Sr. Platform Engineering

Archer; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 144,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Archer, a San Jose-based aerospace company, seeks a Senior Platform Engineer to accelerate product development through automation and self-service infrastructure. You will bridge development, infrastructure, and AI/ML initiatives, focusing on scalable CI/CD and workflow optimization.

Collaborate with AI/ML engineers to operationalize MLOps pipelines, optimize resource usage (GPUs and specialized hardware), and build internal platforms that empower engineering teams to move fast and securely.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or SRE.
• Deep cloud expertise and IaC tooling (Terraform preferred).
• Containerization and orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Scripting and general-purpose languages: Python, Go, Bash.
• Extensive experience designing and managing CI/CD at scale.
• Proven track record building internal developer platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable CI/CD pipelines across environments.
• Drive best practices for build management, testing automation, and deployment strategies.
• Minimize deployment friction and cycle time for engineering teams.
• Develop self-service tooling and internal platforms for provisioning infrastructure.
• Establish guardrails and policy-as-code for compliance and security.
• Collaborate with AI/ML teams to improve models platform and MLOps pipelines.
• Architect automated workflows and internal APIs to connect engineering systems.

Skills

5+ years of experience

Cloud platforms (AWS GCP Azure)

Scripting languages (Python, Go, Bash)

CI/CD at scale

Internal developer platforms

Tools

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

We are looking for a highly motivated and versatile Senior Platform Engineer to join our platform engineering team. This unique role is central to accelerating our product development lifecycle and operational efficiency. You will be instrumental in bridging the gap between development, infrastructure, and our burgeoning AI/ML initiatives, focusing on automation, self-service infrastructure, and workflow optimization. This position is ideal for an experienced engineer who thrives on creating leverage for others and tackling complex, interdisciplinary challenges.

Key Responsibilities:

CI/CD and Automation

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable and reliable CI/CD pipelines (e.g., using GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Spinnaker) to ensure rapid and safe deployments across multiple environments.
• Drive the adoption of best practices for build management, testing automation, and deployment strategies (Canary, Blue/Green, etc.).
• Minimize deployment friction and cycle time for all engineering teams.

Self-Service Infrastructure & Provisioning

• Develop and champion self-service tooling and internal platforms (leveraging tools like Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, or equivalent cloud provider APIs) that empower development teams to provision and manage their own infrastructure resources securely and efficiently.
• Establish guardrails and policy-as-code to ensure compliance, cost efficiency, and security across all provisioned infrastructure.

AI Infrastructure Enhancement & Support

• Collaborate closely with AI/ML Engineers to improve the underlying platform used for model training, experimentation, and serving.
• Focus on the operationalization of MLOps pipelines, including data lineage tracking, feature store integration, and production model deployment automation.
• Assist in optimizing resource allocation (e.g., GPU usage, specialized hardware) for AI workloads.

Workflow Automation & Internal Tooling

• Architect and build automated workflows and bots, primarily within communication tools like Slack or Zoom, to streamline common engineering tasks (e.g., on-call handoffs, incident response, environment status checks, approval processes).
• Develop internal APIs and services that connect disparate engineering systems to enhance communication and cross-functional transparency.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in Platform Engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or a related discipline.
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform strongly preferred).
• Expertise in containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker and Kubernetes).
• Proficiency in scripting and general-purpose programming languages (e.g., Python, Go, Bash).
• Extensive experience designing and managing CI/CD systems at scale.
• Proven track record of building internal developer platforms or self-service tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, MLOps tooling, or data pipeline technologies (e.g., Airflow, Kubeflow, Vertex AI, SageMaker).
• Prior experience building conversational interfaces, bots, or workflow automation tools for platforms like Slack or Teams.
• Familiarity with distributed tracing, logging, and monitoring systems (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog).
• Experience with security best practices in a cloud environment (IAM, network security, secrets management).

At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $144,000 - $175,000. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at [e-mail]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's Candidate Privacy Policy.

Archer is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position at the present time.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to [e-mail]. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.

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