Principal Platform Architecture - Kubernetes Architecture

Principal, Platform Architecture

Seeking a candidate with strong hands-on technical experience in”:

GitOps Architecture

Argo CD

Kubernetes Architecture

SALARY: $175k - $220 flex plus 30% bonus

LOCATION: Chicago, IL

Hybrid 3 days onsite

Open to h1b

Platform architecture- infrastructure, cloud, networking, storage, observability tooling, Kubernetes.

This is a hands-on architecture role with enterprise-wide impact.

Define and Own Platform Architecture

• Lead architecture design and decision-making for core platform capabilities: container orchestration, streaming infrastructure, cloud architecture, CI/CD and
• GitOps pipelines, and observability
• Develop and maintain target-state platform architectures with clear transition plans from current state
• Own reference architectures for Kubernetes-based workloads, Kafka streaming topologies, Flink stream processing, and AWS infrastructure patterns
• Establish platform architecture standards and guardrails that application teams can build against reliably
• Ensure non-functional requirements — availability, latency, throughput, recoverability — are addressed at the platform level, not delegated to individual application teams

Drive Platform Modernization

• Architect and guide migration of workloads to cloud-native patterns on AWS, including compute, networking, storage, and security services
• Define GitOps model — infrastructure-as-code practices, pipeline standards, environment promotion, and configuration management at scale
• Evaluate and recommend platform technologies and tooling; lead proof-of-concept efforts to validate architectural decisions before commitment
• Identify and reduce platform risk across the portfolio — single points of failure, unsupported dependencies, capacity constraints, and operational gaps

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure, platform, or systems architecture roles with demonstrated ownership of enterprise-scale platform decisions
• Deep, hands-on expertise with Kubernetes — cluster architecture, workload design, networking, security, and operational patterns at scale
• Hands-on experience architecting Apache Kafka deployments — topic design, partitioning strategy, consumer group patterns, schema management, and operational concerns
• Practical experience with Apache Flink or equivalent stream processing frameworks — job design, state management, and deployment on Kubernetes
• Strong AWS architecture experience — VPCs, EC2, EKS,MSK, S3, IAM, KMS, networking, and security services
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing GitOps pipelines — infrastructure-as-code, environment promotion, secrets management, and release automation using tools such as Flux, ArgoCD, Terraform, or Helm
• Experience with brownfield/legacy environments alongside cloud-native programs
• Ability to produce clear, comprehensive architecture artifacts: diagrams, ADRs, reference architectures, and transition plans
• Strong communication skills — able to present platform decisions to executive audiences and work through technical trade-offs with engineering teams