Platform Operations Lead (AWS / Kubernetes / DevOps) (Johannesburg Hybrid)

SUMMARY:
-

POSITION INFO:
ENVIRONMENT: Our client develops next-generation banking technology that enables financial institutions to launch innovative, compliant digital products faster and more reliably. Their core offering is a white-labelled, cashflow-based business lending platform that enables banks to provide pre-approved, variable-repayment loans to SMEs through digital origination and real-time loan management.  They are seeking a Platform Operations Lead to build, automate and manage the infrastructure and support capabilities underpinning their platform across multiple client environments. This hands-on technical leadership role covers cloud and container platforms, deployment automation, observability, operational reliability, incident response and technical support.   DUTIES: •       Build and maintain secure, repeatable AWS infrastructure across the core platform and independently deployed client environments. •       Manage Kubernetes-based environments, including OpenShift and K3s, together with networking, ingress and supporting platform services. •       Develop and maintain reusable CI\/CD pipelines, Helm charts, deployment configurations and Argo CD workflows. •       Establish consistent release practices across development, QA, UAT and production environments. •       Apply software development governance standards to significant infrastructure, deployment and platform changes. •       Review application and platform changes for deployability, observability, security, recovery and support impact. •       Ensure production changes include appropriate validation, rollback and recovery plans. •       Maintain traceable technical evidence for platform changes, including requirements, approvals, test results, rollback considerations and release notes. •       Maintain current architecture, deployment, environment and operational documentation. •       Work with Engineering to ensure applications are deployable, observable and operationally supportable. •       Automate repetitive infrastructure, deployment, environment-management and support activities. •       Implement and maintain production monitoring, logging, health checks, alerting and operational dashboards. •       Lead the investigation and resolution of infrastructure, deployment and platform-related incidents. •       Establish support runbooks, incident procedures, escalation paths and handover practices. •       Ensure incidents are properly triaged before being escalated to Engineering. •       Build and mature the Platform Operations and Technical Support function as the international client base grows. •       Mentor DevOps Support and Application\/Production Support Engineers. •       Participate in production support and on-call activities. •       Support secure client deployments and controlled upgrades across independently managed banking environments. •       Support SOC 2 compliance activities through Vanta, including control maintenance, evidence collection, remediation tracking and audit preparation. •       Collaborate with the Head of Technology, Technical Architect and Engineering team to establish common infrastructure, deployment, security and operational standards.   REQUIREMENTS: •       Relevant degree, diploma or equivalent practical experience. •       Strong hands-on experience operating production workloads on AWS or a comparable public cloud platform. •       Practical experience with Docker and containerised environments. •       Production experience with Kubernetes. •       Exposure to OpenShift and K3s would be advantageous. •       Experience developing and maintaining CI\/CD pipelines, deployment automation and GitOps workflows. •       Experience with infrastructure automation and configuration-management practices. •       Strong Linux, networking, DNS, TLS certificate, reverse proxy, ingress and application-connectivity knowledge. •       Experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, troubleshooting and incident response. •       Experience supporting security controls, vulnerability remediation and compliance evidence would be advantageous. •       Experience supporting regulated banking or financial services environments is strongly preferred. •       Experience mentoring or leading Platform Operations, DevOps or Technical Support teams would be beneficial.   ATTRIBUTES: •       Strong collaborator who works effectively with developers, architects and technical leadership. •       Automation-first and improvement-focused mindset. •       Excellent troubleshooting ability across infrastructure, networking, containers and deployment pipelines. •       Sound technical judgement when balancing reliability, security, operational risk and delivery requirements. •       Able to explain the purpose, impact, risk and recovery approach associated with platform changes. •       Calm, structured and communicative during incidents. •       Comfortable working with ambiguity and evolving requirements. •       Strong mentoring and technical leadership capabilities. •       Accountable for reliability, security, confidentiality and support quality. •       Understands the distinction between platform operations, technical support and application development. •       Uses AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly within approved security and governance controls while remaining accountable for validating and documenting all resulting changes.