Principal Platform Engineer

The Principal Platform Engineer at Helius has a wide range of responsibilities including designing and implementing automated systems for deploying and maintaining bare-metal servers. They focus on developing CI/CD pipelines to enhance deployment efficiency, optimizing system performance, and ensuring high availability while leading incident response for system outages. Additionally, they enforce security best practices, collaborate with engineering teams, and uphold industry standards.

To qualify for the Principal Platform Engineer role at Helius, you need a minimum of 8 years in a DevOps or Site Reliability Engineering role, particularly in a high-performance environment. Expertise in managing bare-metal server environments and proficiency in scripting languages such as Bash or Python are essential. Familiarity with blockchain technologies, especially Solana, is preferred, as well as experience in CI/CD practices and tools.

A Principal Platform Engineer at Helius will work on exciting projects that include building internal developer platforms, scaling infrastructure solutions for thousands of servers, and implementing automated systems for service management. They will also be involved in security enhancements, monitoring system performance, and optimizing services to manage billions of requests efficiently.

Yes, Helius embraces a remote-friendly work environment for the Principal Platform Engineer position. Our flexible work hours encourage a balanced lifestyle, allowing you to work in a way that best suits your productivity and personal needs.

Candidates can expect a supportive and dynamic company culture at Helius. We prioritize personal and professional growth, offering generous vacation policies and engaging team collaboration. Our workspace is designed to foster innovation and creativity, encouraging engineers to take ownership of their projects in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

In prioritizing tasks, I first assess the urgency and impact on the overall system reliability and performance. I utilize frameworks like the Eisenhower matrix to categorize tasks based on their importance and urgency, allowing me to focus on what drives value the most.

Certainly! I once managed a major outage affecting our bare-metal servers. I followed a systematic incident response plan to identify the root cause quickly, compiled a detailed analysis for my team, and we implemented corrective actions swiftly to prevent recurrence, ultimately ensuring reliability.

To enhance security, I implement industry best practices such as regular audits, strict access controls, and proactive monitoring. Additionally, I prioritize vulnerability assessments and develop automated security checks within my CI/CD pipelines to address issues before they escalate.

I stay updated on blockchain developments by engaging with online communities, attending conferences, and reading latest research papers. I also explore new projects on platforms like GitHub to understand emerging trends and technologies within the ecosystem.

I have extensive experience with Jenkins and GitLab CI. These tools automate the integration and delivery process, minimizing manual errors and accelerating deployment cycles, thus improving our team's overall efficiency and time-to-market for new features.

I have worked with both Rust and Go in various projects. Rust's memory safety and concurrency features have been beneficial in building robust applications, while Go has helped me develop microservices that require high performance and scalability.

I utilize monitoring tools like Prometheus and Grafana for real-time system performance tracking. By setting alerts based on predefined thresholds, I can proactively address issues. When troubleshooting, I adopt a systematic approach, isolating components to identify the root cause effectively.

I establish clear policies and engage in regular training for the engineering team to ensure compliance with such standards. Conducting periodic reviews and audits further ensures our processes align with regulatory requirements and industry best practices.

Team collaboration is essential in this role. I believe open communication fosters idea exchange and problem-solving, which drives innovation. By collaborating across departments, we can gather diverse insights that enhance our platform's performance and reliability.

I mentor junior engineers by sharing knowledge through regular code reviews and technical discussions. Encouraging them to take ownership of smaller projects helps build their confidence while providing constructive feedback to foster their growth.