Lead AWS Infrastructure Engineer/Chicago, IL LOCAL

Chicago, IllinoisHybridFull Time$160k - $190k Our client, a leading distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating products and technology-driven solutions is looking for an experienced Senior Software Engineer/Platform Engineer to help scale their Platform Product team. *This role is hybrid 3 days a week in downtown Chicago* This is a chance to shape how engineering teams across the company build and ship software, designing automation, self-service tooling, and opinionated defaults that reduce risk without slowing delivery down. You'll work independently on ambiguous, high-impact problems, mentor other engineers, and help drive an AI-first approach to how the team works. If you enjoy solving real business problems with modern cloud practices and want room to influence architecture and roadmap decisions, this role offers strong growth potential and the chance to make a company-wide impact.Required Skills & ExperienceBachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent experience 5+ years of software engineering experience, including architecture and observability, in a large, distributed environment working across multiple teams 3+ years as a full stack engineer building and operating services in production, including modern web frontends with React or a similar framework 3+ years coding in higher-level languages such as Python or Java in a multi-team codebase Strong knowledge of containers and Kubernetes, APIs, and web services, including building services with FastAPI or similar frameworks Cloud experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure via UI, API, and CLI or automation Experience implementing infrastructure as code, such as Terraform, and strong CI/CD principles Strong communication skills and the ability to mentor, influence, and collaborate across teams Desired Skills & ExperienceAWS Solutions Architect certification Experience leading architecture design and solutioning of greenfield and brownfield projects Knowledge of cloud native, event-driven microservices-based architectures Experience deploying organization-wide secrets as a service and integrating with pipelines and runtime applications Familiarity with common DevOps tools such as Ansible, Jenkins, or GitHub What You Will Be DoingDesign, build, and evolve automated, self-service capabilities that are efficient and dependable, and can be leveraged company-wide across engineering teams Work independently on ambiguous problems, drive designs to decisions, and mentor other engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical talks Continuously identify and reduce technical debt that increases risk or developer friction Coordinate with Product Engineering to design solutions that automate cloud processes across the SDLC Suggest secure defaults and advise on clean coding practices, pipeline test coverage, and observability/alerting Participate in standups, desk checks, tech huddles, and story grooming meetings to provide guidance where it moves the work forward Record decisions, context, and outcomes related to design choices, and prepare Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) Bring an AI-first mindset and contribute to AI ways of working The OfferBonus eligible You will receive the following benefits: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance Vacation Time Stock Options