
• Lead engineering standards and mentor the next generation of platform engineers.
• Work with modern cloud-native technologies at enterprise scale.
• Enjoy competitive salary, annual bonus, pension, private healthcare, flexible working, and ongoing professional development.