Staff Platform Engineer @ VerticalScope Inc.

WHO WE ARE

Fora is one of the world’s largest community networks with over 1,000 online communities and the tech platform that powers them. Fora’s mission is to enable enthusiasts to share expertise and discover products for their interests. Our 70 million plus monthly active users make informed shopping decisions in automotive, health, home, powersports, outdoor, and technology on sites like ArcheryTalk, AVS Forum, BimmerFest, Knitting Paradise, and WatchUSeek. Fora is a business division of VerticalScope Holdings Inc., a publicly-traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE: FORA). Fora has over 50 employees in the US and Canada with diverse backgrounds from startups and big tech. If you thrive in an environment that celebrates authenticity, scrappiness, and curiosity, Fora is the place for you.

THE ROLE

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Staff Platform Engineer to lead a small team of talented engineers in building and maintaining our cutting-edge infrastructure. You will be at the forefront of ensuring our platform, serving over 80 million users monthly, is scalable, reliable, and observable. This role requires a blend of expertise in infrastructure design, automation, cloud technologies (specifically Google Cloud and Kubernetes), and software development.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership: Guide and mentor a team of platform engineers, fostering collaboration and professional growth.

Infrastructure Design and Automation: Architect, implement, and manage our complex infrastructure with a focus on scalability, security, and efficiency. Leverage automation tools to streamline processes and ensure consistency.

Cloud Expertise: Deep understanding of Google Cloud Platform and Kubernetes to optimize our cloud infrastructure for performance and cost-effectiveness.

Software Development: Collaborate with development teams to implement necessary software changes for platform optimization and integration.

Observability Champion: Drive the adoption of an observability-first approach, ensuring comprehensive visibility into system health and performance for all teams.

Problem-Solving: Lead the team in troubleshooting complex technical issues and implementing solutions to prevent future occurrences.

ABOUT YOU

- Extensive experience in infrastructure design, implementation, and management.

- Proven leadership skills with a passion for mentoring and team development.

- Strong understanding of DevOps principles and practices.

- Proficiency in Python.

- Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team.

- Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.

- 8+ years working with cloud computing providers, specifically Google Cloud Platform.

- 8+ years working with deployment and orchestration of containerized applications, specifically Kubernetes.

- 8+ years experience using Infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and configuration management tooling (e.g. Ansible, Terraform).

- 8+ years working with monitoring, observability, and visualization platforms (e.g. Honeycomb, Dynatrace, Prometheus, Grafana, Solarwinds).

- 8+ years working with logging and alerting platforms (e.g. Elastic Search, PagerDuty, GoAlert).

- Ability to be on-call. The current schedule requires each North American engineer to be on week-long rotations every month, covering noon to midnight Eastern Time. The schedule is subject to change.

- Ability to occasionally travel to the US or Canada

YOU’RE A GREAT FIT IF YOU ALSO HAVE

- Excitement for online communities and alignment with the Fora mission to help people have fun finding products for their hobbies

LIFE AT FORA

Fora is remote-first. We have offices in Toronto, ON, Canada, and the United States. We believe that competitive benefits are an important investment in our people and culture. Examples include:

* Full suite of health benefits (medical, dental, vision), including HSA/FSA (USA) and HCSA (Canada) programs

* Retirement savings account

* Employee Stock Option Program (ESOP)

* 11 holidays

* Flexible working hours and unlimited vacation

* Parental leave, long-term disability, AD&D insurance, and Employee Assistance Program

* Career development stipend

* Annual company-paid offsite and quarterly onsite team meetings

EEO

Our company values diversity of thought and believes diverse teams make innovation possible. We work on complex, difficult problems with no linear or clear solutions. We believe that a diverse team can bring different perspectives and approaches, and whose experiences reflect the full set of clients we seek to serve. As such, Fora is committed to a diverse representation among our employees.

If you require disability-related accommodation during the application, recruitment, and interview process, please let us know and we will work with you to make all possible adjustments to suit your needs.