Platform Engineering Lead — Java/Kotlin, AI Tools, Hybrid

Kelly Services; Waltham (MA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement with employer match

Paid vacation and company holidays

Hybrid schedule: 3 onsite days/week in

Onsite collaboration and innovation

Job summary

Motion Recruitment Partners is seeking a Senior Software Engineer in a Platform Engineering leadership role in Waltham, MA. The position blends hands-on backend development with infrastructure modernization and developer experience initiatives, centered on Java and Kotlin.

You will define the internal engineering platform, guide technical direction across teams, and champion AI-powered tooling to improve reliability, speed, and developer productivity.

Qualifications

• Strong experience developing production backend systems using Java and/or Kotlin.
• Proven background building and supporting internal developer platforms or engineering infrastructure.
• Hands-on experience with public cloud environments and modern cloud-native architecture patterns.
• Expertise in software delivery automation, CI/CD pipelines, and developer tooling.
• Experience designing scalable distributed systems with a focus on reliability and operational efficiency.
• Familiarity with infrastructure automation, platform services, and engineering enablement initiatives.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across multiple teams.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with development teams to improve platform capabilities and engineering workflows - 30%.
• Build and maintain platform services, internal tooling, and backend infrastructure components - 25%.
• Promote and implement AI-assisted engineering practices across the development lifecycle - 20%.
• Enhance cloud architecture, automation, performance, and scalability initiatives - 15%.
• Provide technical leadership, platform governance, and architectural direction - 10%.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Cloud Platforms

Platform Engineering

Developer Enablement Tooling

AI-Enhanced Development

Backend Services

Job description

Motion Recruitment Partners is seeking a Senior Software Engineer in a Platform Engineering leadership role in Waltham, MA. The position blends hands-on backend development with infrastructure modernization and developer experience initiatives, centered on Java and Kotlin.

You will define the internal engineering platform, guide technical direction across teams, and champion AI-powered tooling to improve reliability, speed, and developer productivity.