Lead Platform Engineer

Motion Recruitment; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Motion Recruitment in Chicago is seeking a Lead Infrastructure Software Engineer to join our Platform Engineering team. You will build and scale cloud-native platforms, automation tools, and self-service capabilities that enable engineers to deploy and manage applications more efficiently.

You will work with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines, mentor engineers, lead technical initiatives, and help shape the future of our platform capabilities across the organization.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Cloud/Platform/DevOps or Infrastructure Engineering
• Hands-on AWS and Kubernetes in production
• Strong IaC with Terraform
• Experience building or supporting CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks
• Programming experience with Python, Java, or similar languages

Responsibilities

• Build and scale cloud-native platforms, automation tools, and self-service capabilities
• Improve developer experience and influence cloud architecture decisions
• Mentor engineers and lead technical initiatives
• Collaborate with multiple engineering teams to drive platform capabilities

Skills

Cloud

Platform Engineering

DevOps

Infrastructure Eng

Python/Java

Tools

Terraform

AWS

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Lead Infrastructure Software Engineer (Platform Engineering)

A leading Chicago-area enterprise is looking to hire a Lead Infrastructure Software Engineer to join their growing Platform Engineering team. In this role, you'll help build and scale cloud-native platforms, automation tools, and self-service capabilities that enable engineering teams to deploy and manage applications more efficiently. You'll work heavily with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and modern cloud infrastructure while helping drive best practices across the organization.

This is an opportunity to make a broad impact by improving developer experience, influencing cloud architecture decisions, and building solutions used across multiple engineering teams. You'll also have the chance to mentor engineers, lead technical initiatives, and help shape the future of the company's platform capabilities.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in Cloud, Platform Engineering, DevOps, or Infrastructure Engineering
• Hands-on experience with AWS and Kubernetes in production environments
• Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform
• Experience building or supporting CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks
• Programming experience with Python, Java, or similar languages

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience building internal developer platforms or self-service tools
• Strong understanding of observability, monitoring, and cloud-native architectures
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical projects
• AWS certification(s) are a plus
• Experience working in large-scale enterprise cloud environments