Direct Indexing Cloud Platform Infrastructure & Dev Ops Engineer

Vanguard; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking a senior Platform Engineer to design, build, secure, and operate a scalable cloud infrastructure that powers its investment platform. You will partner with application, data, product, and architecture teams to deliver reliable, automated, and observable systems in production.

Responsibilities span AWS platform modernization, incident leadership, and driving best practices for IaC, CI/CD, and security governance. A strong engineering leadership background is essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cloud engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise with AWS cloud services and cloud-native architectures.
• Strong experience operating Kubernetes-based platforms in production environments.
• Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks.
• Experience designing secure, highly available distributed systems.
• Strong Linux, networking, and systems engineering background.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience supporting mission-critical production systems with high availability requirements.
• Strong understanding of information security, cloud security, and risk management principles.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Excellent troubleshooting, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate cloud-native infrastructure supporting Vanguard's investment platform.
• Lead AWS platform architecture, modernization, and migration initiatives.
• Design scalable, highly available, and secure infrastructure patterns across development, test, and production environments.
• Manage Kubernetes and container platforms supporting distributed workloads.
• Drive infrastructure standardization, resiliency, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.
• Continuously improve platform observability, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness.
• Establish and evolve CI/CD pipelines and engineering automation practices.
• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code adoption using modern provisioning and configuration-management frameworks.
• Automate deployment, environment management, compliance validation, and operational processes.
• Improve engineering productivity through tooling, platform services, and self-service capabilities.
• Define and implement operational best practices for cloud-native application delivery.
• Lead technical evaluations, proofs of concept, and pilot initiatives supporting strategic platform evolution.
• Assess new technologies, cloud services, engineering tools, and architecture patterns.
• Collaborate with product, research, and engineering teams to accelerate innovation.
• Influence long-term platform architecture and modernization roadmaps.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex production issues and platform incidents.
• Lead root cause analysis, remediation planning, and reliability improvements.
• Establish service-level objectives, operational metrics, and reliability standards.
• Reduce operational risk through automation, standardization, and improved engineering practices.
• Ensure platform services meet performance, availability, scalability, and recoverability objectives.
• Provide architecture guidance and technical leadership across infrastructure and platform domains.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence throughout the organization.
• Lead design reviews and infrastructure governance processes.
• Champion modern engineering practices and continuous improvement.

Skills

AWS

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD

Linux

Networking

Security

Troubleshooting

Leadership

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes (EKS)

Docker

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Job description

This role is responsible for designing, building, securing, and operating VPI's cloud platform and engineering infrastructure. The individual will partner closely with application, data, product, and architecture teams to enable highly reliable and scalable investment systems. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise across AWS, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, Kubernetes, DevOps practices, security enablement, and enterprise systems integration. This role combines hands-on technical execution with architectural leadership and operational ownership.

Core Responsibilities

Platform Engineering & Cloud Infrastructure

• Design, build, and operate cloud-native infrastructure supporting VPI's investment platform.
• Lead AWS platform architecture, modernization, and migration initiatives.
• Design scalable, highly available, and secure infrastructure patterns across development, test, and production environments.
• Manage Kubernetes and container platforms supporting distributed workloads.
• Drive infrastructure standardization, resiliency, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.
• Continuously improve platform observability, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness.

DevOps & Automation

• Establish and evolve CI/CD pipelines and engineering automation practices.
• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code adoption using modern provisioning and configuration-management frameworks.
• Automate deployment, environment management, compliance validation, and operational processes.
• Improve engineering productivity through tooling, platform services, and self-service capabilities.
• Define and implement operational best practices for cloud-native application delivery.

Security Engineering & Architecture Enablement

• Partner with Enterprise Security and application teams to design secure platform architectures.
• Enable implementation of security controls, vulnerability remediation, identity management, encryption, network segmentation, and cloud governance frameworks.
• Support regulatory, audit, risk, and compliance initiatives.
• Drive proactive remediation of security findings and operational risks.
• Establish secure-by-default platform patterns and guardrails.

Enterprise & External System Integration

• Design and support integrations with Vanguard enterprise platforms and external vendors.
• Build secure and scalable connectivity patterns across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Enable data exchange, APIs, messaging, file transfer, and service integrations.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to evaluate emerging technology solutions and integration opportunities.

Innovation, Architecture & Proof of Concepts

• Lead technical evaluations, proofs of concept, and pilot initiatives supporting strategic platform evolution.
• Assess new technologies, cloud services, engineering tools, and architecture patterns.
• Collaborate with product, research, and engineering teams to accelerate innovation.
• Influence long-term platform architecture and modernization roadmaps.

Operational Excellence

• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex production issues and platform incidents.
• Lead root cause analysis, remediation planning, and reliability improvements.
• Establish service-level objectives, operational metrics, and reliability standards.
• Reduce operational risk through automation, standardization, and improved engineering practices.
• Ensure platform services meet performance, availability, scalability, and recoverability objectives.

Technical Leadership

• Provide architecture guidance and technical leadership across infrastructure and platform domains.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence throughout the organization.
• Lead design reviews and infrastructure governance processes.
• Champion modern engineering practices and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cloud engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise with AWS cloud services and cloud-native architectures.
• Strong experience operating Kubernetes-based platforms in production environments.
• Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks.
• Experience designing secure, highly available distributed systems.
• Strong Linux, networking, and systems engineering background.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience supporting mission-critical production systems with high availability requirements.
• Strong understanding of information security, cloud security, and risk management principles.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Excellent troubleshooting, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience within asset management, wealth management, trading, or investment platforms.
• Experience with Terraform, Kubernetes (EKS), Docker, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar technologies.
• Experience supporting enterprise cloud migrations and large-scale modernization programs.
• Experience with obs