JOB TITLE: Director, Platform Engineering
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
DEPARTMENT: Technology
REPORTS TO: SVP, Technology and Information Security
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: Yes
JOB LOCATION: Nashville, TN / Remote
TRAVEL: Occasional for conferences, strategic planning sessions, and key stakeholder meetings
SUMMARY OF POSITION:This is a senior engineering leadership role, not a management role with an engineering title. You will operate as a hands-on practitioner at the intersection of platform engineering, multi-cloud architecture (AWS/Azure), and solution delivery contributing directly to architecture decisions, reviewing infrastructure code, and engaging in your team's hardest technical problems. You will partner closely with Solution Architecture, Cybersecurity, and Service Operations to ensure the platform delivers the capabilities those teams depend on, while building and developing an engineering team capable of sustaining that bar over time.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES: Platform Strategy & Technical Leadership - Own and operate the i3 Platform as an internal product: maintain a published roadmap, a prioritized backlog, and a regular cadence of shipped capabilities.
- Develop and execute the technology organization's overall platform strategy in alignment with business goals. Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies, identifying and implementing innovative platform solutions to enhance business outcomes.
- Maintain the platform's catalog of reference architectures, designed to the i3 Well-Architected Framework, in partnership with Solution Architecture Platform Engineering owns the reusable implementation; Solution Architecture owns the framework and review function.
- Define and track platform KPIs - self-service ratio, IaC coverage, mean time to provision, policy violation rate, platform adoption holding the team accountable to outcomes, not activity.
- Evaluate and manage relationships with cloud service providers and platform tooling vendors (AWS, Azure, Cloudflare, Hashicorp/Scalr, and others).
- Communicate platform roadmap, KPIs, and investment rationale to the SVP of Technology & Cybersecurity and the CTO on a regular cadence.
- Maintain multi-cloud consistency as a first-class objective: a single operating model, toolchain, and standards bar across AWS and Azure, so that provider choice is an implementation detail for consuming teams rather than a source of divergence in how the platform behaves.
Engineering & Technical Execution - Lead as a hands-on practitioner contributing to architecture decisions, reviewing infrastructure code, and engaging directly in solving the team's hardest problems. This role does not manage from a distance.
- Own the Company's IaC ecosystem currently Terraform with Scalr governance. Lead the evolution of the module and artifact registry as the primary assets Platform Engineering produces, developing reference implementations, templates, and accelerators that engineering teams can adopt and extend.
- Drive the "Everything as Code" standard across all platform capabilities: infrastructure, configuration, policy, security controls, pipelines, and runbooks.
- Establish and maintain the enterprise technical standards framework in active partnership with Solution Architecture and Cybersecurity, ensuring security and compliance controls (SOC-2, PCI, HIPAA, FedRAMP, CJIS) are implemented at the platform layer by default.
- Conduct deep-dive technical reviews of platform systems, identifying optimization opportunities, technical debt, and modernization priorities, and lead proof-of-concept initiatives for emerging technologies and architectural patterns before they're adopted platform-wide.
People & Organizational Leadership - Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Engineering team. Maintain clear performance expectations, conduct regular calibration, and invest in individual development plans for every team member.
- Recruit engineering talent to an above-bar standard; accept longer time-to-fill rather than compromise on quality.
- Coach, mentor, and develop engineering talent as a core leadership responsibility growing individual contributors into senior and principal-level engineers and building the technical depth and platform-as-a-product thinking the team needs to sustain itself. This is the Director's direct contribution to the organization's "Raising the Bar" commitment to continuous skill development and leadership excellence.
- Own the quality bar for Cloud Engineers executing project delivery work against Platform Engineering standards. Define and maintain the standards, templates, and review processes delivery teams use ensuring delivered infrastructure meets a high-quality bar.
