Staff Platform Engineer @ Appen

⚙️DevOps & Infrastructure (1)

About Appen

Appen is a leader in AI enablement for critical tasks such as model improvement, supervision, and evaluation. To do this we leverage our global crowd of over one million skilled contractors, speaking over 180 languages and dialects, representing 130 countries. In addition, we utilize the industry's most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform to collect and label various types of data like images, text, speech, audio, and video.

Our data is crucial for building and continuously improving the world's most innovative artificial intelligence systems and Appen is already trusted by the world's largest technology companies. Now with the explosion of interest in generative AI, Appen is helping leaders in automotive, financial services, retail, healthcare, and governments the confidence to deploy world-class AI products.

At Appen, we are purpose driven. Our fundamental role in AI is to ensure all models are helpful, honest, and harmless, so we firmly believe in unlocking the power of AI to build a better world. We have a learn-it-all culture that values perspective, growth, and innovation. We are customer-obsessed, action-oriented, and celebrate winning together.

At Appen, we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We’re looking for a Staff Platform Engineer / Architect with a strong foundation in software engineering and a passion for designing and building internal tools and systems that improve how teams work. This role is ideal for someone who can think at a systems level, architect robust platforms, and lead by example through mentorship and collaboration. You should be proficient in AWS, confident contributing to cloud-native solution design, and bring a solid understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Key Responsibilities:

🛠 Platform Tooling & Architecture (~70%)
Design and implement internal tooling systems that support scalability, developer productivity, and operational efficiency.
Build foundational platform components that abstract complexity and reduce cognitive load for engineers.
Apply solid engineering principles to ensure maintainability, testability, and performance of the platform.
Leverage AWS services and infrastructure as part of platform and tooling design.
🤝 Mentorship & Leadership (~30%)
Mentor engineers within the team, providing guidance on platform design, engineering best practices, and automation approaches.
Partner with technical leaders to align platform tooling with product architecture and engineering strategy.
Drive technical discussions and lead architectural decisions that affect the platform direction and team output.

Qualifications:

8+ years of experience in software or platform engineering roles, with strong emphasis on internal tooling and systems design.
Solid software engineering experience in Java and at least one additional language (e.g., Python, Go), with a pragmatic and maintainable coding style.
Proven experience architecting platforms or shared services that support engineering teams.
Proficiency in AWS and a strong understanding of core services relevant to platform architecture.
Experience and understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and how platform tooling supports each stage.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and support engineers within a team setting.
A collaborative, systems-oriented mindset focused on enablement and long-term impact.

Appen is the global leader in data for the AI Lifecycle with more than 25 years’ experience in data sourcing, annotation, and model evaluation. Through our expertise, platform, and global crowd, we enable organizations to launch the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence products with speed and at scale. Appen maintains the industry’s most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform and boasts a global crowd of more than 1 million contributors worldwide, speaking more than 235 languages. Our products and services make Appen a trusted partner to leaders in technology, automotive, finance, retail, healthcare, and government. Appen has customers and offices globally.

Staff Platform Engineer

Appen

Key Responsibilities:

Qualifications:

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