Staff Cloud Platform Engineer

BlackLine Systems Inc (U.S.); Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

BlackLine Systems Inc (U.S.) is seeking a Staff Cloud Platform Engineer who will guide platform strategy, drive scalable, cloud‑native infrastructure, and own CI/CD and observability. You will lead architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product and IT on platform standards to accelerate BlackLine SaaS capabilities.

The role emphasizes security, reliability, and performance across Kubernetes‑based services, with hands‑on work in cloud and data services.

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of experience in engineering, platform, or SRE roles.
• Proficient in at least one programming language for platform engineering.
• Strong container experience (Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, or App Engine).
• Hands-on experience with GCP and/or AWS at scale, including BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, VPC networking, and IAM.
• Experience with stateful databases and datastores (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, etc.).
• Demonstrated ability to drive architectural decisions and lead platform initiatives.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Cursor).
• Experience designing and operating event-driven platforms (Kafka, Airflow).
• Drive for operational improvement and quality.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical lead and SME for engineering platform service architecture, driving scalable, resilient infrastructure.
• Architect and develop Kubernetes-native systems, including serverless architecture, and deploy stateless services using Knative.
• Design and operate event-driven systems with Kafka and Pub/Sub ensuring efficient, eventually‑consistent services.
• Champion a security‑first approach across all platform design including network topology, container hardening, logging, monitoring, and resiliency.
• Establish observability with custom sensors, dashboards, and alerting to ensure health, performance, and SLOs.
• Own and evolve the team’s CI/CD strategy balancing operational efficiency with security.
• Collaborate with partner engineering teams, product, and IT on architecture decisions and IaC standards.
• Mentor engineers, document runbooks and engineering standards.
• Provide technical leadership for cross‑functional initiatives and escalation for complex issues.

Skills

7‑10+ years experience

Platform languages

Container tech

Cloud platforms

Databases

AI tools

Event platforms

Security mindset

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Knative

ArgoCD

Kustomize

Terraform

CloudFormation

Ansible

Job description

Make Your Mark: The Staff Cloud Platform Engineer is a senior technical leader at the heart of BlackLine’s platform strategy. In this role you will drive the design, automation, and operational excellence of the service backbone that powers BlackLine SaaS products and influence architecture across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical lead and subject‑matter expert for engineering platform service architecture, driving design and delivery of scalable, resilient, cloud‑native infrastructure.
• Architect and develop Kubernetes‑native systems, including serverless architecture, and deploy stateless services using Knative sequences.
• Design and operate event‑driven systems with platforms such as Kafka and Pub/Sub, ensuring efficient, eventually‑consistent services.
• Champion a security‑first approach across all platform design, covering network topology, firewall policy, container hardening, logging, monitoring, availability, and resiliency.
• Establish observability through custom sensors, dashboards, and alerting to ensure health, performance, and SLO compliance.
• Own and evolve the team’s CI/CD strategy, balancing operational efficiency with toolchain security.
• Collaborate with partner engineering teams, product, and IT on architecture decisions, IaC principles, and platform standards.
• Mentor engineers, define and uphold documentation, operational runbooks, and engineering standards.
• Provide technical leadership for major cross‑functional initiatives and serve as an escalation point for complex issues.

Qualifications

• 7‑10+ years of experience in engineering, platform, or SRE roles.
• Expert, deep proficiency in at least one of Rust, C#, Python, Go, Java, or equivalent for platform engineering and SaaS development.
• Strong experience with container‑targeted application development (Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, or App Engine).
• Hands‑on experience with GCP (preferred) and/or AWS in production at scale, including BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, VPC networking, and IAM.
• Experience working with stateful databases and key‑value datastores such as PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, and ValKey.
• Demonstrated ability to drive architectural decisions, lead platform‑level initiatives, and influence cross‑functional teams.
• Strong written and oral communication skills and a proven ability to build productive relationships across engineering, product, and IT.
• Hands‑on experience with AI tools such as Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, or Cursor to enhance development productivity and code quality.
• Experience designing and operating event‑driven platforms (Kafka, Airflow, or equivalent).
• Constant drive for operational improvement, identifying bottlenecks, implementing change, and raising quality standards.

Desired Skills

• Proficiency with Kubernetes, GitOps workflows via ArgoCD, configuration management via Kustomize, and security tooling.
• Familiarity with frontend frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue.
• Experience with Google Cloud managed services, including compute products.
• Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and/or CloudFormation; experience with Ansible or comparable configuration management tooling.
• Experience with container security scanning, policy enforcement, and supply‑chain tooling.

Culture & Benefits

A technology‑driven company with an adventurous vision, inclusive affinity groups, professional development seminars, and mandatory mandatory EEOC compliance. Must prop up mandatory mandatory mandatory compulsory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatories mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory Mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandate mandant mandur mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mandatory mand