Senior/ Staff Platform engineer

Acceler8 Talent; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Acceler8 Talent is hiring a Senior / Staff Platform Engineer to extend a production AI platform into secure US Government environments and grow a US technical team.

This hands-on role focuses on production Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and infrastructure as code, with GovCloud, FedRAMP, and national-security exposure as advantages. Location is primarily remote, with Virginia-based candidates preferred and ability to reach Herndon on short notice.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building, deploying and operating production cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Experience with GovCloud, FedRAMP or other regulated environments.
• Strong IaC experience with Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi.
• Ability to work autonomously as a senior IC.
• Experience owning production Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Security-focused with emphasis on reliability and sovereignty.
• Experience with cloud providers (AWS/Azure/GCP) in regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Own and improve production Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure.
• Build and maintain infrastructure as code and repeatable deployment patterns.
• Work across provisioning, deployment, security, reliability and operations.
• Adapt an existing platform for US Government and highly secure environments.
• Make technical decisions across infrastructure and deployment.
• Help establish technical capability as the US team grows.
• Remain hands-on while serving as senior technical reference point.
• Strong production Kubernetes ownership and cloud engineering across AWS, Azure, GCP.

Skills

Kubernetes infra

Cloud infrastructure

Autonomous senior IC

Security & reliability

Government/regulated envs

ProductionOps

Tools

Terraform

OpenTofu

Pulumi

Job description

Ad-hoc short-notice access to Herndon, VA required

We’re hiring a Senior / Staff Platform Engineer to help extend a production AI platform into highly secure US Government environments and support the growth of a US technical team.

This is not a generic DevOps or CI/CD role. We’re looking for a hands-on engineer who has personally built, deployed and operated production cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

Experience with GovCloud, FedRAMP, defence, national security or other highly regulated environments is a major advantage.

What You’ll Do

• Own and improve production Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure
• Build and maintain infrastructure as code and repeatable deployment patterns
• Work across provisioning, deployment, security, reliability and operations
• Adapt an existing platform for US Government and highly secure environments
• Make technical decisions across infrastructure and deployment
• Help establish technical capability as the US team grows
• Remain hands-on while acting as a senior technical reference point
• Strong experience owning production Kubernetes infrastructure
• Hands-on cloud engineering across AWS, Azure, GCP or comparable platforms
• Strong Infrastructure as Code experience with Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi or equivalent
• Evidence of personally building, deploying and operating production infrastructure
• Strong understanding of infrastructure security and reliability
• Ability to work autonomously as a senior individual contributor
• AWS GovCloud or similar government cloud environments
• FedRAMP
• Defence or national-security technology
• Classified, disconnected or highly regulated environments

An existing security clearance is helpful but not required.

Security Requirements

• Be eligible to obtain a US Government security clearance

Location: Primarily remote, with Virginia-based candidates strongly preferred.

You must be able to reach the Herndon, Virginia area at short notice when required.

• Up to 25% annual bonus

Why This Role?

You’ll work on infrastructure supporting AI systems where security, reliability, sovereignty and deployment constraints genuinely matter.

This is a high-ownership opportunity spanning cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, secure deployment and operational architecture while helping shape a growing US engineering capability.