Director, Platform Engineering

F5; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 296,000; Full time

Job summary

F5 is seeking an experienced Director of Platform Engineering in Reston, VA to lead architecture, operations, and modernization of compute capacity across the Substrate Engineering organization.

You will establish a strategic modernization roadmap, reorganize the Platform team for automation-first, self-service delivery, and partner with Security and Compliance to drive FedRAMP readiness. This role blends hands-on guidance with strategic leadership in private/hybrid cloud environments.

Qualifications

• 12 years of progressive experience in infrastructure, DevOps, systems, or platform engineering.
• 7 years of direct engineering leadership experience managing and developing high-performing technical teams.
• Strong architectural and operational experience with private cloud / hybrid infrastructure and virtualization platforms (e.g., Proxmox, KVM, VMware).
• Production expertise with container orchestration ecosystems, specifically Kubernetes.
• Deep proficiency in Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), configuration management (Ansible or equivalent), and modern CI/CD tooling (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
• Fluency with scripting and automation languages (Python, Go, Bash).
• Working familiarity with— or willingness to learn— FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, or SOC 2.

Responsibilities

• Assess & Modernize Team Operations: Evaluate current workflows, tooling, and team structures to formulate and execute a phased modernization plan, reorganizing the platform team around an automation-first, self-service engineering paradigm.
• Team Leadership & Culture: Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of platform and DevOps engineers, cultivating a collaborative culture of continuous learning, psychological safety, and accountability grounded in our core commitment to "be kind."
• Platform Architecture & Virtualization: Oversee the capacity planning, lifecycle, and operational resilience of our private cloud infrastructure, including Proxmox virtualization and foundational Service 0 Kubernetes environments.
• Automation & Delivery Pipelines: Champion Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), configuration management (Ansible), and robust CI/CD pipelines to ensure consistent, auditable deployments and eliminate manual operational toil.
• FedRAMP & Compliance Alignment: Partner closely with Security, Compliance, and Architecture teams to understand, align with, and operationalize FedRAMP requirements across platform systems.
• Operational Reliability & Incident Leadership: Establish and track SLOs, SLAs, and platform KPIs; lead cross-functional incident responses and drive blameless post-mortems.

Skills

Infrastructure

DevOps

Platform engineering

Leadership

SRE

Automation

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

Python

Go

Bash

Tools

Proxmox

KVM

VMware

GitLab CI

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

About The Role

We are seeking an experienced Director of Platform Engineering to lead the architecture, operations, and modernization of compute capacity across our Substrate Engineering organization.

In this role, you will evaluate our current operational landscape, establish a strategic modernization roadmap, and reorganize how the Platform team operates—shifting toward an automation-first, self-service delivery model that reduces operational toil. You will balance hands-on technical guidance with strategic leadership across private and hybrid cloud environments, while actively partnering to support our path toward FedRAMP readiness.

Beyond technical expertise, we place immense value on cultural fit: we are looking for a leader who embodies our core expectation to "be kind"—someone who leads with empathy, communicates transparently, develops talent, and fosters an inclusive, low-friction engineering environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess & Modernize Team Operations: Evaluate current workflows, tooling, and team structures to formulate and execute a phased modernization plan, reorganizing the platform team around an automation-first, self-service engineering paradigm.
• Team Leadership & Culture: Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of platform and DevOps engineers, cultivating a collaborative culture of continuous learning, psychological safety, and accountability grounded in our core commitment to "be kind."
• Platform Architecture & Virtualization: Oversee the capacity planning, lifecycle, and operational resilience of our private cloud infrastructure, including Proxmox virtualization and foundational Service 0 Kubernetes environments.
• Automation & Delivery Pipelines: Champion Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), configuration management (Ansible), and robust CI/CD pipelines to ensure consistent, auditable deployments and eliminate manual operational toil.
• FedRAMP & Compliance Alignment: Partner closely with Security, Compliance, and Architecture teams to understand, align with, and operationalize FedRAMP requirements across platform systems (prior certification is not required; interest and capability to champion compliance alignment are essential).
• Operational Reliability & Incident Leadership: Establish and track SLOs, SLAs, and platform KPIs; lead cross-functional incident responses under pressure and drive blameless post-mortems to ensure continuous platform resilience.

Qualifications

Technical & Leadership Experience

• 12 years of progressive experience in infrastructure, DevOps, systems, or platform engineering.
• 7 years of direct engineering leadership experience managing and developing high-performing technical teams.
• Demonstrated track record of evaluating legacy/operational processes and executing successful modernization and automation initiatives.
• Strong architectural and operational experience with private cloud / hybrid infrastructure and virtualization platforms (e.g., Proxmox, KVM, VMware).
• Production expertise with container orchestration ecosystems, specifically Kubernetes.
• Deep proficiency in Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), configuration management (Ansible or equivalent), and modern CI/CD tooling (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
• Fluency with scripting and automation languages (Python, Go, Bash).
• Working familiarity with—or a strong aptitude and willingness to learn—federal compliance frameworks such as FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, or SOC 2.

Leadership & Soft Skills

• Be Kind
• Change Management: Proven ability to navigate ambiguity, align cross-functional teams, and reduce organizational friction during transformation.
• Executive Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills across Product, Architecture, Security, Compliance, and Executive stakeholders.
• Incident Command: Calm, structured problem-solving approach during critical platform events and high-pressure situations.

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination. F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting [e-mail].

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

The annual base pay for this position is: $197,100.00 - $295,700.00

F5 maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, geographic locations, and market conditions, as well as to reflect F5’s differing products, industries, and lines of business. The pay range referenced is as of the time of the job posting and is subject to change.

You may also be offered incentive compensation, bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits. More details about F5’s benefits can be found at https://www.f5.com/company/careers/benefits. F5 reserves the right to change or terminate any benefit plan without notice.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).