Staff Engineer, Communications Platform

Finalsite; Glastonbury (CT); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Finalsite is seeking a Staff Engineer to provide technical leadership for its high-scale communications platform, focusing on reliability, observability, and multi-cloud modernization. The role drives architectural strategy and platform evolution across Kubernetes and cloud services.

You will guide migration efforts, define scalable architectures, and mentor cross-functional teams while shaping incident response and IaC practices for resilient operations at scale.

Qualifications

• At least 12 years of experience as a Staff Engineer or senior-level individual contributor supporting high-scale communications or messaging platforms.
• Strong background in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems operations.
• Experience leading modernization or migration initiatives for production systems.
• Proficiency with observability tools, monitoring frameworks, and incident response practices.
• Experience working with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) methodologies and cloud-native technologies.
• Strong Python development and operational experience.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or similar technologies.
• Strong communication, technical leadership, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy, modernization planning, and operational reliability for the communications platform.
• Define and implement scalable architecture, migration, and infrastructure improvement initiatives.
• Improve observability through monitoring, alerting, dashboards, SLOs, and incident management practices.
• Support production operations across Kubernetes, queue-driven systems, and multi-cloud environments.
• Establish architecture review standards and collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams.
• Provide technical leadership during incidents, root cause analysis, and operational reviews.
• Promote Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and operational best practices across the engineering organization.
• Utilize AI-assisted development tools to support codebase navigation and platform evolution.

Skills

Staff Engineer

Kubernetes

Cloud infrastructure

Distributed systems

Observability

IaC

Python

AI-assisted tools

Technical leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

AWS SQS

AWS Lambda

DynamoDB

KEDA

Job description

SUMMARY

The Staff Engineer, Communications Platform will provide technical leadership for Finalsite's high‑scale communications infrastructure supporting emergency alerts, district notifications, and parent communications. This role will lead platform modernization, reliability improvements, observability initiatives, and long‑term architectural strategy across a multi‑cloud environment.

Initial priorities include strengthening observability, improving operational discipline, and increasing platform reliability, while driving a modernization initiative to migrate the legacy messaging core across fragmented multi‑cloud environments.

LOCATION

100% Remote – anywhere within the US

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead technical strategy, modernization planning, and operational reliability for the communications platform
• Define and implement scalable architecture, migration, and infrastructure improvement initiatives
• Improve observability through monitoring, alerting, dashboards, SLOs, and incident management practices
• Support production operations across Kubernetes, queue‑driven systems, and multi‑cloud environments
• Establish architecture review standards and collaborate with cross‑functional engineering teams
• Provide technical leadership during incidents, root cause analysis, and operational reviews
• Promote Infrastructure‑as‑Code (IaC) and operational best practices across the engineering organization
• Utilize AI‑assisted development tools to support codebase navigation and platform evolution

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• At least 12 years of experience as a Staff Engineer or senior‑level individual contributor supporting high‑scale communications or messaging platforms
• Strong background in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems operations
• Experience leading modernization or migration initiatives for production systems
• Proficiency with observability tools, monitoring frameworks, and incident response practices
• Experience working with Infrastructure‑as‑Code (IaC) methodologies and cloud‑native technologies
• Strong Python development and operational experience
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or similar technologies
• Strong communication, technical leadership, and cross‑functional collaboration skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience supporting C/C++ production systems
• Familiarity with messaging and notification infrastructure, including email or SMS delivery systems
• Experience with AWS‑native messaging technologies such as SQS, Lambda, DynamoDB, or KEDA
• Prior experience supporting large‑scale modernization or migration initiatives
• Background supporting EdTech, SaaS, or other highly available customer‑facing platforms

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT

Finalsite offers 100% fully remote employment opportunities; these are limited to permanent residents of the United States. Current residency, as well as continued residency, within the United States is required to obtain (and retain) employment with Finalsite.

DISCLOSURES

Finalsite is proud to be an equal‑opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. EEO is the law.