Platform Architect

Role Summary

Work with us to build modern Insurtech AI underpinned solutions we are a growing team of hands on architects striving to build high quality solutions for our internal and external customers. The Platform Architect designs and builds internal developer platforms and platform engineering capabilities across the Xceedance ecosystem creating self-service platforms toolchains and abstractions enabling development teams to build deploy and operate applications efficiently with focus on developer experience and productivity.

Key Responsibilities

Internal Developer Platform Strategy - Defines platform strategy and roadmap aligned with engineering needs treating platform as a product serving internal development teams. Designs Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) providing self-service capabilities for infrastructure provisioning application deployment monitoring and security. Establishes platform abstractions including golden paths and paved roads guiding developers toward best practices while maintaining flexibility for specific requirements. Creates platform services enabling teams to focus on business logic rather than infrastructure complexity.

Kubernetes Platform Engineering - Architects enterprise Kubernetes platforms using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) as primary platform with multi-cluster designs for environment separation geographic distribution and high availability. Designs cluster architecture implementing namespaces for logical separation resource quotas and limits network policies for security and pod security standards. Implements Kubernetes operators and custom resource definitions (CRDs) extending platform capabilities for application-specific requirements. Evaluates and implements service mesh technologies (Istio Linkerd) for advanced traffic management observability and security between microservices.

Platform Components & Tooling - Architects comprehensive platform components including Backstage developer portal for service catalogs documentation and self-service capabilities; GitOps workflows using ArgoCD and Flux for declarative application delivery; Crossplane for infrastructure provisioning through Kubernetes APIs; and HashiCorp Vault for secrets management. Designs CI/CD pipelines integrated with platform services observability stacks combining metrics (Prometheus) logging (Loki ELK) and tracing (Jaeger Tempo) and cost management tools providing visibility into platform resource consumption.

Infrastructure as Code & Policy - Implements Infrastructure as Code using Terraform for multi-cloud provisioning Pulumi for developer-friendly infrastructure definitions and Azure Bicep for Azure-native deployments. Designs policy as code frameworks using Open Policy Agent (OPA) for Kubernetes admission control Kyverno for policy enforcement and governance and Azure Policy for cloud resource compliance. Establishes GitOps workflows ensuring all infrastructure changes are version controlled reviewed and auditable.

Developer Experience Optimization - Focuses on improving developer productivity through self-service portals standardized templates and scaffolding automated environment provisioning and streamlined deployment workflows. Designs platform APIs and CLIs enabling developers to interact programmatically with platform services. Creates comprehensive documentation tutorials and runbooks supporting platform adoption. Establishes feedback loops gathering developer input to continuously improve platform capabilities and user experience.

Security & Compliance - Implements platform security including role-based access control (RBAC) pod security policies network segmentation secrets management image scanning and vulnerability management. Designs compliance frameworks ensuring platform adheres to regulatory requirements including audit logging data encryption and access controls. Implements supply chain security through artifact signing SBOM generation and provenance tracking.

Observability & Reliability - Architects observability solutions providing comprehensive visibility into platform health application performance and resource utilization. Designs monitoring stacks collecting metrics from infrastructure Kubernetes clusters and applications with alerting for proactive issue detection. Implements distributed tracing enabling end-to-end request tracking across microservices. Establishes SLO/SLI frameworks measuring platform reliability and availability with automated incident response procedures.

Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Architecture - Designs platform capabilities supporting Azure as primary cloud with strategic use Google Cloud where appropriate. Implements hybrid cloud patterns connecting on-premises systems with cloud platforms through secure connectivity and consistent deployment models. Designs disaster recovery strategies ensuring platform resilience and business continuity.

Platform Enablement & Adoption - Collaborates with development teams SRE teams and security teams to understand requirements and deliver platform capabilities meeting organizational needs. Provides training and enablement helping teams adopt platform services effectively. Establishes communities of practice sharing platform knowledge and best practices. Measures platform adoption metrics including service utilization developer satisfaction and time-to-production improvements.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement - Stays current with platform engineering trends including platform engineering maturity models emerging Kubernetes ecosystem tools and cloud-native technologies. Evaluates new capabilities including WebAssembly for edge computing eBPF for advanced networking and security and serverless platforms for specific workloads. Drives platform evolution through experimentation proof-of-concepts and incremental improvements based on user feedback.

Required Skills

Platform Engineering & Architecture - Internal Developer Platform (IDP) concepts Platform as a Product mindset developer experience optimization golden paths and paved roads self-service infrastructure and platform API design.

Kubernetes & Containers - Deep expertise in Kubernetes architecture multi-cluster designs operators and CRDs Helm charts Kustomize service mesh (Istio Linkerd Consul) container runtime security and pod security standards.

Platform Components & Tools - Backstage developer portal ArgoCD and Flux for GitOps Crossplane for infrastructure provisioning HashiCorp Vault for secrets management Terraform and Pulumi for IaC and container registries (Harbor Azure Container Registry).

Cloud Platforms - Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Azure Container Apps Azure services (Virtual Networks Load Balancers Application Gateway Key Vault) AWS EKS Google GKE and hybrid cloud patterns.

CI/CD & Automation - GitHub Actions Azure DevOps Pipelines Jenkins Tekton pipeline-as-code patterns automated testing and deployment strategies (blue/green canary progressive delivery).

Observability & Monitoring - Prometheus and Grafana ELK/EFK stack Loki for log aggregation Jaeger and Tempo for distributed tracing OpenTelemetry Azure Monitor and Application Insights.

Security & Policy - Kubernetes RBAC pod security policies OPA for admission control Kyverno for policy enforcement Falco for runtime security image scanning (Trivy Anchore) and secrets management.

Networking - Kubernetes networking (CNI plugins network policies) service mesh concepts ingress controllers (NGINX Traefik) load balancing and DNS management.

Required Experience

7 years in DevOps SRE or platform engineering roles. 3 years building internal platforms. Deep Kubernetes and container expertise.

Certifications

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate. Valuable additions: Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) CNCF Certified GitOps Associate Istio Certified Associate.

Key Competencies

Platform Product Mindset - Treating platform as product serving internal customers gathering feedback measuring satisfaction prioritizing features and continuously improving based on user needs.

Technical Leadership - Leading platform architecture decisions establishing standards mentoring platform engineers and evangelizing platform adoption across organization.

Developer Empathy - Understanding developer workflows pain points and needs to design platform capabilities improving productivity and reducing cognitive load.

Innovation & Learning - Staying current with CNCF ecosystem platform engineering patterns cloud-native technologies and emerging capabilities driving platform evolution.