Staff DevOps Engineer (Ingeniero DevOps Staff) - Hybrid

Clara; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

ESOP

Learning budget

Job summary

Clara is seeking a Staff DevOps Engineer to lead the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) and drive CI/CD standardization across multi-country workloads in the Americas. You will shape FinOps, manage a Kubernetes-based stack on Amazon EKS, and improve incident response with AI-driven log analysis.

You will mentor teams, enforce least-privilege security, and guide architectural reviews while contributing to IaC and SSDLC improvements in a fast-growing fintech environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of DevOps, Platform Engineering, or SRE experience in fintech or regulated environments.
• Strong experience with multi-account, multi-region AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, IAM).
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes on Amazon EKS in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, adoption, and continuous improvement of the Internal Developer Platform (IDP).
• Design and implement engineering FinOps strategy across AWS and tooling for cost savings.
• Operate and evolve the Kubernetes platform on Amazon EKS for multi-country workloads.
• Support Kafka/MSK-based event-driven architecture for async processing and cross-service communication.
• Build and integrate MCP-based AI solutions to automate log analysis and accelerate RCA.
• Advise development teams on scalable, secure infrastructure design and mitigate technical debt.
• Implement and maintain Least Privilege Access (IAM) models for human and non-human identities.
• Strengthen SSDLC with container standardization, secure base images, and pipeline hardening.
• Lead technical compliance initiatives for ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and fintech regs.
• Design multi-account, multi-region backup and recovery systems.
• Define and implement IaC for environment provisioning and management.
• Contribute to on-call rotations and improve MTTD/MTTR with monitoring.
• Mentor teams adopting internal tooling (CLIs, containers).

Skills

Ruby

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Java

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Redis

Kubernetes (EKS)

Kafka/MSK

CI/CD

AI/LLMs in ops

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

GitHub Actions

Kubernetes (EKS)

Kafka/MSK

Terraform

Job description

Clara is the leading spend management platform in Latin America. More than 40,000 businesses run on our corporate cards, bill pay, financing and B2B payments, and in 2025 the Financial Times named Clara the fastest-growing company in Latin America. We're ~400 people, backed by Kaszek, monashees, Coatue, DST Global, ICONIQ, General Catalyst and Goldman Sachs, among others.

We are looking for a Staff DevOps Engineer who:

Responsibilities

• Platform Leadership: Lead the design, adoption, and continuous improvement of the Internal Developer Platform (IDP), driving CI/CD pipeline standardization to increase deployment frequency and reduce Cycle Time.
• FinOps Strategy: Design and implement engineering FinOps strategy across AWS and other tooling, identifying cost-saving opportunities without compromising reliability.
• Container Orchestration: Operate and evolve our Kubernetes platform on Amazon EKS, supporting multi-country production workloads (MX/CO/BR).
• Event-Driven Infrastructure: Support and troubleshoot our Kafka/MSK-based event-driven architecture, used extensively across our microservices for async processing, notifications, and cross-service communication.
• Applied AI/Automation: Build and integrate MCP-based (Model Context Protocol) or other applied-AI solutions to automate log analysis and accelerate Root Cause Analysis (RCA) during incidents.
• Technical Advisory: Advise development teams on scalable, secure infrastructure design; identify and mitigate technical debt in legacy systems; support cross-team architectural reviews.
• Security & Access: Implement and maintain Least Privilege Access (IAM) models for both human and non-human identities, including peer review of policies.
• SSDLC: Strengthen the Secure Software Development Lifecycle through container standardization, secure base images, and pipeline hardening.
• Compliance & Audits: Lead technical compliance initiatives for audits, certifications (e.g., ISO 27001), local fintech regulations, and enterprise integration RFPs.
• Resilience: Design and implement multi-account, multi-region backup and recovery systems.
• Infrastructure as Code: Define and implement IaC for environment provisioning and management.
• Operations: Participate in on-call rotations, continuously improving MTTD/MTTR through effective monitoring and alerting.
• Mentorship: Provide technical support and mentorship to development teams adopting internal tooling (CLIs, container platforms, etc.).

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience:
• 5+ years of experience in DevOps, Platform Engineering, or SRE roles, ideally in fintech or regulated environments.
• Strong experience with multi-account, multi-region AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, IAM, or equivalent services).
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes on Amazon EKS (cluster operations, scaling, networking, workload troubleshooting) in production.
• Experience with Apache Kafka / Amazon MSK in production: topic design, consumer group management, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.
• Experience leading or contributing to the build of Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) and CI/CD standardization (GitHub Actions, self-hosted runners, or similar).
• Experience in observability and incident management (Datadog or similar) and DORA metrics (Cycle Time, CFR, MTTR).
• Practical knowledge of cloud security: Least Privilege, SSDLC, and compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, or regional fintech regulations).
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code.
• Technical Skills: Ruby, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java; PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis; experience with our core stack of Java/Spring Boot microservices on Kubernetes (EKS) with Kafka/MSK for event-driven communication; familiarity with applying AI/LLMs to operational tasks (automated log analysis, MCPs, agents) is a plus.

Additional Skills & Pluses

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a strategic mindset.
• Quick learner, adaptable to changes and willing to shift directions as needed.
• Innate curiosity and an ability to thrive in an ambiguous and rapidly changing environment.
• Organizational skills to produce clear documentation and present to stakeholders.
• Native Spanish; intermediate-advanced English.

Why Clara

• A high talent-density team driven to make an impact in Latin America — low ego, high ownership.
• Competitive salary and stock options (ESOP) from day one.
• An annual learning budget and accelerated development paths.
• English is our working language, with Spanish and Portuguese every day.

How we work

• Clarity — Open and direct communication: we say what we mean and give context where it matters.
• Simplicity — If it can be simpler, it should be.
• Ownership — We own everything we do, end to end. When something needs to happen, we don't wait.
• Pride — We hold ourselves to a high standard, and it shows in what we deliver.
• ABC (Always Be Changing) — We adapt fast, embrace change, and keep learning.
• Inclusivity — Diverse ideas, stories and perspectives build a better Clara.

Hybrid at Clara

Claridians split their time between the office, customers and home. We don't set a minimum number of office days for most roles, but we expect you to spend time there naturally, and most days during your ramp-up or when your leader asks.