Lead Platform Engineer

About the Role

Wine & More is seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to join our Technology team in our Bethesda, MD office. You'll own Kubernetes on AKS and GKE with a strong focus on security, reliability, and cost efficiency—establishing standards and guardrails. You'll use Argo Workflows to orchestrate data pipelines and scheduled jobs at scale. You'll lead the design, build, and continuous improvement of CI/CD with Jenkins and GitHub Actions. You'll grow Backstage into a practical internal developer platform that empowers engineers with golden paths, reusable templates, and self-service options. You'll operate Kafka, CockroachDB (Postgres-compatible), Couchbase, and Elasticsearch for performance, resilience, and spend efficiency. You'll raise the bar on observability with Prometheus, Grafana, and Tempo for tracing—defining SLOs and actionable alerting. You'll mentor engineers and partner with product, Security teams building in C#/.NET, Go, and Node.js, while leading our AI initiative by identifying practical use cases and integrating tools that deliver measurable impact. You will report to the Sr. Manager, Platform Engineering.

You will

• Manage multi-cloud Kubernetes operations on Azure AKS and Google Cloud GKE—cluster topology, networking, identity/RBAC, policies, upgrades, and cost controls.
• Support CI/CD engineering with Jenkins and GitHub Actions—pipelines-as-code, environment promotion, secrets management, artifact provenance, and rollback strategies.
• Manage IDP patterns using Backstage—Service Catalog, TechDocs, Scaffolder templates, and scorecards to define golden paths and governance.
• Support in workflow orchestration with Argo Workflows (explicitly not for CI/CD)—DAG design, artifact/versioning, resource quotas, and multi-tenant isolation.
• Knowledge of distributed data systems—operating Kafka, CockroachDB (Postgres), Couchbase, and Elasticsearch including replication, performance tuning, backup/restore, and DR.
• Support in observability engineering with Prometheus, Grafana, and Grafana Tempo—SLO/SLI design, alert tuning, tracing, and actionable dashboards/runbooks.
• Work in platform software development using Go, Node.js, and C#/.NET—building CLIs, operators/controllers, APIs, and automation that harden and simplify the platform.

You will come with

• Bachelor's Degree preferred or equivalent years of experience, 5-8 years preferred.
• Multi-cloud Kubernetes ops (AKS/GKE): topology, RBAC, policies, upgrades, cost control.
• CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions): pipelines-as-code, promotions, rollbacks, artifact hygiene.
• Backstage IDP: service catalog, scaffolder templates, golden paths, scorecards/governance.
• Argo Workflows (not CI/CD): DAG design, multi-tenant guardrails, quotas, artifact/versioning.
• Distributed data ops: Kafka, CockroachDB, Couchbase, Elasticsearch—tuning, backup/restore, DR.
• Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Tempo—SLO/SLI design, alerting, actionable runbooks.
• Platform Dev: Go, Node.js, C#/.NET.

We offer

• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Generous store discounts
• Health care plans (medical, prescription, dental, vision)
• 401(k), HSA, FSA, Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Disability & life insurance coverage
• Paid parental leave
• Pet insurance
• Critical illness and accident insurance
• Discounted home and auto insurance
• College tuition assistance
• Career development & product training
• Consumer classes
• & More!

Grow with us

Total Wine & More is the country's largest independent retailer of fine wine, beer and spirits, and we continue to grow our footprint year over year. Total Wine offers exciting and unique career opportunities across the country and in our corporate office. Our strength is our people. We have a commitment to training and career growth, all in an environment that values new ideas and teamwork. If you share our entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for providing best-in-class customer experience, take a moment to apply or learn more at https://careers.totalwine.com/!

Total Wine & More considers several factors when establishing compensation. Estimated salaries determined by third parties have not been validated by Total Wine & More. Compensation may vary based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, market location, job-related knowledge, skills and/or experience.

Total Wine & More is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Total Wine & More makes reasonable accommodations during all aspects of the employment process, including during the interview process. Total Wine & More is a Drug Free Workplace.

The information provided above indicates the general nature and level of work required of the position and is not a comprehensive list of all responsibilities or qualifications. Benefits list is only a highlight of some of the benefits offered to team members; eligibility for certain benefits apply.