Senior Platform Tools Engineer

Senior Platform Tools Engineer - Contract - Greenwood Village, CO - $60.00 - $70.00/hr.

The final salary or hourly wage, as applicable, paid to each candidate/applicant for this position is ultimately dependent on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the candidate's/applicant's qualifications, skills, and level of experience as well as the geographical location of the position.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Sponsorship not available.

Our client is seeking a Senior Platform Tools Engineer in Greenwood Village, CO.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

IT is consolidating its consumer email platform from two legacy on-premises datacenters (Charlotte, NC and Centennial, CO - running Openwave Mx 9.1 with Cassandra, Scality object storage, and LDAP/SUR directory services) onto a new AWS-hosted platform ("TPE," built on EKS and EC2 Dedicated Hosts in us-east-1). The migration encompasses approximately 2.38 million mailboxes, 2.2 PB of message data, 23.5 billion messages, and 68 domains. Business email is out of scope, and SMTP anti-abuse handling is transitioning to a SaaS provider. Target completion is Q1 2027.
Architecture, cost modeling, and roughly 30 architecture decision records are complete, with Terraform modules and CI/CD pipelines already defined for most components (13 of 14). These pipelines have not yet been exercised end to end and will likely require additional work to run cleanly through production. Responsibility is divided but interdependent: the platform vendor delivers the data-migration tooling and application-deployment automation (Ansible), while retains oversight of that work. Infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and end-to-end production validation remain a responsibility, as does modernizing the internal support toolset used by customer care agents ("platform-tools"). Both contractors will work within an established Terraform codebase built substantially with AI assistance (the kiro-cli agent workflow). Candidates should be comfortable in an AI-assisted codebase; AI tooling is not guaranteed for contractors, and human review and correction of AI-generated work remain essential. The requirements below reflect the full scope of work; candidates are not expected to meet every requirement.
Non-Negotiable Engineering Standards
Every contractor on this program must adhere to the following:
100% Infrastructure as Code. All AWS resources are provisioned and modified exclusively through Terraform. Manual console or CLI changes are not permitted for routine work; drift from the GitLab-maintained Terraform state is treated as a defect.
Pipeline-only operations. All infrastructure changes deploy through the CI/CD pipeline (GitLab CI/CD, internally "SF2"): test ? build ? deploy, with a manual apply gate. No terraform apply from a local machine.
No deviation without an ADR. Departures from established patterns require a written ADR prior to implementation.
Mandatory security scanning. Secret detection and SAST scans run in every pipeline and must pass.
Documentation discipline. Work is tracked through markdown specs, steering docs, and disciplined commit messages.

Backend Tooling & Automation Migration ("platform-tools")
Customer care agents currently perform mailbox operations (lookup, unlock, quota adjustments, provisioning changes) through an internal command-line toolset built on a Jenkins server, used as an ad hoc job runner rather than for CI/CD. This is a responsibility, not the vendor's. The replacement effort ("platform-tools") is in early stages, with architecture and design remaining with the Principal Engineer; contractors on this track will handle most of the implementation, migrating individual agent-facing jobs to the new platform.
Representative work:
Migrate individual agent-facing jobs (mailbox lookup, unlock, quota, provisioning, and similar) from the legacy Jenkins job runner into the platform-tools framework, following the established pattern. Existing implementations are a mix of Python, Bash, and Perl; the target language is Python. Effort varies by job, from direct ports to substantial rework.

SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS

Python proficiency is required, with a personal default toward Python over other languages; ability to read and port Bash and Perl into Python; experience implementing to an existing design rather than defining architecture; basic front-end development within a specified framework; REST API integration; AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and/or ECS; Terraform. Not a CI/CD role; Jenkins-only CI/CD backgrounds are not a strong fit. Legacy LDAP/directory familiarity is a plus.
3-5+ years of hands-on AWS infrastructure engineering, with demonstrated production-level Terraform experience.
Proven ability to work from existing specifications, ADRs, and code with minimal oversight.
GitLab CI/CD (or equivalent) experience, including debugging existing pipelines.
Python proficiency is required and should be the personal default; other languages are a practical exception (e.g., no need to rewrite a five-line Bash script), not a preference.
Willingness and ability to work on-site, in person with the Principal Engineer and the rest of the mail platform team.
Comfort working in an AI-assisted codebase, with judgment to review and correct AI-generated work rather than extend it uncritically.

Benefits/Other Compensation

Medical, Dental, Life Insurance, 401K.

Why Hays?

You will be working with a professional recruiter who has intimate knowledge of the industry and market trends. Your Hays recruiter will lead you through a thorough screening process in order to understand your skills, experience, needs, and drivers. You will also get support on resume writing, interview tips, and career planning, so when there's a position you really want, you're fully prepared to get it.

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