Senior Platform engineer (GCP/Node.js)

Description

This is a hybrid engineering role that goes beyond traditional boundaries. It is not a DevOps position focused on occasional scripting, nor a purely backend role with minimal infrastructure exposure. Instead, the role is split between building backend services and platform features (using technologies like Node.js, Strapi, and NestJS) and managing the infrastructure that supports them (including GKE, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring systems).

You will collaborate closely with the engineering team on product microservices, contribute to ongoing platform migrations such as authentication systems and CMS infrastructure, and take ownership of platform reliability in a GCP-first environment. This position is ideal for someone who is comfortable moving seamlessly between application development and infrastructure work—someone who might open a pull request in the morning and work on a Terraform plan in the afternoon.

What You'll Do:

Development (50%) I DevOps / SRE (50%)

• Build and maintain backend microservices in Node.js / TypeScript (NestJS, Express).
• Develop and extend Strapi-based content and platform services.
• Design and implement REST and GraphQL APIs consumed by internal and external clients.
• Contribute to auth platform work — token management, session handling, identity provider integration.
• Write and maintain database schemas and migrations (PostgreSQL, MongoDB).
• Review code across the backend stack; contribute to engineering standards and documentation.
• Debug and resolve production application issues end-to-end.
• Own and operate GKE clusters — scaling, upgrades, PDBs, resource tuning, zero-downtime deploys.
• Manage all GCP infrastructure via Terraform — VPCs, IAM, Cloud SQL, GKE, storage.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions; manage GitOps workflows with ArgoCD.
• Define and monitor SLOs/SLIs; maintain observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki).
• Own IAM posture — least-privilege service accounts, Workload Identity, audit logging.
• Handle database operations — backup validation, restore testing, rightsizing, failover.
• Conduct FinOps reviews; identify and act on GCP cost reduction opportunities.

Requirements

What We're Looking For:

Development

• 3+ years building production backend services in Node.js / TypeScript.
• Hands-on experience with NestJS or Express — REST APIs, middleware, authentication flows.
• Experience with Strapi or a comparable Node.js CMS / headless platform is a strong plus.
• Comfortable with PostgreSQL and MongoDB — schema design, migrations, query optimization.
• Able to read and write React for debugging or minor frontend contributions.
• Strong fundamentals: clean code, code review, testing (unit + integration), async patterns.

DevOps / Infrastructure

• 3+ years of hands-on DevOps or SRE experience in a production cloud environment.
• Solid Kubernetes experience — cluster operations, RBAC, networking, storage, rolling updates (GKE preferred).
• Proficient with Terraform — modularized configurations, state management, GCP provider.
• GitHub Actions CI/CD experience including self-hosted runners and secrets management.
• GitOps with ArgoCD or equivalent; multi-environment deployment pipelines.
• GCP hands-on experience: GKE, Cloud SQL, IAM, VPC, Cloud Storage, Secret Manager.
• Monitoring and alerting stack ownership — Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent.
• Comfortable scripting in Python or Bash for automation and tooling.

General

• Comfortable context-switching between application development and infrastructure work.
• Strong written and verbal English — you'll write runbooks, ADRs, and post-mortems.
• Self-directed and high-ownership in a small team without heavy process.

Nice to Have

• CKA, AWS/GCP professional certification, or Terraform Associate.
• HashiCorp Vault hands-on (dynamic secrets, K8s agent injector).
• Istio or other service mesh production experience.
• SOC 2 compliance exposure — infrastructure controls, access reviews, audit evidence.
• FinOps experience — identifying and acting on cloud cost reduction.
• Experience in cybersecurity, insurtech, or a regulated data environment.
• Familiarity with GraphQL API design.