Principal Platform Engineer

Liatrio; Ottawa; Hybrid; CAD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Liatrio is seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to define the scope of technical work, own the architectural direction of complex Platform workstreams, and ensure delivery excellence. You will lead CI/CD design, IaC architecture, observability, DevSecOps, and AI tooling within client engagements, while mentoring teams and guiding platform strategy.

You’ll work directly with client engineers and leaders to manage risk, drive modernization, and embed AI-native practices into delivery.

Job description

About Us:

At Liatrio, we enable real transformation.We help industry-leading enterprises break free from legacy systems and adopt AI that reshapes how teams build, deliver, and thrive at scale.

We partner directly with enterprise teams to embed AI-native practices into delivery by accelerating modernization, reducing risk, and shipping production-grade AI systems that set the standard for the industry.

Our people embed directly inside client organizations, leading hands-on AI enablement and transformations that reshape how entire enterprises build and operate at scale.

If you’re ready to lead real AI transformation, this is where you belong.

About the Role:

The Principal Platform Engineer defines the scope of technical work, owns the architectural direction of complex Platform workstreams, and is accountable for the technical outcomes of the engagement.

You are responsible for code quality, architecture, and technical direction across your team — and you're the person who makes sure what gets built is the right thing, built the right way.

You make the hard architecture calls, document the tradeoffs, and communicate them in a way that builds trust with the engineers executing the work and the technical leaders sponsoring it.

What You'll Do:

Technical Ownership and Architecture

• • Define the scope of technical work related to deliverables and milestones of the engagement

  • Own the architectural direction of your Platform workstream — CI/CD pipeline design, IaC architecture, platform strategy, observability programs, DevSecOps implementation, AI tooling and implementation, and developer experience

  • Responsible for code quality, architecture, and technical direction across the team

  • Build and own complex delivery infrastructure — pipelines teams depend on, IaC systems that don't drift, and cloud‑native platform environments that work for teams who aren't infrastructure specialists

  • Drive observability maturity — implementing metrics, logging, tracing, and alerting strategies that change how teams operate

  • Build platform engineering initiatives within your workstream — developer platforms, self‑service tooling, automated governance, policy as code

  • Integrate AI and LLM capabilities into client delivery pipelines and developer workflows in ways that are architecturally sound and maintainable

  • Anticipate technical risk before it becomes delivery risk — surface issues early and communicate proactively

  • Participate in scoping discussions and SOW architecture for new and existing customers

  • Lead or participate in Platform Dojo engagements, coaching client teams on modern delivery practices

  • Generate ideas, be willing to fail fast, and demonstrate with POCs

Client Technical Engagement

• • Serve as the senior technical point of contact for your workstream — engaging directly with client engineering managers and directors on architecture, delivery strategy, and technical risk

  • Proactively identify opportunities to improve engineering culture, delivery practices, and technical quality at the client, and drive that change

  • Participate in business development including client expansion conversations and SOW development

Team Leadership and Development

• • Responsible and accountable for the technical outcomes of your team

  • Mentor engineers through real technical challenges — pairing, architecture reviews, feedback that raises their game

  • Organize and break down complex work so the team can execute with clarity

Liatrio Growth

• • Identify and surface expansion opportunities to the sales team and validate SOWs

  • Build accelerators from client engagement insights that benefit future engagements

Experience and Skills:

Engineering and Infrastructure

• • You have a track record of owning the architectural direction of complex, high-stakes Platform workstreams — you've made the hard calls, been accountable for the outcomes, and learned from the experiences that didn't go as planned

  • You've designed and owned CI/CD systems at enterprise scale — defined the strategy, rationalized toolchains, and built governance models that let large organizations move fast without losing control

  • You've built and led cloud-native platform adoption in complex production environments — whether that's Kubernetes, managed container services, or other orchestration platforms — and built or overseen the platform engineering layer that makes it operable for teams who aren't infrastructure specialists

  • You've built and owned IaC systems that organizations genuinely depend on — module design, remote state management, drift detection, and migrating existing infrastructure into code without breaking production systems

  • You've built platform engineering work that demonstrably changed how engineering teams operate — internal developer platforms, self‑service tooling, automated governance — reducing toil and improving delivery quality

  • You've implemented DevSecOps practices in real enterprise environments — secure pipelines, secrets management, policy as code, automated compliance — making security a first‑class engineering concern

  • You've built observability programs that changed how teams behave — systems and culture that make engineers capable of understanding and operating what they build

AI and Intelligent Systems

• • You've integrated AI capabilities into real Platform and platform workflows — intelligent pipeline automation, AI‑augmented developer tooling, or operational automation — and you can speak to the architecture, the tradeoffs, and what actually worked

  • You have enough depth in LLM capabilities and agentic patterns to make architectural decisions about where and how to apply them in a Platform context, and guide your team through implementation that holds up in production

  • You can have a credible conversation with client technical leaders about where AI creates genuine leverage — grounded in what's real

  • You use AI coding tools like Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf as a daily driver — and you actively champion adoption on your team because you've seen the compounding impact on quality and speed

Requirements:

• • 8+ years of hands‑on Platform engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of complex technical workstreams

  • Must be authorized to work in the United States or Canada without sponsorship

  • Travel availability: 15-30% depending on client needs

  • Base Salary 170,000-200,000K Base plus 10% Bonus

Liatrio is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company and strive to create a culture of inclusion. We do not discriminate, nor do we tolerate harassment, on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.

We want our process to be accessible for everyone. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, or you require a religious accommodation, and you wish to discuss potential accommodations related to applying for employment at our company, please contact [e-mail].