09 Nov
|
The Briefed
|
Yukon
At affirm, we exist for the moments that matter
- giving people a explicit, predictable way to pay over time with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no trade-offs.
Affirm's Compute Platform team owns the Amazon EKS foundation powering thousands of workloads across 90+ production EKS clusters in multiple environments and regions. As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Compute Platform team, you will define the technical vision, fleet automation roadmap, and workload safety standards for affirm's entire container platform. In this high-leverage technical leadership role, you will architect standardized cluster lifecycle tools (Terraform, Spacelift, Argo CD), build custom Kubernetes controllers/operators (Go, Python), establish Karpenter autoscaling strategies, and enforce policy controls (OPA/Gatekeeper) across engineering teams.
Key Responsibilities
EKS Fleet Strategy & Architecture: Architect and evolve Affirms EKS ecosystem across 90+ production clusters, driving long-term strategy for cluster lifecycle, node provisioning, and shared cluster components. Infrastructure as Code (Ia C) & Automation: Drive automated cluster provisioning, zero-downtime upgrades, and teardown using standardized Terraform, Spacelift, and Git Ops pipelines (Argo CD, kube-applier). Core Fleet Component Ownership: Own the reliability, testing, and automated delivery pipelines for shared cluster infrastructure, including Karpenter, Core DNS, VPC CNI, Kube-Proxy, and Metrics Server. Workload Safety & Policy Enforcement: Define and automate EKS workload safety standards—covering resource requests/limits, disruption budgets (PDBs),
blast radius isolation, and admission policy enforcement (OPA/Gatekeeper). Custom Controller & Operator Development: Build production-grade, custom Kubernetes controllers, operators, and platform tooling (Go or Python) that streamline developer workflows. Observability & Cost Strategy: Establish platform SLOs, baseline security/capacity audits, and data-driven cost optimization frameworks across EC2 node bin-packing and Karpenter consolidation. Technical Mentorship & On-Call Leadership: Mentor engineers across Compute Platform pods, participate in on-call escalations, and lead incident post-mortems alongside SRE teams. Requirements
Kubernetes Fleet & Platform Engineering Depth 10+ years of professional software or infrastructure engineering experience with a track record of delivering complex, enterprise-scale platform solutions. 6+ years of hands‑on experience operating production Kubernetes clusters at scale (AWS EKS preferred). AWS & Cloud-Native Mastery: Deep architecture expertise across AWS (EKS, EC2, VPC, IAM) and Kubernetes internals (scheduling, node lifecycle, cluster upgrades, Karpenter, Cluster Autoscaler). Custom Controller Development:
Expert proficiency in Go or Python with proven success building custom Kubernetes operators, controllers, and platform tooling used by developer teams. Ia C & Git Ops Fluency: Advanced experience with Terraform, Spacelift, and Git Ops-driven deployment pipelines (Argo CD, Flux, or kube-applier). Policy & Workload Reliability: Practical experience designing and enforcing admission control policies (OPA/Gatekeeper) alongside workload reliability constraints (PDBs, probes, topology keys). Observability & SRE: Strong instincts defining SLOs, metrics/logging coverage, and data-driven baseline audits. Work Logistics Ability to work remotely from within Canada. Preferred Qualifications Experience designing platform architectures for high-concurrency fintech, banking, or payments infrastructure.
Track record contributing to open-source Kubernetes upstream projects or CNCF ecosystem projects.
Demonstrated experience driving multi-team platform standardization without creating engineering bottlenecks. Total Rewards & Benefits Compensation & Equity: Market‑competitive base pay + equity rewards + Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). 100% Subsidized Health Coverage: Full medical, dental, and vision coverage premiums paid 100% by affirm for employees and dependents. Spending Stipends: Monthly Flexible Spending Wallets for tech setup, food, and health/wellness. Rest & Recharge: Flexible time off, company holiday schedules, and "Away Days" wellness days to recharge. Remote Culture: Flexible remote work environment with dedicated onboarding experiences, learning budgets, and active ERGs.
📌 Senior Staff Engineer (Yukon)
🏢 The Briefed
📍 Yukon