Senior/Staff Platform Engineer

UpGuard Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Monthly Lifestyle subsidy

WFH set‑up allowance

$1500 USD learning & development

Annual leave (PTO) plus UpGuardianDays

18 weeks parental leave

Personal Leave Allowance

Fully remote working environment

Top‑spec hardware

Generative AI subsidy

Job summary

UpGuard is seeking a Platform Engineer to own the platforms, tools and infrastructure powering our development workflows, with genuine autonomy to define the roadmap and scale our systems as we grow. We’re open to Senior or Staff levels, with compensation aligned to experience.

In this role you’ll work on Google Cloud, containerization, IaC and GitOps to deliver secure, observable, efficient platforms for our product engineering teams across a fully remote setup.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience at tech‑centric and product‑driven companies.
• Strong software engineering foundation with a developer‑first mindset.
• Hands‑on experience with containerization, Kubernetes and modern CI/CD pipelines.
• Track record of improving developer experience with better tooling and workflows.
• Experience with relational DB design and PostgreSQL at scale.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and major cloud platforms (prefer Google Cloud).

Responsibilities

• Champion a platform‑as‑a‑product mindset and iterate based on feedback from engineering teams.
• Design, build and maintain scalable infrastructure on Google Cloud to support product needs.
• Collaborate with developers to streamline local and CI/CD workflows and promote platform best practices.
• Evolve observability with monitoring, logging and alerting for fast, confident work.
• Implement secure‑by‑default patterns for networking, secrets, IAM, and workload isolation.
• Advance IaC and GitOps adoption for auditable infrastructure changes.

Skills

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Open

Tools

Terraform/OpenTofu

Job description

Who are we?

At UpGuard, we are replacing manual security bottlenecks with AI-driven precision. Fresh off a US$75M Series C, we are scaling our infrastructure to process 100 billion risk signals daily. This isn’t just growth; it’s a total reimagining of how the world manages cyber risk.

We build the Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) platform that security teams actually love. By integrating security ratings, threat intel, and agentic AI, we empower organisations to stay ahead of an ever evolving attack surface.

We aren’t just building another tool; we’re defining a category. We provide the autonomy to ship world-class technology and the resources to do it at a global scale.

Our Product team at UpGuard comprises our Product Management, Product Support, Engineering, Design, Data Leaks Detection, and Third Party Risk Management Services. Our Product team’s vision is to become the leader in the Cyber VRM category by providing a best-in-class SaaS platform for organisations to manage their third‑party risk and external attack surface. Our purpose as a Product team is simply to build a product that enables this. We aim to build a product that users love and come to rely on, and one that regularly and consistently improves.

Why are we hiring for this role?

This is a rare opportunity to shape a platform engineering function from its early days. You won’t be inheriting someone else’s decisions. You’ll be defining the foundational systems, standards, and internal platforms that UpGuard’s engineering organisation will build on for years.

As a Platform Engineer, you’ll own the platforms, tools and infrastructure that power our development workflows, improving reliability, streamlining operations, and enhancing the developer experience across our product engineering teams. The function sits at the heart of our engineering organisation, and you’ll have genuine autonomy and influence: defining the roadmap, driving best practices, and scaling our systems as we grow.

We’re open to hiring at either the Senior or Staff level, and we’ll calibrate the level, scope, and compensation based on your experience.

What will you do?

• Champion a “platform as a product” mindset, regularly gathering feedback from engineering teams and iterating to improve the developer experience

• Design, build and maintain scalable, reliable infrastructure on Google Cloud to support our growing product needs

• Collaborate closely with developers to streamline local and CI/CD workflows, and champion platform best practices

• Evolve our observability stack - ensuring teams have the monitoring, logging and alerting they need to move quickly and confidently

• Implement and maintain secure-by-default patterns for networking, secrets management, IAM, and workload isolation

• Accelerate and complete the adoption of infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and GitOps to achieve consistent and auditable infrastructure changes

What you’ll bring?

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (preferably Terraform/OpenTofu) on a major cloud platform (ideally Google Cloud)

• 5+ years of relevant engineering experience at tech‑centric and ideally product‑driven companies

• A strong software engineering foundation and a developer‑first mindset

• Hands‑on experience with containerization, Kubernetes and modern CI/CD pipelines

• A track record of improving developer experience through better tooling, streamlined workflows, and a documentation‑first culture

• Experience with relational database design, performance tuning and operations at scale, ideally with PostgreSQL

What will give you an edge?

• Experience scaling infrastructure to support multi‑region architectures and growing engineering teams

• Strong backend engineering skills, particularly in Go

• A practical approach to cloud cost optimisation, with experience in identifying and implementing efficiency improvements

• Experience building internal platforms as products - with a focus on roadmap definition, adoption and developer enablement

• Practical experience in product security, including embedding security best practices early in the SDLC and shifting security left

What’s in it for you?

• Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: Use this for financial, physical, and mental well‑being
• WFH set‑up allowance: To ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set up within your first 3 months at UpGuard
• $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: To support your career development, all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance
• Annual leave: PTO plus two additional UpGuardian leave days to give you time to recharge your batteries.
• 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: Irrespective of parenting role
• Personal Leave Allowance: This includes sick & carer’s leave
• Fully remote working environment: While we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance
• Top‑spec hardware: All team members will be provided with top‑spec laptops for their role
• Generative AI subsidy: UpGuard provides paid subscriptions for all team members to access generative AI tools to support their work

UpGuard is a Certified Great Place to Work in the US, Australia, UK and India, establishing its position as a leading global technology employer. 99% of team members agree that UpGuard is a great place to work.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity and Afformative Action Employer, qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

For applications to positions in the United States, please note, at this time we can only support hiring in the following US states: CA, MD, MA, IL, OR, WA, CO, TX, FL, PA, LA, MO, or DC.

Before starting work with us, you will need to undertake a national police history check and reference checks.