Platform Engineer

Who we are:

Raft (https://goraft.tech) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in Reston, VA. Our range of clients include innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting edge tech stack, and cloud native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

We’re looking for an experienced Platform Engineer to support our customer and join our passionate team of high-impact problem solvers. This is a unique opportunity to help build and shape a game-changing organization where we put our customers and people first.

About the role:

As the Platform Engineer, you will wear many hats. You will be responsible for three core activities: Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, Platform Engineering, and Applications & Operations Support. You will provide vendor-agnostic cloud engineering services to the Unified Platform (UP) and Big Data Platform (BDP) products and activities. For Platform Operations, you will provide DevSecOps engineering services for platform components and services that are the backbone of Software Factory and CI/CD pipelines by which the product, application, and development teams execute their software development activities.

Lastly, for Application Ops the Lead will be responsible for providing Day II operations support to UP hosted/supported applications as they enter their “Day II” execution and sustainment phase of their lifecycle. This includes (but is not limited to) providing routine patching/updates, supporting major/minor upgrades, continuous monitoring, vulnerability mgmt. and remediation, application optimization, etc. Service Level Objectives (SLOs).

What we are looking for:

• Hands-on experience working with BigBang
• Implemented Observability & Monitoring best practices
• Infrastructure (Cloud) Operations
  • Configure, deploy, improve and administer cloud-based resources and cloud-native resources, specifically AWS
  • Diagnose and troubleshoot issues related to the operating system(s), infrastructure, platform, network components and software as they arise
  • Provide Tier I & II support for application and platform development teams leveraging Big Data Platforms, cloud-native, and legacy systems and/or applications
• Platform Operations
  • Operate and sustain cloud-based CI/CD pipeline and components utilizing DevSecOps principles and best practices, such as reducing human involvement through automation and similar
  • Automate application deployment that leverages container technology through a complex cloud-based environment through tools such as Kubernetes, GitLab, and other CI/CD tools and technologies
  • Facilitate application development and deployment through a robust CI/CD pipeline by working closely with customers, vendors, and other stakeholders
  • Analyze platform architecture, emerging requirements, and other complexities that arise and recommend solutions for improving platform operations
• Application Operations
  • Work with application owners, developers, vendors, and end users to diagnose, troubleshoot and remediate software issues as they arise
  • Administer routine application/software version upgrades, patches, remediate and fix vulnerabilities or other issues as they arise
  • Perform routine backup, restore, and other recovery operations as required
  • Perform Day II Operations activities in accordance with established SLAs/SLOs
• In-depth experience with the following tech stack:
  • Familiarity with Platform One
  • Kubernetes
  • AWS
  • Flux
  • Kustomize
  • Promtail/Loki/Grafana
  • Prometheus & Grafana
  • Atlassian Applications, specifically Confluence & Jira
  • NexusGitlab – Admin and Pipelines
  • Keycloak
  • Docker

Highly preferred:

• Direct experience supporting Platform One would be the icing on the cake 

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Top Secret Clearance w/SCI Eligibility

Work Type:

• Ability to commute to San Antonio, Texas is desirable
• Remote is permitted with up to 10% travel to San Antonio required, approximately one week per quarter

What we will offer you:  

• Highly competitive salary 
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage 
• 401(k) and company match 
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid holidays 
• Education & training benefits 
• Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs 
• Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work 
• Team off-site in fun places! 
• Generous Referral Bonuses 
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:  

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.