Platform Engineer

Next Ventures; Saudi Arabia; On-site; SAR 180,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Next Ventures in Saudi Arabia seeks a hands-on Platform Engineer contractor to design, operate, secure, and improve shared platform services, focusing on self-hosted and cloud-native environments for fintech.

You will own DevSecOps, IaC with Terraform across GCP, OCI and on‑prem, manage GitLab and Vault Enterprise, and implement observability, SRE practices, and regulated governance. Collaboration with cybersecurity and governance teams is essential.

Qualifications

• Hands-on platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or infra work in complex prod environments.
• Deep Kubernetes, containers, Linux, networking, storage, and distributed systems knowledge.
• Proven ability to build secure, reusable CI/CD and GitOps workflows at scale.
• Strong Terraform IaC experience with unit/state management and change control.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform; GCP/OCI preferred.
• Scripting in Python, Bash, or Go and practical secure software development basics.
• Ability to work independently as a contractor, prioritize work, and communicate risks clearly.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, operate, and improve shared platform services across prod and non-prod.
• Administer Kubernetes-based platforms, including upgrades, capacity, networking, and DR.
• Develop IaC with Terraform across GCP, OCI, and on‑prem environments.
• Own DevOps CI/CD capabilities and reusable pipelines with governance and security.
• Manage self-hosted GitLab and GitLab Runner with HA/DR considerations.
• Set up and operate HashiCorp Vault Enterprise with HA/DR, namespaces, and policies.
• Integrate application security scanning (Checkmarx) into CI/CD pipelines.
• Build GitOps workflows, container registries, artifact management, and policy controls.
• Implement observability and SRE practices with metrics, logs, dashboards, alerts.
• Lead incident response, root-cause analysis, and production readiness reviews.

Skills

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitOps

CI/CD

Python/Bash/Go

Tools

GitLab

Vault

Checkmarx

GCP

OCI

Job description

Position Summary A hands‑on Platform Engineer contractor is required to design, operate, secure, and continuously improve the shared technology platforms used by product and engineering teams. The role focuses on reliable self‑hosted and cloud‑native platform services, developer enablement, infrastructure automation, DevSecOps, and production operations in a regulated fintech environment.

The successful contractor will take end‑to‑end ownership of platform capabilities, work directly with application, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and governance teams, and deliver resilient services, reusable automation, clear documentation, and sustainable operating practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, operate, and improve shared platform services across production and non‑production environments.
• Administer Kubernetes‑based platforms, including upgrades, capacity, networking, storage, access controls, workload reliability, and disaster recovery.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure as code using Terraform and automated configuration practices across GCP, OCI, and applicable on‑premises environments.
• Own DevOps CI/CD capabilities and reusable pipeline standards, ensuring strong governance, security controls, release traceability, and developer self‑service.
• Set up, administer, upgrade, secure, monitor, back up, and recover self‑hosted GitLab and GitLab Runner environments, including high availability and disaster recovery.
• Set up and manage HashiCorp Vault Enterprise, including HA/DR architecture, namespaces, policies, authentication methods, secrets engines, PKI, auto‑unseal, auditing, monitoring, backup, and recovery.
• Operate and manage Checkmarx capabilities and integrate application security scanning into CI/CD pipelines with practical risk‑based controls and reporting.
• Build and support GitOps workflows, container registries, artifact management, secrets delivery, policy controls, and platform automation.
• Implement observability and SRE practices using metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, alerting, service objectives, capacity planning, and operational reporting.
• Lead platform incident response, root‑cause analysis, problem management, remediation, and production‑readiness reviews.
• Partner with cybersecurity and risk teams to meet financial‑sector requirements for access control, segregation of duties, vulnerability management, auditability, resilience, and change governance.
• Create runbooks, architecture documentation, standards, reusable modules, and knowledge transfer to ensure long‑term operational ownership.

Required Experience and Capabilities

• Strong hands‑on experience in platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or infrastructure engineering within complex production environments.
• Deep practical knowledge of Kubernetes, containers, Linux administration, networking, storage, and distributed‑system troubleshooting.
• Proven experience building secure, reusable CI/CD and GitOps workflows and supporting engineering teams at scale.
• Strong Terraform and infrastructure‑as‑code experience, including disciplined module design, state management, testing, and change control.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform; GCP and OCI experience are particularly relevant.
• Strong scripting or development capability in Python, Bash, Go, or similar languages.
• Experience implementing monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, recovery, and operational readiness for business‑critical services.
• Ability to work independently as a contractor, manage priorities, communicate risks clearly, and deliver measurable outcomes with limited supervision.

Highly Preferred Experience

• Hands‑on experience with Vault Enterprise, self‑hosted GitLab, Checkmarx, and enterprise DevOps CI/CD platforms in fintech or banking. Experience with ForgeRock or comparable enterprise identity and access management platforms.

Working Style

• Delivery‑focused, pragmatic, and comfortable balancing speed, security, resilience, and regulatory expectations.
• Clear communicator able to collaborate effectively with engineers, security specialists, vendors, and senior stakeholders.
• Strong ownership mindset with disciplined documentation, knowledge transfer, and operational follow‑through.

This contractor role is intended for an experienced platform practitioner who can contribute immediately, strengthen critical platform capabilities, and help establish secure and sustainable engineering practices.