Engineering Lead, Platform EngineeringThis is a remote position available in the U.S., with options to work from Richmond, VA, Arlington, VA, or any location within the country. At Koalafi, we aim to make it easier for people to finance big purchases over time. Retailers rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, enhancing sales and customer loyalty. Our team of over 200 members enjoys challenging and inspiring work that accelerates their careers.We're looking for a hands-on engineering leader to manage our platform engineering team, focusing on both people management and technical delivery.
You will work closely with our Cloud Architect to translate strategic direction into a well-organized backlog and drive the team to deliver it with quality and predictability. You will also be expected to use AI tools in your work and help establish conditions for your engineers to do the same effectively and responsibly.People Leadership & Team DevelopmentManage a team of engineers with full accountability for their performance, growth, and wellbeingOwn 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations — providing direct, constructive feedback that helps engineers growBuild a team culture that is organized, reliable, and focused on impactMentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and delivery coachingPartner with the VP on people concerns that require escalation; help shape the team's working norms and resolve friction before it compoundsTechnical ExecutionBe a strong technical contributor: carry significant engineering weight alongside the team and actively deliver on high-impact workOwn day-to-day technical decisions within the team's scopeTranslate architectural direction into sprint-level tasks the team can act onBuild and evolve CI/CD pipelines and delivery automation: ensuring deployment safety, consistency, and velocityImprove observability and operational readiness across metrics, logging, distributed tracing, and alerting — including actionable dashboards and SLO-based alertingDesign and implement automation and self-service workflows using infrastructure-as-code, APIs, and developer platforms to reduce developer frictionImplement secure delivery practices with policy-driven pipeline controlsContribute to infrastructure in Terraform, working within established architectural patterns and standardsSupport and improve secrets management patterns across runtime and CI/CD workflowsChampion AI-assisted development practices across the team — prompt engineering workflows, AI-powered code review, and tooling integrations as first-class parts of the engineering workflowOperational ReadinessOwn incident response coordination: drive the process, communicate status, and ensure issues reach the right peopleParticipate in the on-call rotation and help drive improvements that reduce incidents and alert noise over timeBuild and maintain operational runbooks, escalation paths, and documentation for team-owned systemsDrive production readiness as a continuous standard, not a one-time checklistAbout YouPeople Leadership Experience : Demonstrated history as a formal people manager or tech lead with direct reports — including performance management, career development conversations, and building team capability over time. This is not a senior IC role.Delivery Ownership Experience : You have owned timelines, driven sprint execution, and been directly accountable for what a team ships. You know how to run a team's operating rhythm, not just contribute to it.7+ years of hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure/platform engineering with demonstrated scope growth and increasing leadership responsibility over that timeStrong hands-on experience with Terraform in production (modules, patterns, environment strategy, state management)Strong hands-on experience operating Kubernetes in productionStrong AWS fundamentals: practical experience with compute, networking, IAM, and production operationsExperience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelinesStrong observability fundamentals including metrics, logging, distributed tracing, SLO/SLI design, and alerting strategyExperience building automation using Bash and at least one general-purpose language (Python or Go)Strong troubleshooting skills: you drive root cause analysis and implement long-term fixes, not workaroundsHands-on experience using AI coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude) as a productivity multiplier in production engineering workComfort partnering with senior technical peers and sound judgment on when to consult vs.
decide independentlyPreferred QualificationsExperience with Istio or other service mesh technologiesExperience operating relational databases in AWS (RDS PostgreSQL/Aurora/MS SQL)Experience with AWS Lambda or serverless architecturesExperience improving reliability for distributed systems at scalePrior experience as a technical anchor or team lead in a platform or infrastructure contextExperience building or operating infrastructure that supports AI/ML workloads (compute, storage, serving patterns) in AWSLocation: Richmond, VA; Arlington, VA; or Remote (U.S.). Associates near one of our office locations may work in-office, hybrid, or remotely. Remote opportunities are available to candidates throughout the United States.Salary Range: $174,000-$236,000 per year (depending on experience and location) Additional Compensation: This position will be eligible to participate in company bonus plan.The final salary offer will depend on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, and geographic location. The actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate's offer letter.Applications will be accepted until position is filled.Why Choose Koalafi: A career at Koalafi means opportunities to tackle exciting challenges every single day.
We take pride in a culture of innovation, trust, and ownership. You'll get outside your comfort zone, build meaningful relationships, and most of all, take charge of projects that ultimately help people get the things they need most.Benefits:At Koalafi, you will have a direct impact on our products and help shape the company's success. We offer competitive compensation & benefits packages to keep you at your best:Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage20 PTO days + 11 paid holidays401(k) retirement with company matchingStudent Loan & Tuition ReimbursementCommuter assistanceParental leave (maternal + paternal)Inclusion and Associate Engagement ProgramsWho We Are & What We Value:We focus on what's most importantWe set clear expectations and deliverWe embrace challenges to reach our full potentialWe ask, "How can this be better?"We move fast together