Engineering Manager - Platform Core
- Role
- Engineering Management
- Experience
- Lead
- Employment
- Full-time
Open to DE only. Set where you work from to check your eligibility.
No BS summary
Engineering manager for a platform infrastructure team, with 7–10 years in software or infrastructure engineering and 3+ years directly managing engineers. Must have hands-on production depth with Terraform, multi-account AWS, container/serverless compute, observability, and AI-assisted development tools. Remote role with applicant location requirement in Germany.
Core skills
Required skills
ABOUT US
Pliant is a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions. Our modular, API-first platform helps businesses streamline spending, improve cash flow, and integrate payments into their financial workflows. Designed for industries with complex payment needs, such as travel and fleet, Pliant enables greater efficiency, control, and profitability.
We serve two primary customer segments:
- Companies looking to optimize operational processes through intuitive apps and APIs, gaining control, automation, and financial flexibility through extended credit lines.
- Businesses such as financial software platforms, ERP providers, and banks that want to launch or enhance their credit card offerings using Pliant's embedded finance and white-label solutions.
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Pliant supports over 4,000 businesses and more than 20 partners globally. As a licensed e-money institution (EMI), we issue credit cards in 11 currencies across more than 30 countries, helping companies streamline and simplify payments.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Pliant builds corporate payment infrastructure, and the Platform team's job is to give the rest of engineering a cloud platform they can build on without having to think about it. This is the first Engineering Manager role for Platform Core, a team of four engineers already running Pliant's core Terraform, multi-account AWS, and IAM and networking foundations. You'll take over the people side while owning the roadmap for where the platform goes next, treating internal engineering teams as the customers of what you build.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own the roadmap for Platform Core's Terraform infrastructure, multi-account AWS setup, and IAM/networking foundations.
- Run Platform Core as an internal product, not a cost center: ensuring Spacelift guardrails, sensitive-resource checks, and mandatory tagging policies genuinely help other teams rather than get in their way.
- Collaborate closely with Security Engineering to ensure access controls and compliance requirements are built into the platform from the ground up, not bolted on after the fact.
- Steer the ongoing compute migration from ECS/Fargate to Kubernetes through to completion.
- Manage and grow the team through 1:1s, hiring, and performance development.
- Coordinate with the future SRE team and other platform functions as the team scales from a single team into several.
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- 7–10 years in software or infrastructure engineering, including at least 3 years managing engineers directly.
- Hands-on depth with Terraform, multi-account AWS, and container or serverless compute. You've run these systems in production, at scale.
- Experience running infrastructure as an internal platform that other teams build on and depend on daily, with a high bar for incident and change management that requires.
- A demonstrated track record of hiring and developing engineers, with specific examples of people you levelled or promoted.
- Datadog or equivalent observability experience at scale.
- Clear, confident communication for a technical, cross-team audience.
- Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools such as Copilot, Claude Code, or Cursor, and the same rigour reviewing AI-generated PRs as any other.
THE FIRST YEAR
The first few months are focused on meeting the existing team and understanding what's already running before changing anything, including getting a real read on where the ECS-to-Kubernetes migration actually stands. By mid-year, you'll have a roadmap the team believes in, and the Spacelift guardrails will reflect decisions that have been properly reviewed rather than defaults nobody has revisited. By year one, the compute migration has moved meaningfully forward, and Platform Core is a team other functions actively seek out for help rather than simply depend on.
STACK
Terraform, Spacelift, AWS (including a dedicated PCI-scoped account), Datadog. We're mid-migration from ECS to Kubernetes.
WHAT WE OFFER
- The opportunity to work in a growing team with big responsibilities that thrives on a strong exchange of knowledge and excellence
- Attractive remuneration
- Your choice of preferred OS, Windows or Mac
- Flat hierarchy and transparent communication in a relaxed, professional atmosphere
- Opportunity to develop your talent in a dynamic team with ambitious goals
- Flexibility and possibility to work remotely
- Pliant Card with monthly credit to explore the product and enjoy food with colleagues
Pliant is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and abilities, and are committed to an inclusive hiring process. If you need any accommodations during the interview process, please let us know.
What you'll do
- Own the roadmap for Platform Core's Terraform infrastructure, multi-account AWS setup, and IAM/networking foundations.
- Run Platform Core as an internal product, ensuring Spacelift guardrails, sensitive-resource checks, and mandatory tagging policies help other teams rather than block them.
- Collaborate with Security Engineering to build access controls and compliance requirements into the platform from the ground up.
- Steer the ongoing compute migration from ECS/Fargate to Kubernetes through to completion.
- Manage and grow the team through 1:1s, hiring, and performance development.
- Coordinate with the future SRE team and other platform functions as the team scales from a single team into several.
What they require
- 7–10 years in software or infrastructure engineering, including at least 3 years managing engineers directly.
- Hands-on depth with Terraform, multi-account AWS, and container or serverless compute, running these systems in production at scale.
- Experience running infrastructure as an internal platform that other teams build on and depend on daily, with a high bar for incident and change management.
- Demonstrated track record of hiring and developing engineers, with specific examples of people levelled or promoted.
- Datadog or equivalent observability experience at scale.
- Clear, confident communication for a technical, cross-team audience.
- Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools such as Copilot, Claude Code, or Cursor, and rigour reviewing AI-generated PRs.
Benefits
- Opportunity to work in a growing team with big responsibilities that thrives on strong knowledge exchange and excellence.
- Attractive remuneration.
- Choice of preferred OS, Windows or Mac.
- Flat hierarchy and transparent communication in a relaxed, professional atmosphere.
- Opportunity to develop your talent in a dynamic team with ambitious goals.
- Flexibility and possibility to work remotely.
- Pliant Card with monthly credit to explore the product and enjoy food with colleagues.
Pliant is a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions. Its modular, API-first platform helps businesses streamline spending, improve cash flow, and integrate payments into financial workflows.