Cloud Engineer - Platform Foundation

Job Title: Cloud Engineer - Platform Foundation Contract Type: Contract (Part-Time) Duration: 3+ Months (with likelihood to extend) Department: Development Location: Remote (UK Preferred) Rate: Negotiable, commensurate with experience and capability About Us We are building a next-generation, AI-powered LMS and HR platform from the ground up on AWS. Our vision is to create a seamless, intelligent experience that unifies HR, talent management, and learning. We are leveraging a cutting-edge serverless, event-driven architecture to ensure scalability, security, and rapid innovation. The Role You will be the first engineering hire and the cloud expert responsible for building the secure, scalable, and automated foundation for our entire platform. Your work will not be seen by end-users, but it will be the bedrock upon which every product feature is built. You will work hand-in-hand with the Lead Architect to turn architectural vision into a reality, establishing the patterns and infrastructure that will enable a large team to move quickly and reliably. Key Responsibilities • Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Develop, maintain, and evolve our core IaC library using AWS CDK (TypeScript) or Terraform to define all cloud resources. • Build Secure & Compliant Foundations: Design and implement the core AWS environment, including VPC design, IAM roles/policies, security groups, and KMS encryption keys following the principle of least privilege. • Architect CI/CD Pipelines: Build robust, fully automated CI/CD pipelines using AWS CodePipeline/CodeBuild or similar (Git) to enable seamless deployment from development to production. • Establish Observability: Implement centralized logging, monitoring, and alerting solutions using Amazon CloudWatch, AWS X-Ray, and Dashboards to provide visibility into system health from day one. • Enable Developer Productivity: Create tools, scripts, and environments that make it incredibly easy for developers to build, test, debug, and deploy their services locally and in the cloud. • Champion DevOps Best Practices: Be the advocate for automation, infrastructure reliability, and security within the growing engineering team. What We’re Looking For (The “Must Haves”) • 3+ years of professional experience in a Cloud, DevOps, or Platform Engineer role. • Expert-level proficiency with AWS serverless services: Non-negotiable, hands-on experience with AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and EventBridge. • Deep, practical experience with Infrastructure as Code: Mastery of either AWS CDK (preferred) or Terraform. You understand constructs, modules, and state management. • Strong knowledge of AWS security fundamentals: IAM, VPC, Security Groups, KMS, and implementing security best practices. • Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (e.g., AWS CodePipeline, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI). • Proficiency in a scripting language (Python or Node.js). • A systematic approach to troubleshooting and solving complex technical problems. Desirable (The “Nice To Haves”) • Platform Thinker: You enjoy building tools and systems that empower other engineers. You think in terms of abstractions and reusable patterns. • Automation Obsessed: You believe if you have to do something manually more than once, it should be automated. • Proactive & Autonomous: You see a potential problem or bottleneck and you solve it before being asked. You thrive in a greenfield environment. • Excellent Communicator: You can clearly document your work and explain complex systems to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders. • Previous experience as the first cloud hire on a greenfield project is a significant advantage. What You’ll be Working On (To Start) • The IaC Core Library: A set of reusable, well-documented CDK constructs for creating microservices. • The CI/CD Pipeline: A pipeline that automatically deploys infrastructure and code to multiple environments on a git push. • The Central Event Bus: The Amazon EventBridge foundation with a defined schema registry. • The Observability Stack: CloudWatch dashboards and alerts for key metrics. • The Local Development Environment: A Docker-based setup that allows developers to work on services locally. What We Offer • A defining role as the first engineering hire on an ambitious greenfield project. • The opportunity to build a modern cloud foundation with best practices from day one, without legacy constraints. • Work closely with the architect to make fundamental technology decisions.