Platform Engineer

About Planning Center Planning Center exists to help churches build stronger, more connected communities. Since 2006, over 80,000 churches have trusted our tools to care for their people—whether that’s communicating with their congregation, organizing important information, or coordinating the details that make ministry happen. We’re an independent, profitable company with no outside investors. That means we get to focus on building products thoughtfully, caring for our team well, and making decisions for the long term. Our team is fully remote, working together daily through tools like Slack, Asana, Linear, Notion, and Zoom. Three times a year, we gather in Carlsbad, CA to connect in person, strengthen relationships, and align on where we’re headed. About the Work As a Platform Engineer, you'll help maintain and grow the infrastructure that powers Planning Center's applications and services. You'll start with clear, well-defined projects and close support and take on more ownership as you grow, eventually managing key pieces of our cloud infrastructure. We're looking for someone reliable and collaborative, who's excited to grow their craft and their understanding of how Planning Center builds and runs platform services. Responsibilities Handle infrastructure work across a growing scope — from hand-picked, low-urgency familiarization tasks (AWS services, Datadog monitoring, deployments, low-impact automation) toward independently managing significant components such as container orchestration, database performance tuning, and cloud-service optimization Troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure issues with autonomy, seeking guidance on necessary changes and, in time, on architecture decisions Implement and troubleshoot scalable, resilient cloud architectures using AWS services such as ECS, Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, and SNS Engage in infrastructure-as-code projects and play an active role in CI/CD pipeline management, ensuring smooth, efficient deployments Analyze and optimize cost and performance, balancing performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency Grow in alignment with company infrastructure patterns and best practices Engage in and help refine the team's collaborative processes Mentor less-experienced engineers and facilitate learning, sharing knowledge through tech talks and documentation Proactively identify and implement infrastructure improvements, such as automating manual processes or enhancing security Consistently ask questions and provide feedback to teammates that demonstrate an effort to understand their work — growing toward feedback that is high-quality and actionable Actively seek feedback and act on it constructively, continuously enhancing their technical and collaborative skills Participate in on-call rotation, starting as a secondary observer and growing into a full participant Proactively communicate your own needs and the needs of the work you're responsible for What You Bring 5+ years of experience building and operating production infrastructure on AWS Proven ability to lead infrastructure projects from design through rollout and launch Expertise in distributed systems, deployment orchestration, and failure detection / handling Hands-on experience with AWS Elastic Container Service, containers, and workload scheduling Strong track record in reliability, incident response, and building maintainable, debuggable systems Broad technical impact across systems through architecture, code review, mentorship, and team-level technical leadership Nice to Have Experience hosting and maintaining Ruby on Rails applications at scale Experience with deployment safety systems such as anomaly detection, progressive delivery, and automated rollback Familiarity with event-driven architectures for deployment observability and notifications Experience managing Infrastructure-as-Code at scale, including cloud governance and IAM in AWS Background building developer platforms and internal tools that improve developer experience Experience with core AWS services such as Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS, and others Who We Look For The best fits for any role on the Planning Center team are people embodying our Core Values: Engage with Humility: We actively participate with openness and receptiveness. We are ready to listen, learn, and speak thoughtfully and kindly— regardless of role or experience. Invest in our team: We give our time and energy to the success of those around us—collaborating well, making space for diverse perspectives, and sharing knowledge freely. Do Our Best Work: We strive for excellence and continuously look for ways to improve both our individual contributions and our team’s output. Focus on Customer Impact: We advocate for our customers in our decision-making and ensure our work creates meaningful, positive value for them. Think Holistically, Work Iteratively: We consider the bigger picture while making steady, practical progress— thinking big and working small. We believe the strongest teams are built from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We’re committed to cultivating that diversity and creating an inclusive, supportive environment where you can do your best work. Our Hiring Process We want this process to feel clear, respectful, and human. You’re getting to know us just as much as we’re getting to know you! Applications will be accepted until August 11th, 2026 at 8:00am PT. We review applications on a rolling basis and may close the posting early once we’ve built a strong pool of candidates, so we encourage you to apply early! Below is an outline of the steps in our hiring process. Step One: Apply with your resume and complete the application questions so we can learn more about your background and experience. Our application questions are a chance for us to get to know you, so feel free to answer them the way you might in a cover letter. Step Two: Phone screen with our Talent Acquisition team to get to know one another and discuss work and culture Step Three: Initial technical interview with two of our platform engineers, including a technical exercise and time to discuss your background Step Four: Final technical interview with a few team members, including a technical exercise and more in-depth discussion on your experience and interest in joining the team Step Five: Pending all goes well, we'll extend an offer Compensation and Logistics This is a US-based role; candidates must reside in and be authorized to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor H-1B visas at this time. Candidates must be willing to travel three times each year to connect with the rest of the team The annual salary range for this position is $200,000 - $235,000. Note: If you've applied for this same role within the past 9 months, we kindly ask that you do not reapply at this time. We thoughtfully review each application, and while we may not move forward now, we encourage you to apply for future opportunities that align with your experience. Benefits We love our team. It's one of the core pillars that guides how we work, which is why we invest deeply in your well-being, growth, and balance. Here are some highlights (you can explore all our benefits here): Get paid: 401(k) with a 3% company contribution after 90 days Charitable giving match up to $2,000/year Up to $300 monthly coworking stipend Allowance for continued education Get out: Paid Fridays off, all year long! A month-long sabbatical every five years A week off between Christmas and New Year's A paid week each year to serve with a globally focused nonprofit Two weeks of paid vacation (growing to three over time) Be healthy: 95% medical and 100% dental premium coverage $200/month toward physical fitness and mental health Paid sick time