Staff+ Engineer - App Platform

Data is at the core of modern business, yet many teams struggle with its overwhelming volume and complexity. At Atlan, we’re changing that. As the world’s first active metadata platform, we help organisations transform data chaos into clarity and seamless collaboration.

From Fortune 500 leaders to hyper-growth startups, from automotive innovators redefining mobility to healthcare organisations saving lives, and from Wall Street powerhouses to Silicon Valley trailblazers — we empower ambitious teams across industries to unlock the full potential of their data.

Recognised as leaders by Gartner and Forrester and backed by Insight Partners, Atlan is at the forefront of reimagining how humans and data work together. Joining us means becoming part of a movement to shape a future where data drives extraordinary outcomes.

Meet the Team

Atlan is executing a fundamental strategic shift: “In the future of Atlan, everything is an App.”

The App Platform team is at the heart of this transformation. We build the core platform primitives that power how apps are developed, distributed, run, and scaled across Atlan — for internal product teams, external developers, and customers.

We own:

• App Lifecycle & SDKs – how apps are built, versioned, validated, and released

• App Distribution – marketplace, discovery, installation, and upgrades

• App Runtime – compute, scheduling, orchestration, and execution

• System Apps – shared platform capabilities used across the product

Our work directly enables Atlan’s next phase: context-aware metadata, agentic outcomes, and an AI-native product ecosystem. This role sits at a critical inflection point where platform decisions today will define how Atlan scales for the next decade.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and own platform services that power app lifecycle, distribution, and runtime at Atlan

• Architect systems that support enterprise-grade reliability, scalability, and multi-tenancy

• Lead complex initiatives end-to-end — from design and RFCs to rollout and long-term ownership

• Build and evolve cloud-native infrastructure on Kubernetes across AWS/GCP

• Solve hard distributed systems problems: noisy-neighbor isolation, tenant-aware scaling, fault tolerance, and observability

• Partner closely with teams across App Runtime, Distribution, Builder Experience, Product, and Infra to make aligned platform decisions

• Act as a technical leader and multiplier — reviewing designs, mentoring engineers, and setting platform best practices

• Write production-grade code, leveraging AI-assisted development tools (Claude, Cursor) as a force multiplier

• Contribute to architectural documentation, RFCs, and long-term platform strategy

What Makes You a Match

• 8+ years of experience building and operating large-scale backend or platform systems

• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, containerization, and orchestration in production environments

• Strong hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including networking, compute, storage, and security

• Proven experience operating systems at scale—high traffic, distributed, or mission-critical platforms

• Excellent understanding of platform engineering principles: reliability, automation, self-service, and developer experience

• Experience designing systems with high availability, fault tolerance, and deep observability

• Demonstrated AI-native mindset:

  • You design platforms assuming non-deterministic workloads

  • You think in terms of automation, leverage, and feedback loops

  • You’ve supported or built infrastructure for AI/ML or AI-powered systems

• Hands-on experience leveraging AI in your own development workflow to increase speed, quality, and leverage

• Ability to operate at Staff+ level: owning ambiguous problem spaces, driving architecture, and influencing across teams

Your Roadmap to Success

Your first 30-days

• Familiarize yourself with our stack and become comfortable with small builds

• Week one: Complete your first PR

• Contribute to a couple of team goals for the month

• See a problem, propose a solution

Your first 90-days

• Actively contributing to planning

• Identify bottlenecks in Runtime architecture

• Assuming the role of tech lead for the Runtime team

• Delivered a major project

• See a problem, solve a problem