Staff Engineer - Cloud Infrastructure & Security

About the Role:

We are seeking a Staff Engineer - Cloud Infrastructure & Security to act as a technical architect and leader across HighLevel’s cloud platform. This role is a senior individual contributor position responsible for designing and evolving secure, scalable, and resilient infrastructure on GCP, with deep ownership across Kubernetes, networking, IAM, and edge security (Cloudflare). You will work closely with Platform Engineering, SRE, and Cyber Security teams to ensure infrastructure is secure by design, highly available, and aligned with modern best practices, while enabling teams to move fast safely.

Responsibilities:

Cloud Infrastructure Architecture (GCP):

• Design and evolve GCP-based infrastructure architecture for scalability, resilience, and security.
• Define standards for:
  • Project and environment structure
  • Multi-region deployments
  • High availability and failover strategies
• Lead architectural reviews for high-impact infrastructure changes.
• Ensure infrastructure supports high-scale, multi-tenant SaaS workloads.

Kubernetes Platform (GKE):

• Architect and optimize Kubernetes (GKE) platforms for production workloads.
• Define and enforce:
  • Cluster architecture and node pool strategies
  • Workload isolation and scheduling policies
  • Upgrade and lifecycle management strategies
• Improve reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency of Kubernetes environments.

Networking & Edge (Cloudflare):

• Design and manage secure and scalable cloud networking:
  • VPCs, subnets, routing, and firewalls
  • Load balancing and traffic routing
• Own integration with Cloudflare, including:
  • CDN configuration
  • WAF rules and DDoS protection
  • Edge security and traffic management
• Ensure low-latency, resilient, and secure traffic flows.

Identity & Access Management (IAM):

• Design and enforce least-privilege IAM architecture across GCP and platform systems.
• Define standards for:
  • Service accounts and roles
  • Access control policies
  • Just-in-time access and auditing
• Partner with Cyber Security to continuously improve access posture and reduce risk.

Cloud Security & Platform Hardening:

• Build and enforce secure-by-default infrastructure patterns.
• Partner closely with Cyber Security teams to:
  • Identify and remediate vulnerabilities
  • Implement security controls and guardrails
  • Support threat modeling and risk assessments
• Secure Kubernetes workloads, networking layers, and cloud services.

Infrastructure as Code & Automation:

• Drive adoption and quality of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Terraform.
• Build reusable infrastructure modules and automation frameworks.
• Ensure infrastructure changes are Auditable, Repeatable & Safe.
• Reduce manual operational work through automation.

Reliability, DR & Operational Readiness:

• Design and improve disaster recovery (DR) and failover strategies.
• Define and validate RTO / RPO objectives.
• Partner with SRE teams to improve Incident response, System resilience & Operational readiness.
• Participate in postmortems and drive systemic improvements.

Performance & Cost Optimization:

• Identify infrastructure inefficiencies and performance bottlenecks.
• Partner with FinOps and Cloud teams to:
  • Optimize resource utilization
  • Improve cost visibility and predictability
• Balance performance, reliability, and cost in architectural decisions.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship:

• Act as a technical leader across Cloud Infrastructure and Security domains.
• Mentor SDE2, SDE3, and Lead engineers.
• Drive design reviews, architecture discussions, and best practices.
• Influence teams across the organization without direct authority.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Work closely with:
  • Platform Engineering (CI/CD, DevEx)
  • SRE & InfraOps (operations and reliability)
  • Cyber Security teams (security and compliance)
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to stakeholders and leadership.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Engineering or related field.
• 9+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or security.
• Deep hands-on experience with:
  • GCP (preferred) or other cloud platforms
  • Kubernetes (GKE) in production environments
  • Cloud networking and distributed systems.
• Strong experience with:
  • Cloudflare (CDN, WAF, edge security)
  • IAM and access control systems.
• Proven experience designing secure, highly available systems at scale.
• Strong problem-solving and system design skills.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in high-growth SaaS environments.
• Familiarity with service mesh (Istio or similar).
• Experience with policy-as-code (OPA, Kyverno).
• Experience in compliance-driven environments.
• Scripting or programming experience (Go, Python, Bash).