- Act as a trusted technical partner to Solution Architects and Cybersecurity, ensuring the i3 Platform delivers the capabilities they need to fulfill vertical commitments. Provide the observability tooling Service Operations depends on for 24x7x365 monitoring and incident response and ensure operational signals from Service Operations feeds back into platform improvements.
- Champion a culture of architectural thinking, technical excellence, and continuous improvement using data-driven insights and operational learning to drive ongoing platform improvements with measurable governance, reliability, and efficiency gains.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Education - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline; or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Experience - 10+ years of progressive experience in cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure), platform engineering, or DevOps/SRE disciplines, with demonstrated progression from hands-on engineering into technical leadership.
- Proven track record architecting and operating large-scale, production-grade infrastructure in enterprise environments.
- Demonstrated experience influencing technical direction and driving adoption of platform standards across multiple teams including teams outside your direct reporting line.
- History of leading major platform or infrastructure initiatives from concept through delivery, including modernization and multi-cloud consolidation programs.
Functional Skills - Excellent leadership and people management skills, with strong verbal and written communication skills and a demonstrated ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, able to navigate ambiguity and make sound decisions in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
- Strategic thinking capability with a track record of translating business objectives into an effective platform strategy.
- A natural mentor and teacher who elevates the capabilities of those around them with a demonstrated track record of coaching and developing engineering talent, growing individual contributors into senior and staff-level engineers over time, not just managing performance.
- Self-directed and outcome-focused, with the ability to drive initiatives independently while collaborating effectively across teams.
Technical Skills - Deep working knowledge of AWS and/or Azure; ability to design, evaluate, and govern multi-cloud architectures, with a solid understanding of Well-Architected principles.
- Deep working knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, including module development, state management, and IaC governance at scale with mastery of Terraform or comparable tools and experience establishing IaC standards at scale.
- Deep working knowledge of networking, security, and infrastructure technologies, including compliance frameworks (SOC2, PCI, HIPAA, FedRAMP, CJIS).
- Working knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS/EKS/AKS, or equivalent), serverless architecture and integration patterns.
- Programming proficiency in at least one general-purpose language (Python, Golang, or similar) for platform tooling and automation development.
- Experience supporting both Linux- and Windows-hosted workloads in cloud environments.
- Demonstrated ability to review and evaluate engineering work products including application code, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD pipelines for quality, security, and adherence to platform standards.
- Relevant certification(s) from AWS or Azure (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert) or proven expertise implementing solutions aligned with the relevant Well-Architected Framework.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS Education - Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
Strategic Leadership - Demonstrated experience achieving engineering, operational, and tooling parity across AWS and Azure, not solely deep expertise in a single provider.
- Experience leading a multi-team or multi-cloud consolidation effort directly relevant given this role's origin as a merger of the AWS and Azure Cloud Services teams.
- Proven ability to build and execute a multi-year platform roadmap.
- Track record of successful vendor evaluation, negotiation, and relationship management.
- Experience establishing architecture review processes, platform guilds, or centers of excellence in partnership with Solution Architecture.
- Background in heavily regulated industries with complex compliance requirements (SOC2, PCI, HIPAA, FedRAMP, CJIS).
Platform & Technical Experience - Experience building or scaling an internal developer platform ("platform-as-a-product", golden paths, self-service infrastructure) rather than only traditional cloud administration.
- Direct experience with the Company's specific toolchain (Terraform + Scalr) or comparable multi-cloud IaC governance platforms.
- Current certification in AWS or Azure at the architect or professional level (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect Professional and Azure Solutions Architect Expert).
- Experience architecting for high-availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity at scale.
- Experience scaling FinOps practices and cost optimization strategies for cloud infrastructure.
- Experience with observability platforms, SRE practices, and incident response at scale.
- Fluency with AI-assisted and agentic engineering practices (AI coding assistants, agentic development workflows) and sound judgment for where these patterns genuinely improve platform engineering work versus adding noise.
- Familiarity with architecting platforms for AI workloads, including agentic AI orchestration patterns and infrastructure needs.
