Lead Platform Engineer

TEAM OVERVIEW

KKR's Technology team is responsible for building and supporting the firm's technological foundation, including a globally distributed infrastructure, information security, and the application and data platforms. Within Technology, the ADAPT team (Application, Data and AI Platform Team) owns the firm's engineering platform, developer experience, AI tooling and the SaaS integration fabric that connects our core enterprise systems. ADAPT drives a culture of technology excellence through workflow automation, self-service tooling, and modern integration patterns across AWS, Jira / Jira Service Management / Confluence, ServiceNow, and adjacent SaaS estates. The team partners with application engineering, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and business functions to deliver agility, resilience, and high impact at global scale.

POSITION SUMMARY

KKR is seeking a Vice President, Platform Engineering to lead a technical projects within the ADAPT team, focused on the AWS-native platform, our Atlassian and ServiceNow ecosystems, and the cloud integrations that connect them to the firm's business systems. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will own the strategy and delivery for developer-facing platform services, integration patterns, and automation that materially improve engineering velocity and operational quality. You will partner with peers across Technology, Cybersecurity, and the business to modernize the firm's toolchain, retire bespoke glue code in favour of well-governed integration platforms, and set the standard for how platform engineering is done at KKR. The successful candidate combines deep AWS and integration engineering expertise with the leadership judgement to shape a multi-year roadmap and mentor a global team.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Platform Strategy & Roadmap: Own the vision and multi-year roadmap for the ADAPT platform – AWS-native services, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and the integration fabric spanning Atlassian, ServiceNow, and adjacent SaaS. Translate business priorities into a prioritized delivery plan.
• AWS Cloud Engineering: Lead the design, build, and operation of secure, scalable AWS foundations (accounts, networking, IAM, EKS/ECS, serverless, data services). Drive Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), landing-zone patterns, and cost, resilience, and security guardrails.
• Atlassian & ServiceNow Platform Ownership: Own the engineering strategy for Jira, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and ServiceNow – including platform administration standards, workflow design, app/plugin governance, and roadmap alignment with HR, IT Service Management, and business users.
• Cloud Integrations & Automation: Architect and deliver enterprise integrations between AWS, Atlassian, ServiceNow, Workday, and other core SaaS platforms using event-driven and API-first patterns (REST/GraphQL, webhooks, iPaaS/EventBridge, Kafka). Replace bespoke scripts with well-governed, observable, reusable integration services.
• Developer Experience & Enablement: Build the paved roads, reusable components, and self-service tooling that accelerate the software development lifecycle. Establish and evolve CI/CD standards, developer portals, and internal APIs that reduce cognitive load for application teams.
• Operational Excellence & Security: Ensure the ADAPT platform meets the firm's availability, security, and compliance requirements. Partner with Cybersecurity on secure-by-design controls, secrets management, and identity federation across the integration surface.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Work closely with application engineering, HC Technology, IT Operations, and business stakeholders to understand needs, sequence delivery, and land change successfully. Represent ADAPT in senior technical forums and vendor relationships.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Partner with a team of platform and integration engineers across geographies. Set the technical bar, review designs, and evangelize modern platform engineering practices across KKR Technology.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; advanced technical degree a plus.
• 10+ years of hands-on experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or cloud/integration engineering, including 3+ years leading senior technical projects.
• Expert-level, hands-on experience with AWS (compute, networking, IAM, container/serverless services) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
• Deep experience delivering enterprise integrations across Atlassian (Jira / JSM / Confluence) and ServiceNow, including workflow design, APIs, webhooks, and third-party app governance.
• Strong track record designing event-driven, API-first cloud integrations between SaaS platforms (e.g., AWS ↔ ServiceNow) using iPaaS, EventBridge, Kafka, or equivalent patterns.
• Fluent in modern CI/CD, containerization (Kubernetes/Docker), observability, and secure-by-design cloud architecture; strong programming/scripting skills (Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, or Java).
• Demonstrated success delivering platform and developer-experience improvements with measurable impact on velocity, reliability, or cost.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills; able to influence engineers, business partners, and senior leadership. Experience in financial services or another regulated environment preferred.

CRITICAL COMPETENCIES FOR SUCCESS

• Technical depth and pragmatism – makes sound architectural choices grounded in real production experience across AWS, Atlassian, and ServiceNow.
• Systems thinking on integrations – sees the full data and event flow across SaaS platforms and designs for resilience, observability, and governance rather than point fixes.
• Developer empathy – relentlessly focused on reducing friction for application engineers through paved roads and self-service.
• Delivery orientation – sequences and lands complex, cross-team change on realistic timelines; balances long-term platform investment with near-term business outcomes.
• Leadership and mentorship – attracts, develops, and retains strong engineers; sets a clear technical bar and gives direct, useful feedback.
• Stakeholder influence – communicates clearly with technical and non-technical audiences and builds durable partnerships across Technology and the business.
• Operational and security mindset – treats availability, resilience, and secure-by-design as first-class outcomes, not afterthoughts.
• Curiosity and continuous learning – tracks the evolving cloud, platform, and integration landscape and applies it judiciously to KKR's context.

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