Platform Engineer

Vesta Software Group; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Kahootz is seeking a Platform Engineer to join its UK-based cloud platform team. You will manage AWS-based production workloads, automate tasks, and drive modernisation through IaC, containers, and automation. The role emphasizes security, resilience, and compliance across a growing SaaS platform.

The successful candidate will collaborate with R&D, DevOps, and operations, contributing to architecture decisions and market expansion while maintaining security standards and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science or a related technical discipline or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a customer-first mindset.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills for technical decisions.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a small, collaborative team.
• Solid understanding of SaaS operations and DevOps practices.
• Awareness of secure engineering, operational risk and compliance principles.
• Familiarity with GitHub and Jira for collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Operate and monitor AWS-based production platform for Kahootz.
• Document and automate platform tasks to improve reliability and reduce manual effort.
• Design repeatable deployments for specialist projects and new markets.
• Advance infrastructure as code and containerisation, including Kubernetes where appropriate.
• Strengthen security, resilience, and compliance across platform engineering work.
• Assess and advise on architecture changes and external product integrations.

Skills

AWS

Linux systems

Terraform

Kubernetes

Scripting (Bash, Python)

Security & compliance awareness

Education

CS degree or equivalent

Tools

GitHub

Jira

Docker

CloudWatch

Job description

Job Description:

Platform Engineer - Kahootz UK

Company Overview

Available since 2003, our award-winning Kahootz cloud collaboration service is one of most widely adopted sovereign SaaS solutions across the UK government.

We are serious about cyber-security and protecting your data. In addition to regular, independent certification of our business operations and cloud security controls, you’ll be pleased to learn that Kahootz is one of the few cloud services that have been accredited by security conscious Government departments such as the UK’s Ministry of Defence and Department of Health for their most sensitive projects.

Building on these impressive credentials, Kahootz is now used by hundreds of thousands of people across public sector organisations, enterprises and non-for-profits to find smarter, safer, ways of working in the cloud.

Summary of Role

As a Platform Engineer, you will join the team responsible for the availability, security and evolution of Kahootz’s AWS-based SaaS platform. You will operate and troubleshoot production services, automate and modernise the platform, and help deliver repeatable environments for new markets and specialist customer requirements. You will work closely with R&D, DevOps and operational colleagues, share ownership of business-critical platform knowledge, and contribute to architecture decisions for integrations and future platform capabilities. The role offers broad technical exposure and meaningful ownership, with support for continued learning and development.

Please note, applicants must be UK based and eligible for UK security clearance.

Key Objectives

• Provide reliable day-to-day operation and support for Kahootz’s AWS-based production platform.
• Build resilient engineering cover by documenting, sharing and automating business-critical platform tasks.
• Design and deliver repeatable platform deployments for specialist projects and new markets.
• Modernise the platform through infrastructure as code, containerisation and improved delivery automation.
• Strengthen security, compliance, business continuity and disaster-recovery capabilities while supporting sound architecture decisions.

Key Responsibility 1: Production operations and service reliability

• Monitor service health, availability, capacity and performance using AWS CloudWatch, Monit and other observability tools.
• Investigate and resolve incidents across AWS services, including EC2, RDS, IAM, networking, using tools like CloudWatch and CloudTrail.
• Deploy and validate updates, patches and production changes using controlled, auditable processes.
• Create and maintain scripts, runbooks and operational documentation that reduce manual effort and single-person dependency.
• Work with support, R&D and DevOps colleagues to diagnose recurring issues and implement lasting fixes, documenting incidents, problems and changes.

Key Responsibility 2: Platform engineering and market expansion

• Evolve and simplify platform components to improve reliability, maintainability, scalability and cost efficiency.
• Build infrastructure-as-code and automated deployment patterns for consistent, repeatable environments.
• Lead practical containerisation and modernisation initiatives, including Kubernetes where appropriate.
• Adapt and deploy platform capabilities for specialist projects and expansion into new markets.
• Assess architecture changes and integrations with external products and advise on secure, supportable designs.

Key Responsibility 3: Security, resilience and compliance

• Respond promptly to security vulnerabilities and incidents, coordinating remediation and follow-up actions.
• Embed secure configuration, least-privilege access and traceable change practices in platform engineering work.
• Maintain technical controls and evidence that support existing compliance certifications and customer assurance.
• Contribute to new certifications, audits and security reviews.
• Improve and test business-continuity and disaster-recovery arrangements.

Qualifications & Training

• A degree in computer science or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills, with a customer-first mindset.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions.
• The ability to manage competing priorities and work effectively in a small, collaborative team.
• A sound understanding of software delivery lifecycles, SaaS operations and DevOps practices.
• Awareness of secure engineering, operational risk and compliance principles.
• Familiarity with version control and team collaboration tools such as GitHub and Jira.
• Curiosity, good judgement and a willingness to learn, including responsible use of automation and AI-assisted tools.

Experience

• Hands-on experience operating and troubleshooting production workloads in AWS.
• A good understanding of Linux systems, Networking principles and protocols, and cloud infrastructure.
• Practical experience with core AWS services such as Route53, EC2, RDS, S3, EFS, ECS, ACM, WAF.
• Scripting and coding skills in Bash, Ansible, Python, or a comparable language.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform preferred), configuration management and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with container workflows and Kubernetes deployments.
• Experience with monitoring, logging and incident, problem or change-management practices.
• Exposure to security, compliance, and vulnerability management with tools like CrowdStrike, Rapid7, SecurityScorecard, etc.
• Experience in a SaaS or software-delivery environment is desirable.
• Experience working effectively in a remote or distributed team is desirable.

Business Unit:

Kahootz

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

37.5

Number of Openings Available:

1

Worker Type:

Regular