Staff Platform Engineer

Summary

Join Raft, a customer-obsessed company focused on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, as a Staff Platform Engineer. This expert-level role requires significant experience in Kubernetes application platforms, automation, and platform service management. You will mentor junior engineers, interact with stakeholders, and contribute to impactful digital solutions. The position requires 8+ years of experience or a related degree with less experience. Raft offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and flexible work options.

Requirements

• 8+ years of related hands-on experience or one of the following: Associate's Degree in CS, SWE, CE, EE, or related field with 4+ years of related professional experience
• Bachelor's Degree in CS, SWE, CE, EE or related field with 3+ years of related experience
• Master's Degrees in CS, SWE, CE, EE or related field with 1+ years of related experience
• Significant experience creating and maintaining Kubernetes clusters through both managed services (e.g., AKS, EKS, or GKE) and self-managed installers (e.g., EKS-A, RKE2, or kubeadm)
• Extensive experience managing compute resources for Kubernetes clusters (CSI solutions, ResourceQuotas, etc.)
• Experience managing network resources for Kubernetes clusters (CNI solutions, NetworkPolicies, etc.)
• Experience managing and troubleshooting Kubernetes workloads at an enterprise scale
• Experience deploying and maintaining common platform services (e.g., Istio, Keycloak, Vault, Harbor, ArgoCD, and CertManager)
• Experience configuring metrics scraping and monitoring dashboards (e.g., Prometheus and Grafana configurations)
• Experiencing configuring log forwarding, filtering, and aggregation (e.g., Loki, FluentBit, or FluentD)
• Experience hardening Kubernetes clusters via RBAC, Audit Policies, admission controllers (e.g., OPA Gatekeeper or Kyverno), image scanning (e.g., Trivy, Sysdig, or NeuVector), NetworkPolicies, CIS benchmark, and CISA/NSA Hardening Guidance
• Experience deploying, maintaining and monitoring cloud-based compute resources (e.g., AWS EC2 and EBS, Azure Virtual Machines and premium storage, etc.)
• Able to obtain a Security+ certification within the first 90 days of employment with Raft
• Minimum of an active Interim Secret clearance

Responsibilities

• Be an expert in cloud-hosted or on-premises Kubernetes application platforms
• Excel in deploying Kubernetes and in the automation of platform management
• Administer and manage platform services and support containerized applications as a subject-matter expert
• Mentor junior to mid-level engineers
• Demonstrate strong communication skills for high-level stakeholder interaction

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience administering Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
• Current Security+ CE (or equivalent DoD 8570.01/8140.03 certification)
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs
• Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work
• Remote, hybrid, and flexible work options
• Team off-site in fun places!
• Generous Referral Bonuses