Principal Platform Architect Kubernetes Kafka

Request Technology, LLC; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Request Technology, LLC is seeking a Principal Platform Architect with strong Kubernetes and Kafka experience to define the technical direction for core platform capabilities across legacy and cloud-native environments.

This is a hands‑on architecture role with enterprise‑wide impact that will lead POC efforts, drive platform standards adoption, and serve as the senior technical voice on platform concerns across programs including the transformation.

Qualifications

• Over 10 years in infrastructure/platform architecture with enterprise scope.
• Hands-on Kubernetes design, including cluster architecture and security.
• Experience with Kafka deployments, topology design, and operations.
• Proven AWS architecture experience and GitOps pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Define and own core platform architecture including containers, streaming, CI/CD and observability.
• Develop target-state platforms with transition plans from current state.
• Own reference architectures for Kubernetes workloads and Kafka topologies.
• Drive cloud-native modernization and platform standards adoption.
• Collaborate with engineering and operations to ensure deployable, operable designs.

Skills

Kubernetes

Apache Kafka

Apache Flink

AWS

GitOps

CI/CD

Observability

Unix/Linux

Architectural leadership

Enterprise architecture

Education

BS degree in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Helm

ArgoCD

Flux

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Prometheus

Grafana

Splunk

Job description

Prestigious Financial Institution is currently seeking a Principal Platform Architect with strong Kubernetes and Kafka experience. Candidate will help define the technical direction for core platform capabilities — owning how we build, deploy, operate, and evolve the infrastructure layer across both legacy and cloud-native environments. This is a hands‑on architecture role with enterprise‑wide impact that will lead POC efforts, drive platform standards adoption, and serve as the senior technical voice on platform concerns across programs including the transformation.

Responsibilities

Define and Own Platform Architecture

• Lead architecture design and decision‑making for the core platform capabilities: container orchestration, streaming infrastructure, cloud architecture, CI/CD and GitOps pipelines, and observability
• Develop and maintain target‑state platform architectures with clear transition plans from current state
• Own reference architectures for Kubernetes-based workloads, Kafka streaming topologies, Flink stream processing, and AWS infrastructure patterns
• Establish platform architecture standards and guardrails that application teams can build against reliably
• Ensure non‑functional requirements — availability, latency, throughput, recoverability — are addressed at the platform level, not delegated to individual application teams

Drive Platform Modernization

• Architect and guide migration of workloads to cloud‑native patterns on AWS, including compute, networking, storage, and security services
• Define GitOps model — infrastructure‑as‑code practices, pipeline standards, environment promotion, and configuration management at scale
• Evaluate and recommend platform technologies and tooling; lead proof‑of‑concept efforts to validate architectural decisions before commitment
• Identify and reduce platform risk across the portfolio — single points of failure, unsupported dependencies, capacity constraints, and operational gaps

Collaborate and Influence

• Partner with Application Architecture to ensure platform capabilities match application design requirements — particularly for high‑throughput, low‑latency clearing workloads
• Engage Engineering and operations teams to ensure platform designs are buildable, operable, and supportable — not just theoretically sound
• Facilitate architecture working sessions with technical leads and business stakeholders; communicate platform decisions clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure, platform, or systems architecture roles with demonstrated ownership of enterprise‑scale platform decisions
• Deep, hands‑on expertise with Kubernetes — cluster architecture, workload design, networking, security, and operational patterns at scale
• Hands‑on experience architecting Apache Kafka deployments — topic design, partitioning strategy, consumer group patterns, schema management, and operational concerns
• Practical experience with Apache Flink or equivalent stream processing frameworks — job design, state management, and deployment on Kubernetes
• Strong AWS architecture experience — VPCs, EC2, EKS, MSK, S3, IAM, KMS, networking, and security services
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing GitOps pipelines — infrastructure‑as‑code, environment promotion, secrets management, and release automation using tools such as Flux, ArgoCD, Terraform, or Helm
• Experience with brownfield/legacy environments alongside cloud‑native programs
• Kubernetes (EKS or self‑managed), Kafka, Apache Flink
• AWS foundational services: EC2, EKS, MSK, S3, VPC, IAM, KMS, CloudWatch
• GitOps tooling: ArgoCD, Flux, Terraform, Helm
• CI/CD pipelines: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or equivalent
• Observability: OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or equivalent
• Unix/Linux environments; container and image management (Docker, NexArtifactory)
• BS degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a similar technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of relevant work experience.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in financial services, particularly regulated environments (SIFMU, clearinghouse, exchange, or bank)
• Familiarity with Regulation SCI, CPMI‑IOSCO resilience requirements, or equivalent financial market infrastructure regulatory frameworks
• Experience with observability tooling at scale — OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or equivalent
• Familiarity with high‑performance and low‑latency computing patterns relevant to risk and clearing workloads
• Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF
• AWS Solutions Architect — Associate or Professional (preferred)