The Senior Cloud Engineer will report to the Engineering Manager, Infrastructure. As the Senior Cloud Engineer, you will:- Architect, own, and evolve critical AWS infrastructure and multi-account cloud foundations that power Earnest's high-availability, regulated lending platform.
- Define and drive service reliability standards (SLOs, observability maturity, and incident response frameworks) across engineering teams to systematically reduce MTTR and prevent repeat incidents.
- Lead the design and adoption of scalable Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/OpenTofu) and CI/CD tooling, treating internal infrastructure as a product that accelerates developer velocity.
- Partner with Security to embed automated security-first patterns and regulatory controls directly into the cloud lifecycle.
- Drive cloud cost efficiency across the platform by identifying architectural optimizations and establishing resource utilization standards.
- Mentor Cloud Engineers and software teams through technical design reviews, operational runbooks, and blameless post-incident analyses to raise the bar on engineering excellence.
About You:- 5+ years of hands-on experience building and managing reliable, scale-ready cloud systems (preferably in fintech or regulated spaces).
- Deep working knowledge of AWS core services, Linux environments, and core networking concepts (TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, VPCs).
- Proven track record scaling Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/OpenTofu) and container ecosystems (Kubernetes/Docker) in production.
- Solid experience with relational databases, modern observability toolstacks, and a passion for automating away repetitive tasks.
- A strong sense of ownership and curiosity-you comfortably navigate ambiguity and focus on long-term, durable solutions.
- Clear, approachable communication skills that make technical alignment across engineering, security, and product teams feel seamless.
Even Better:- Experience running cloud infrastructure in fintech or similar financial environments (SOC2, PCI compliance).
- Hands-on involvement in FinOps practices or driving smart cloud cost optimizations.
- Background building developer self-service platforms or internal developer tools.
- Familiarity with AI/ML workloads or using AI tools to streamline operational workflows and incident triage.
Where:- This role will be based in the US.
Compensation: A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range of your potential base salary based on the roles location. The successful candidate's starting pay will also be determined based on job-related qualifications, internal compensation, candidate location and budget. This range may be modified in the future.
Salary Range:
$184,000 - $230,000 USD.Employees are also eligible for an annual performance-based bonus and equity.
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Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits, including: - Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
- Mac computers + work-from-home stipend to set up your home office
- Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
- 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match
- Robust tuition reimbursement program
- $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world
- Competitive days of annual PTO
- Competitive parental leave
