Platform Software Designer

EXFO; Montreal (administrative region); Hybrid; CAD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology solutions provider in Montreal is seeking a Platform Software Designer to create automation tools and frameworks for development teams. The role involves building infrastructure-as-code on AWS and Kubernetes, enhancing developer experience, and working in a hybrid environment. Candidates should have a university degree in Computer Science or Engineering and experience in software development. A passion for building tools and a willingness to learn cloud technologies are essential. Join a team that values collaboration and innovation.

Benefits

Real autonomy

Growth opportunities

Collaborative work environment

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of software development experience.
• Technically ambitious and self-motivated.
• Able to work in English and comfortable in a French-speaking environment.

Responsibilities

• Create infrastructure-as-code foundations and automation tooling.
• Design core platform capabilities for other teams.
• Guide teams to adopt new tools and cloud-native practices.

Skills

Python

Go

Git

Problem-solving

Docker

AWS

Education

University degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Job description

Platform Software Designer

Main locations:

Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec, CA

Job Type: Full-time

Workplace type: Hybrid

Offer number: 5392

EXFO develops smarter test, monitoring and analytics solutions for the global communications industry. We are trusted advisers to fixed and mobile network operators, hyper‑scalers and leaders in the manufacturing, development and research sector. They count on us to deliver superior visibility and insights into network performance, service reliability and user experience. Building on over 35 years of innovation, EXFO’s unique blend of equipment, software and services enable faster, more confident transformations related to 5G, cloud‑native and fiber optic networks.

Since our beginnings in 1985, diversity has been one of EXFO's core values, fostering an inclusive corporate culture. We welcome people with a wide range of skills and experience into a culture that values innovative ideas, teamwork, and a customer- and market-focused approach. We seek the active contribution of everyone, with respect for the individual, the environment and the community. This is how we fulfill our purpose: to ensure the connected world meets the highest expectations, to bring together people, communities and businesses.

What You'll Be Building

We're building a platform tools team from the ground up, and we're looking for our new software designers to join a senior technical lead. This isn't a traditional DevOps role - you'll be building tools, frameworks, and platforms that empower other development teams to ship faster and more confidently.

Your mission: create the infrastructure‑as‑code foundations, automation tooling, and self‑service capabilities that let other teams own and operate their microservices on AWS and Kubernetes. You'll be the architects of developer experience, not the operators of production systems.

What Your Work Looks Like

You'll be working in a GitOps‑first environment where everything is code. Your projects will include:

• Building proof‑of‑concepts for new tools, methodologies, and technologies in the Kubernetes and AWS ecosystem
• Designing and implementing core platform capabilities that other teams build upon
• Creating custom scripts, CLIs, and automation frameworks that make complex infrastructure simple
• Establishing security, efficiency, and automation patterns for cloud‑native development
• Guiding teams as they adopt these tools and eventually take full ownership of their own cloud resources

You'll be working on a platform that already exists but still has huge opportunities for improvement. Some areas are greenfield; others need thoughtful redesign as we scale the engineering organization. There will be some hands‑on operations work initially — enough to understand how things run today — but the long‑term goal is to automate, simplify, and hand off daily operations to product teams or a dedicated group.

You’ll have the freedom to explore cutting‑edge tools and shape how an entire engineering organization builds and deploys software.

Who We're Looking For

You're a software developer first. You love writing code, building tools, and solving problems through automation. You might not know Kubernetes inside‑out yet, and that's okay — we care more about your ability and hunger to learn it.

You're technologically curious. You don't need to know everything, but you're excited to dive deep into cloud architecture, infrastructure‑as‑code, container orchestration, and GitOps practices. You ask "why?" and "how can we do this better?"

You're a builder, not just an operator. You want to create platforms and tools that others use, not just maintain existing systems. You think about developer experience and how to abstract complexity without hiding important details.

You're comfortable with ambiguity. This role is intentionally broad — cloud software development, Kubernetes, IaC, GitOps, security frameworks. You'll be developing expertise across all of it, and we'll support you in becoming a subject‑matter expert in cloud platform engineering.

Technical Foundation We're Looking For

Core Skills

• Programming: Solid experience with Python, Go, or similar languages — you can build small services, automation tools, and scripts confidently.
• Version Control: Strong Git skills (branching strategies, pull requests, collaborative workflows).
• Software Development Fundamentals: You understand design patterns, testing, code organization, and maintainability.
• Problem‑solving: You can debug complex systems, read documentation, and figure things out.

Cloud & Platform Experience (or strong willingness to learn)

• Containers & Kubernetes: Some exposure to Docker and container orchestration concepts.
• Cloud Platforms: Basic familiarity with AWS services (EC2, S3, IAM, EKS, Lambda, RDS).
• CI/CD: Understanding of continuous integration and deployment pipelines.
• Infrastructure as Code: Exposure to Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar tools.

You’ll Grow Into

• Advanced AWS architecture and service design.
• GitOps workflows and tooling (ArgoCD, Flux, etc.).
• Monitoring, observability, and logging strategies (Elastic, Prometheus, etc.).
• Security best practices (IAM, RBAC, secrets management, least privilege).
• Networking fundamentals (DNS, load balancing, VPCs, service meshes).

You’ll have access to senior engineers with deep expertise in cloud architecture, Kubernetes, and large‑scale systems — people who love mentoring and collaborating on tough technical challenges.

What Matters Most to Us

Beyond technical skills, we value:

• Ownership — You take initiative, follow through, and care about the impact of your work.
• Collaboration — You work well with developers and other platform engineers, asking good questions and sharing knowledge.
• Growth mindset — You see challenges as learning opportunities, not roadblocks.
• Pragmatism — You balance ideal solutions with practical constraints and shipping value.

We’ll tailor the scope of ownership and autonomy based on your experience. Whether you’re growing into the role or already very senior, you’ll have meaningful responsibility that matches your strengths.

Requirements

• 3‑5+ years of software development experience.
• University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Technically ambitious and self‑motivated.
• Able to work in English (all technical documentation and code).
• Comfortable integrating into a French‑speaking work environment (daily conversation).

What We Offer

• A team that cares: Passionate, collaborative engineers who love what they do.
• Real autonomy: Relatively flat hierarchy that encourages expression and professional development.
• International environment: Dynamic French/English workplace where you'll see your projects evolve and make real impact.
• Growth opportunity: Join early and help shape a platform team from the ground up.

Don’t Check Every Box? Apply Anyway.

If you're a strong developer who's excited about platform engineering and cloud‑native technologies, we want to hear from you — even if you don't have extensive Kubernetes or AWS experience yet. We're investing in people who have the fundamentals and the drive to become experts.

If this sounds interesting and you're curious about our challenges, let's chat!

EXFO is an equal opportunity employer

Diversity is an asset that has made EXFO strong since its inception because it enriches us. For more information about diversity and inclusion at EXFO, read our DEI Statement.

For positions located in Quebec, the language requirement is French. However, in the context where the incumbent evolves in an international work environment and where the activities take place mainly outside Quebec, we favor bilingualism as a linguistic requirement.