What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Platform Engineering position at Critical River, Inc.?
Title: Director of Platform Engineering
Location: Pleasanton, California (hybrid work, 3 days per week onsite)
Job type: Fulltime
Overview:
- We are seeking a highly experienced Director of Platform Engineering to partner closely with the Head of Engineering and lead platform, infrastructure, and engineering operations across the organization. This is a senior leadership role with a dual mandate: building world-class cloud and AI platforms while driving operational excellence across engineering teams.
- This role goes well beyond traditional DevOps leadership. You will own cloud and AI/ML infrastructure (including self-hosted LLMs and GPU platforms), engineering operations, cost optimization, and platform strategy, serving as a key member of the engineering leadership team.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own and evolve the AWS-based platform and infrastructure, supporting scalable, multi-tenant SaaS products
- Lead AI/ML infrastructure and MLOps, including self-hosted LLMs, GPU clusters, model serving, observability, and cost management
- Define platform standards across Kubernetes, IaC, CI/CD, security, reliability, and MLOps
- Drive engineering operations, including hiring, performance management, tooling, and productivity improvements
- Partner with leadership on AI pricing strategy, infrastructure cost optimization, vendor management, and financial planning
- Ensure platform reliability, security, compliance, and long-term scalability
Required Qualifications:
- 12 years of engineering experience with 6 years in senior technical leadership roles
- Deep expertise in AWS, Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, and multi-tenant SaaS architectures
- Proven experience deploying and operating self-hosted LLMs, GPU infrastructure, and production ML systems
- Strong background in MLOps, AI cost management, observability, and model lifecycle management
- Demonstrated success building platforms from 0→1 and scaling to 100 customers
- Experience leading security and compliance initiatives (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA)
- Strong business acumen with a track record of cloud and AI cost optimization
Salary : $200,000 - $220,000