Lead Platform Engineer – Cloud & Developer Platforms (Kubernetes Required)

Guardian Life; Holmdel Township (NJ); On-site; USD 118,980 - 195,465; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Life is seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to design, build, and operate enterprise cloud platforms and automation ecosystems. You will own Amazon EKS lifecycle and drive platform maturity across automation, scripting, and observability.

The role emphasizes reliability, guardrails, and secure-by-default patterns to accelerate developer productivity while reducing risk. Hybrid work locations available in Holmdel, NJ or Bethlehem, PA.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in platform engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, SRE, or similar roles.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes and Amazon EKS, including production operations and upgrades.
• Broad engineering depth beyond Kubernetes: Linux systems troubleshooting, container runtimes, automation.
• Hands‑on experience with AWS Lambda, Step Functions, serverless models.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or equivalent tools.
• Experience building and operating CI/CD automation with Jenkins or GitHub Actions.
• Strong scripting in Python and Shell; understanding impact on reliability and security.
• Experience designing platforms used by multiple application teams at enterprise scale.

Responsibilities

• Design and own automation and scripting solutions for platform reliability.
• Debug Linux, container, and networking issues to improve stability.
• Lead platform security controls and governance within pipelines.
• Oversee CI/CD pipelines for platform and infrastructure components.
• Operate and upgrade EKS clusters and related components.
• Embed validation controls and safe promotion/rollback mechanisms.
• Collaborate with security, observability, and architecture teams to enforce standards.
• Mentor engineers to raise platform engineering maturity.

Skills

Kubernetes

Linux troubleshooting

Automation scripting

Python & Shell

CI/CD

AWS Lambda

Step Functions

Terraform

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Tools

Terraform

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Docker

AWS Lambda

Step Functions

Helm

Job description

• Linux systems troubleshooting

Lead Platform Engineer – Cloud & Developer Platforms

Role Overview

As a Lead Platform Engineer – Cloud & Developer Platforms, you will design, build, and operate Guardian’s enterprise cloud application platforms and automation ecosystems. You will own critical components of the Amazon EKS platform lifecycle while also acting as a broad platform generalist, supporting automation, system design, and operational tooling that enable application teams to deploy, operate, and scale production workloads safely and consistently.

This role balances deep Kubernetes platform ownership with versatile engineering skills across scripting, Linux systems, automation, Helm charts, CI/CD, and serverless workflows. The focus is on operational reliability, security-by-default patterns, and disciplined platform lifecycle management that accelerates developer productivity while reducing operational risk.

You Are

• A Lead-level senior individual contributor reporting into platform leadership with strong hands-on expertise in Amazon EKS, combined with broad engineering depth across cloud platforms, automation, and systems troubleshooting.
• A technical authority and escalation point who enforces platform standards across production, non-production, and disaster recovery environments, using automation, guardrails, and repeatable practices.
• Comfortable operating with autonomy and sound judgment under ambiguity, applying operational data, platform maturity signals, and architectural principles to guide decisions.
• A pragmatic "get-things-done" engineer who can move fluently between platform design, scripting, debugging, and incident response.

You Will

• Complement deep EKS ownership with generalist platform responsibilities, including:
• Designing and maintaining automation and scripting solutions
• Debugging Linux-level, container, and networking issues
• Improving system reliability through tooling and standards
• Cluster and environment architecture
• Kubernetes and EKS version upgrades
• Node, AMI, and add‑on lifecycle management
• Platform security controls and operational governance
• Design and operate CI/CD and automation pipelines for platform and infrastructure components using:
• Jenkins and Groovy
• GitHub and GitHub Actions
• Terraform
• Python and Shell scripting
• Lead the design and evolution of cloud platforms that support diverse workload patterns, including:
• Web services and APIs
• Long-running and background services
• Containerized workloads on Amazon EKS
• Serverless and event-driven workflows using AWS Lambda and Step Functions
• Embed validation controls, security gates, and safe promotion and rollback mechanisms directly into pipelines and workflows.
• Ensure platforms and workloads meet Guardian’s observability standards by integrating with the enterprise observability and monitoring tooling, with telemetry and alerting aligned to workload criticality.
• Integrate approved security scanning tooling into delivery and platform pipelines for dependency and container image scanning.
• Act as a senior escalation point for platform-related production incidents, leading or contributing to root cause analysis and driving durable remediation.
• Partner closely with Application Engineering, Security Engineering, Observability, and Architecture teams to influence workload design, enforce secure-by-default patterns, and align with Guardian standards and future‑state architecture.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to raising overall platform engineering, automation, and operational maturity.

You Have (Must Have)

• 7+ years of experience in platform engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, SRE, or closely related roles.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes and Amazon EKS, including real‑world production operations and upgrades.
• Broad engineering depth beyond Kubernetes, including:
• Linux systems troubleshooting
• Container runtimes and Docker
• Automation and scripting for operational workflows
• Hands‑on experience with AWS Lambda, Step Functions, and serverless execution models.
• Strong proficiency in Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or equivalent tools.
• Experience building and operating CI/CD automation using Jenkins and/or GitHub Actions.
• Strong scripting and automation skills using Python and Shell.
• Solid understanding of how application architecture decisions impact reliability, security, and operations.
• Experience designing and operating platforms consumed by multiple application teams at enterprise scale.
• Proven ability to troubleshoot complex, cross‑layer issues spanning:
• Kubernetes platforms
• Linux and containers
• CI/CD and automation tooling
• Security and observability systems

Location

Three days a week at a Guardian location in Holmdel, NJ; or Bethlehem, PA.

Salary Range

$118,980.00 - $195,465.00

The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.

Inspire Well-Being

As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits. Benefits apply to full‑time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [e-mail]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment‑based visas (e.g., such as an H‑1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.

Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools ("AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.

Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [e-mail], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [e-mail].

Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here.

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.