Staff Platform Engineer
Robots and Pencils16 hours ago
Base Salary
$126k - $174k/yr
Responsibilities
- Define DevOps strategy and infrastructure architecture for multi-environment, multi-region cloud systems.
- Architect and operate scalable Kubernetes platforms and containerized infrastructure.
- Own infrastructure-as-code standards across environments.
- Lead DevSecOps practices involving secrets management, compliance, auditing, IAM, and zero-trust networking.
- Drive platform reliability, performance SLAs, observability, and cost optimization.
- Lead complex cloud migrations and platform modernization initiatives.
- Design and operate AI/ML platform infrastructure, including model serving, GPU workload orchestration, LLM gateways, vector stores, and deployment systems.
- Partner with engineering, product, and leadership on platform strategy and communicate infrastructure tradeoffs.
- Lead design reviews, architecture discussions, release-readiness assessments, and technical escalations.
- Establish engineering standards, mentor junior and mid-level engineers, and evaluate emerging technologies.
Requirements
- 7+ years of professional DevOps or platform engineering experience, including leadership of complex platform initiatives.
- Expert scripting and programming skills in technologies such as Python, Go, Java, or Bash.
- Deep expertise in at least one major cloud platform and expert Kubernetes and container orchestration skills.
- Expert infrastructure-as-code skills across multiple tools and strong CI/CD architecture experience at scale.
- Strong DevSecOps experience with secrets management, compliance, and auditing.
- Experience with cloud networking, IAM, security architecture, zero-trust principles, service mesh, distributed systems, and microservices architecture.
- Strong experience with AI/ML platform infrastructure, including model serving, GPU workload orchestration, LLM gateways, vector stores, and AI/ML deployment systems.
- Demonstrated technical leadership, mentoring, stakeholder communication, and judgment in ambiguous environments.
- Demonstrable day-to-day usage and expert knowledge of AI-forward tools such as Claude and Cursor.
- Cloud certifications such as AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, CKA, or Azure DevOps Engineer, or FinOps experience, are preferred.
Benefits
- Remote work arrangement with a preference for candidates in the Seattle metro.
- Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical, dental, and vision insurance, and 401(k) for eligible employees.
About Robots and Pencils
Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm that designs, builds, and runs production AI systems and agentic co-workers for enterprise operations, with a focus on AWS. The privately held company, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, provides consulting and implementation services spanning data readiness, cloud modernization, and AI enablement. It is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner with delivery teams across the U.S., Canada, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.