Director of Platform Engineering

We are currently looking for Director of Platform Engineering, below is the job description for the position, please review and let me know if you would like to apply.

For any reason if you are not available, please pass along the opportunity to you know people, colleagues or friends who are looking for job opportunities.

CriticalRiver Inc. is a trusted technology, consulting and electrical design company for comprehensive consulting, implementation and managed services across the globe. The company's highly experienced consultants, designers and engineers are experts at understanding client needs and delivering strategic solutions that leverage the latest technologies and industry best practices.

Director of Platform Engineering

Location: Pleasanton, CA, United States (Hybrid)

Department: Engineering

Seasoned engineering leader with 12+ years of experience, including 6+ years in technical leadership, specializing in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, and AI/ML systems at scale. Deep expertise in AWS, Kubernetes, IaC, CI/CD, multi-tenant SaaS, and end‑to‑end MLOps, including self‑hosted LLM deployment, GPU infrastructure, model serving, fine‑tuning, observability, and AI cost management.

Proven track record building platforms from 0→1 and scaling products to 100+ customers, while driving security, compliance, and FinOps initiatives. Strong operational leader with experience managing 30–50+ engineers, hiring and developing managers, improving productivity metrics, and managing multi‑million‑dollar budgets.

Brings strong business acumen—financial modeling, pricing strategy, unit economics, and cross‑functional collaboration with Sales, Product, Finance, and executives. Communicates with clarity, demonstrates high emotional intelligence, drives alignment, and makes decisive, strategic decisions.

Preferred strengths include VP‑level leadership, hyper‑scaling teams, deep AI infrastructure expertise, global team management, and experience in fintech, M&A, and enterprise regulatory environments.

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter addressing:

• \*\*Platform Achievement:\*\* Describe the most complex infrastructure you built and scaled (include metrics: uptime, scale, cost)

• \*\*AI/ML Infrastructure (CRITICAL):\*\* Share your experience deploying and managing AI/ML infrastructure in production:

• Self-hosted LLMs, neural networks, or ML models

• AI cost management and optimization (how much did you save?)

• AI observability and monitoring (latency, usage, quality metrics)

• Include specific metrics (queries/month, latency, cost per query, uptime)

• \*\*Operational Leadership:\*\* Share an example of how you improved engineering operations (hiring, productivity, process) with measurable impact

• \*\*Blindspot Identification:\*\* Give an example of a major problem you identified proactively before it escalated - how did you spot it and solve it?

• \*\*Business Impact:\*\* Describe your experience with pricing, cost optimization, or financial strategy in an engineering context (bonus: AI pricing strategy)

Best Regards,

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $192,327.42 - $231,405.06 per year

Benefits:

• Health insurance

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Pleasanton, CA 94588