Head of Platform Engineering

Summary

Join Xapo Bank's fully distributed team as the Head of Platform Engineering and lead the evolution of their cloud-native application platform. This 100% remote position requires a product mindset, focusing on delivering a platform that empowers internal engineering teams. You will lead and mentor a high-performing team, define the platform's strategic roadmap, and champion a 'Platform as a Product' approach. Responsibilities include ensuring operational excellence, disaster recovery, compliance, and collaboration with other teams. The ideal candidate possesses strong leadership, technical expertise in DevOps, cloud infrastructure, and a passion for improving developer experience.

Requirements

• Proven Leadership: Demonstrable experience leading, managing, and mentoring engineering teams, ideally in a platform, DevOps, or SRE capacity. Experience with small, agile, and flat-structured teams is highly beneficial
• Platform Product Mindset: A strong understanding of and practical experience with "Platform as a Product" principles and applying a product management mindset to internal platforms. Familiarity with concepts like Team Topologies is a plus
• Developer Empathy & Focus: A genuine passion for improving developer experience, productivity, and autonomy. Proven ability to design and support software and/or platforms that are actively used and valued by other developers
• Extensive hands-on experience in running and scaling platforms within a DevOps culture, including delivering and operating a comprehensive DevOps toolchain and automation frameworks
• Strong, demonstrable experience in designing, building, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and supporting technologies (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD)
• Deep technical knowledge across software development, systems architecture, cloud infrastructure (preferably AWS), containerization (Kubernetes), IaC (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi), and observability (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack)
• Strategic & Pragmatic Thinking: Ability to translate high-level business and engineering strategy into a clear platform roadmap, making pragmatic decisions that balance innovation with operational stability and business impact
• Build vs. Buy Acumen: Experience integrating with third-party SaaS providers and a clear, demonstrable understanding of how to evaluate build versus buy decisions effectively
• Excellent Communication & Collaboration: Ability to dive into technical details with engineers and distill complex information for executive and non-technical audiences. Proven ability to collaborate effectively across teams and influence without direct authority
• Continuous Learner: Stays abreast of current technology developments, industry best practices, and emerging trends, with a demonstrated ability to identify and implement relevant technologies to maintain a competitive advantage
• A dedicated workspace
• A reliable internet connection with the fastest speed possible in your area
• Devices and other essential equipment that meet minimal technical specifications
• Alignment with Our Values

Responsibilities

• Lead & Mentor: Directly manage and cultivate a small, high-performing team of 4 Platform Engineers. Foster a collaborative, innovative, and results-oriented culture with a strong sense of ownership
• Strategic Roadmap & Vision: Define, articulate, and drive the strategic vision and product roadmap for the Xapo platform, ensuring alignment with business objectives and engineering needs. Prioritize initiatives that deliver maximum business impact
• Platform as a Product: Champion the "Platform as a Product" approach, deeply understanding developer needs, gathering feedback, and iteratively improving platform services to enhance developer experience and autonomy
• Hands-On Technical Leadership: Provide technical guidance and be prepared to be hands-on when needed, contributing to design, architecture, and complex problem-solving
• Operational Excellence & Automation: Drive the sustainable maintenance, operability, and evolution of our developer platform. Champion cloud-native principles, relentless automation, robust testing of changes, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: Develop, implement, and regularly test disaster recovery plans for all platform services, ensuring business continuity and minimizing data loss in the event of an outage
• Audit Support & Compliance: Proactively prepare for and support internal and external audits by providing necessary documentation, evidence of controls, and subject matter expertise related to platform infrastructure, security, and operations. Ensure platform practices align with relevant compliance requirements
• Collaboration & Enablement: Work closely with the Engineering Enablement team, treating them as an extension of the platform effort, to ensure seamless integration of best practices, tools, and training. Partner effectively with all engineering teams and stakeholders
• Build vs. Buy Decisions: Make pragmatic decisions on technology adoption, favoring SaaS and managed services where appropriate ("favor buy over build and SaaS over on-prem") while ensuring we only operate what is absolutely essential
• Feedback & Iteration: Implement and manage mechanisms for providing high-quality, fast feedback to development teams on platform usage, performance, and upcoming features
• Future-Proof Architecture: Ensure the platform is architected to handle change effectively, whether from new services, evolving customer needs, regulatory requirements, new tooling, or shifts in demand
• Vendor & Budget Management: Manage relationships with key technology vendors and contribute to budget planning for platform-related expenses

Benefits

• Shape the Future: Improve lives through cutting-edge technology, work 100% remotely from anywhere in the world
• Great work-life balance: Build amazing things with a balance of autonomy and collaborative teamwork. Set your own work schedule and make use of a flexible PTO plan when you need to recharge
• Expect Excellence: Collaborate, learn, and grow with a high-performance team. Learn how you learn best - from books to conferences, you’ll get a yearly budget for your individual learning and development goals