Platform Engineering Head / Architect

Educational Qualification

• B.Tech./B.E. in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related engineering discipline (Must have; full-time regular course)
• MTech. /M.S. in Computer Science, Information Technology, or Software Engineering desirable
• Certifications (at least one required at deployment — Must have): AWS Solutions Architect Professional, AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, or CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator)
• Certifications (Desirable): CKAD, CKS, HashiCorp Terraform Associate, Certified Backstage Associate (if available), TOGAF 9, SAFe Architect, ITIL 4 Foundation

Experience

• 12+ years in software engineering, platform engineering, or DevSecOps, with minimum 4 years in a Lead Architect or Head of Platform role owning a production platform end-to-end
• Minimum 2 years of hands-on experience with an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) — Backstage or equivalent — covering plugin architecture, software catalogue, scaffolder templates, and SSO integration
• Demonstrated experience architecting and operating cloud-native platforms at scale, serving 500+ developers across multiple business units or tenants
• Demonstrated experience with source-code and DevSecOps platforms (GitLab, GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket) as the CI/CD backbone, and with an OSS or licensed project management tool (OpenProject, Jira, Azure DevOps Boards)
• Prior experience delivering platform engineering initiatives for government, PSU, BFSI, or regulated enterprise programmes preferred
• Prior experience owning migration of a large SDLC / ALM estate — repositories, work packages, users, pipelines, audit logs — to a new platform desirable

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture & Strategy

• Own the end-to-end reference architecture of the platform across the developer portal (IDP), source-code and CI/CD layer, project management layer, and observability, operations & security layer
• Define and publish the platform's guiding principles — federated custody with central governance, end-toend traceability by default, policy enforcement as code, open-source preferred, and AI-integrated delivery with human-in-the-loop guardrails
• Approve HLD/LLD, integration designs, IaC governance standards, GitOps workflows, Kubernetes reference designs, active-passive DR architecture, and network topology
• Own the platform's scalability baseline, NFR validation approach, and technology-obsolescence / refresh plans across the engagement lifecycle

Internal Developer Platform Ownership

• Own the developer portal roadmap — software catalogue, golden path scaffolder, TechDocs, plugin strategy, SSO/MFA, superadmin and admin consoles, self-registration, and integration with enterprise tools (HRMS, KMS, document management, SharePoint)
• Define golden paths and platform patterns that consumer teams must adopt; approve tenant-specific customisations
• Approve the plugin model for on-demand tool onboarding to the observability, operations & security layer without disruption to existing integrations

Governance of the Implementation Agency

• Act as the single point of technical authority for the implementation agency; review deliverables against contracted scope and phase-gate validation criteria
• Chair architecture review boards and technical acceptance sessions across all phases; recommend acceptance, conditional acceptance, or rework to leadership
• Track SLA adherence (uptime, RTO/RPO, incident resolution) and quality metrics; drive corrective action

Migration, Onboarding & Stakeholder Interface

• Approve the migration strategy from legacy platforms covering repositories, work packages, users, CI/CD pipelines, audit logs, wiki content, and attachments — with zero data loss and full auditability
• Serve as the technical interface with consumer administrators, developer and vendor teams, external contributors, and the internal stakeholder community during discovery, onboarding waves, and hypercare
• Approve onboarding plans, dedicated / isolated deployment configurations, and tenant-specific integrations with external tools

AI & Emerging Technology Integration

• Evaluate and approve introduction of AI capabilities across developer productivity (AI code review, test generation, intelligent search), delivery intelligence (predictive risk, release summaries), security intelligence (AI-augmented vulnerability prioritisation), and operations (predictive alerting, capacity forecasting) — with appropriate governance, audit logging, and human-in-the-loop controls

Knowledge Transfer, Exit Management & Sustainability

• Ensure the agency delivers complete runbooks, TechDocs, operational SOPs, and training to prevent lockin at exit
• Own the exit and handover framework at the end of the engagement, including data / configuration handover and secure deletion by the agency; ensure core data and configurations remain exportable in open, documented formats

Technical Competencies

• Internal Developer Platform (IDP): Backstage architecture, plugin strategy and development, catalogue model, scaffolder templates, TechDocs, permission framework; IDP design patterns and developerexperience principles
• DevSecOps Platform: GitLab (or equivalent) architecture — Runners, CI/CD pipelines, SAST/DAST, container registry, releases; branch protection, merge request workflows, supply-chain security (SBOM, artefact signing)
• Project Management Layer: OpenProject, Jira, or equivalent — architecture and integration; workpackage-to-commit traceability; Agile boards (Kanban/Gantt); release and version planning Cloud & Infrastructure Architecture: AWS (EKS, IAM, ALB, Route 53, Secrets Manager, KMS, S3, CloudWatch) or equivalent hyperscaler; hybrid, on-premise, and sovereign-cloud deployment patterns; NIC / MeghRaj familiarity desirable
• Container & Orchestration: Kubernetes (production-grade), Docker, Helm, service mesh basics, cluster capacity and health governance
• IaC & GitOps: Terraform / OpenTofu, Ansible, Argo CD or Flux; GitOps deployment patterns and governance
• Identity & Access: SSO, OIDC, SAML, LDAP, MFA design; Keycloak, Auth0, AWS IAM Identity Center, Microsoft Entra ID
• Programming & Runtime: Node.js, TypeScript, React, Express, PostgreSQL, YAML; ability to read and review production code (not required to code full-time)
• APIs & Integration: REST / OpenAPI, GraphQL basics, webhook design, event-driven integration, API gateway patterns
• Observability & SRE: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry, Jaeger / Tempo; SLI/SLO/errorbudget methodology; RTO/RPO planning; incident management
• Security & Compliance: OWASP Top 10, NIST CSF, Zero Trust Architecture, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, CIS controls, CERT-In guidelines, DPDP Act 2023
• AI/ML Understanding: Working understanding of LLMs, RAG architectures, MLOps, and AI-assisted developer tooling (not required to code, but must make platform-level trade-offs)
• Communication: Executive presentation to leadership and consumer stakeholders; ability to defend architectural positions in review boards; ability to translate technical trade-offs for non-technical audiences and build consensus across engineering, security, and business stakeholders

Please Note: NeGD invites applications for the following position on a purely contractual basis, initially for a period of three (3) years, which may be extended subject to the requirements of the project.