Principal Platform Engineer
- Job Title: Principal Platform Engineer
- Work Location: Fully remote position, home office
- Employment Type: Full-time
- Employment Status: Exempt, salaried
- Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
- Must reside in the United States.
- We are not accepting applicants for remote workers in California, Illinois, and New York at this time.
Compensation:
- $150,000 to $190,000 annually
Role Overview:
The Principal Platform Engineer will blend deep expertise in DevOps, Cloud Architecture, Product Securitization, and Database Engineering to design, build, and optimize the resilient, scalable, and secure foundations upon which our products thrive. Collaborates with Software Engineers, Hardware Engineers, Platform and Site Reliability Engineers, Product Managers, and engineering leadership to bridge hardware-software boundaries by uncovering trouble points and opportunities to accelerate the delivery of new value through software. This role will function as a technical leader, driving best practices, championing innovation, and providing critical support across our engineering teams.Key Responsibilities:
- DevOps & Automation Leadership:
- Lead the design, implementation, and optimization of our CI/CD pipelines, ensuring efficient, automated, and reliable software delivery.
- Lead, architect, improve and maintain our MLOps pipelines.
- Maintain and support our Lake House.
- Champion Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles and drive the adoption of automation tools and practices across the organization.
- Instill a culture of continuous improvement, monitoring, and operational excellence within the platform team and beyond
- Cloud Architecture & Strategy:
- Works directly with the CTO to guide and lead the cloud engineering aspect of the product, lending knowledge of cloud technology to provide solutions that adhere to cloud standards and usage patterns. Design and implement highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-optimized cloud infrastructure solutions.
- Define and own the architectural roadmap for our cloud-native platforms, leveraging deep expertise in major cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Cloud Infrastructure Development: Actively contributes to coding and scripting for cloud infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and automation using languages like Python, Go, or similar.
- Evaluate and integrate new cloud technologies and services to enhance platform capabilities and efficiency.
- Product Securitization & Compliance:
- Spearhead the integration of security best practices throughout the platform lifecycle, from design to deployment and operations.
- Implement and manage security controls, vulnerability management, and incident response procedures for the platform and underlying infrastructure.
- Ensure the platform adheres to relevant industry security standards and regulatory compliance requirements.
- Database Engineering & Optimization:
- Architect, manage, and optimize highly available and performant database solutions (relational and NoSQL) to support critical applications.
- Implement robust data backup, recovery, and replication strategies.
- Collaborate with development teams to ensure efficient database schema design and query optimization.
- Support and QA:
- Level 3 Support: Provide expert-level troubleshooting and resolution for complex platform and infrastructure issues, minimizing downtime and impact.
- Quality Assurance (QA) Integration: Collaborate with QA teams to ensure platform stability, performance, and security through automated testing and validation.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a significant focus on platform engineering, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure.
- Proven track record of architecting, building, and operating large-scale, highly available, and secure cloud platforms.
- Deep expertise in DevOps methodologies, CI/CD pipelines, and automation tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes).
- Extensive experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including a strong understanding of its core services and architectural patterns.
- Strong background in product security, including experience with security best practices, vulnerability management, and compliance frameworks.
- Expertise in database administration and optimization for both relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra) databases.
- Proficiency in one or more programming/scripting languages (e.g., Python, Go, Bash, Java).
- Experience with monitoring, logging, and alerting tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Splunk).
- Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative, and agile environment.
- Experience with chaos engineering and resilience testing.
- Knowledge of distributed systems design and microservices architectures.
- Certifications in relevant cloud technologies or security frameworks.
- Experience leading or mentoring junior engineers.
- Project-based development experience
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Science in Mechanical, Electrical, or Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related field
- Five or more years of experience in areas outlined above.
- Experience integrating mechanical and electronic controls, understanding of instrumentation and P&ID diagrams, control logic, safety integrated systems, and controls; administrative and teamwork.
Other Qualifications:
- Successfully pass background check for cybersecurity access requirements.
Cybersecurity Role Expectations:
- Candidate will be responsible for reviewing policies and procedures related to cybersecurity and those relevant to the functions of their role.
- Candidate is expected to maintain a cybersecure work environment.
Physical Requirements:
- Primarily sedentary, office workers (home or central) may expect to sit at a desk for long hours.
- Must be able to lift a minimum of 25 pounds.
- Must be able to make and receive audio and video conference calls.
- Must be able to use hands to type, handle products and tools and navigate a computer keyboard.
- Required to have close visual acuity to perform activities such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.
Benefits:
- Medical, Vision, Dental Insurance
- Health Savings Account with Employer contributions
- 401(k) with Employer match
- Short-term & Long-term Disability Coverage
- Accidental Death & Dismemberment Coverage
- Life Insurance Coverage
- 80 hours of Paid-Time-Off annually
- Eight paid holidays per year
- All other benefits required by applicable law
Alignment with Corporate Values
All Cutsforth employees are expected to perform their work in a manner that exhibits understanding and adherence to the Company Mission and Core Attributes of Cutsforth Employees. Employees in management roles must exhibit continual improvement along Cutsforth’s Leadership Traits. Further, each employee must read and adhere to corporate policies and safety protocols.
- Learn more about Cutsforth here: Cutsforth.com/About
- Read our Mission & Values here: Cutsforth.com/Values
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
Cutsforth will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Cutsforth will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Such action shall include, but not be limited to the following: Employment, upgrading, demotion, or transfer, recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship. Cutsforth agrees to post in conspicuous places, available to employees and applicants for employment, notices to be provided by the provisions of this nondiscrimination clause.
For Cutsforth's full Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, click here: EEO Notice to Employees & Applicants