Staff Platform Engineer

Job Summary:

The Staff Platform Engineer sets the technical direction for the platform and solves infrastructure problems that span teams. The role stays hands-on — writing and reviewing infrastructure code and operating production systems — but most of its impact comes from shaping how the whole engineering organization builds, deploys, and runs software, without formal management authority. Staff engineers may also serve as a team's Tech Lead, a role that carries no change in title, band, or bonus.

Key Responsibilities:

• Regularly audit and evaluate the platform's architecture, and lead the design and delivery of major
• architectural changes across teams on an annual basis.
• Write technical proposals for those changes and build agreement on them with product and engineering
• stakeholders.
• Set org-wide standards for infrastructure patterns, delivery practices, tooling, and technology choices.
• Partner with Buyer and Cargo engineering leadership so the platform supports what their teams need to build
• next.
• Define observability, reliability, and incident standards, and take on the hardest production problems: systemic
• bottlenecks, performance crises, and failures under heavy contention.
• Plan and carry out large migrations, such as database moves, network re-architecture, and project
• restructuring, without disrupting live auctions.
• Own the platform's security, cost, and capacity strategy.
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a force multiplier, influencing direction without formal authority.