DevOps Lead

About Us:

Propel (TSX: PRL) is the fintech company building a new world of financial opportunity by facilitating access to credit for consumers underserved by traditional financial institutions. Through its AI-driven platform, Propel evaluates customers in a more comprehensive way than traditional credit scores can. Our revolutionary fintech platform has already helped consumers access over one million loans and lines of credit and over one billion dollars in credit.

To build a new world of opportunity we bring together the brightest talent to help us build opportunities. We are entrepreneurs and believe in measuring success through results and growing within; talent and hard work never goes unnoticed. At Propel, we are here to change the way employees, customers and shareholders succeed together.

We are a team of passionate entrepreneurs, who foster curiosity and growth in our employees. Our culture is why we’ve been so successful and why our employees choose Propel to build their careers. Its also why we’re one of North America’s fastest growing companies and a Best Place to Work.

Join us as we change the way employees, customers and shareholders succeed together.

About You:

As a fast-growing fintech, we stay true to our startup roots.  You picture yourself within a vibrant and entrepreneurial organization where your ideas will be heard, and you have an opportunity to showcase your talent. You are motivated by goals, a self-starter and like to wear multiple hats.

We are seeking a highly skilled and hands-on DevOps Lead to oversee and drive the DevOps practices for our Engineering team. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in AWS, Linux, Kubernetes (EKS), CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitHub actions), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Configuration Management (Ansible), and scripting (Bash/Python), with a strong focus on automation and security. This role requires a proactive leader who can demonstrate ownership of ongoing issues, mentor team members, and participate in on-call support to ensure the reliability and scalability of our infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Management: Design, implement, and maintain scalable, secure, and highly available infrastructure on AWS using Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), leveraging services like EC2, EKS, S3, RDS, ALB, VPC, IAM, WAF(Cloudflare/AWS)
• Kubernetes Expertise: Manage and optimize AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) clusters, ensuring efficient deployment, scaling, and monitoring of containerized applications
• Configuration Management: Utilize Ansible to automate configuration management, ensuring consistent and repeatable system setups across environments
• CI/CD Pipelines: Architect, build, and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and other tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) to enable rapid and reliable software delivery
• Security & Compliance: Ensure infrastructure and processes adhere to security best practices (AWS Security Hub) and compliance requirements (AWS Organizations/AWS Config), including managing secrets, access controls (AWS Identity Center/IAM), and vulnerability scans (Qualys, Kubescape, etc.). Implement and manage Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) and API Shield to protect applications and APIs from threats, ensuring robust security at the edge
• Automation & Scripting: Develop and maintain automation scripts using Bash and Python to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and improve system reliability
• Issue Ownership: Take full ownership of ongoing team issues, including troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and implementing long-term solutions to prevent recurrence
• On-Call Support: Participate in an on-call rotation to provide 24/7 support for production systems, ensuring quick resolution of incidents and minimal downtime
• Team Leadership: Mentor and guide the DevOps team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Monitoring & Performance: Implement and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions (e.g. CloudWatch, DataDog) to ensure system health and performance
• Collaboration: Think of Engineering team as our product owners and prepare work closely with them to align infrastructure capabilities with business needs and improve deployment workflows

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 7+ years of experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or similar roles
• Proven hands-on experience with AWS cloud services and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform
• 3+ years of experience managing Kubernetes clusters, preferably AWS EKS
• Extensive experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins or GitHub actions
• Hands-on experience with Ansible for configuration management and automation
• Strong proficiency in Linux system administration and troubleshooting
• Scripting skills in Bash and Python for automation and infrastructure management
• Expertise in containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes/EKS)
• Proficiency in Terraform for defining and managing infrastructure as code
• Experience with Ansible for automating configuration management and application deployment
• Familiarity with monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack) and logging frameworks
• Knowledge of networking concepts, including VPCs, load balancers, DNS, and firewalls
• Strong problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to issue ownership and resolution
• Excellent communication and leadership skills to mentor team members and collaborate cross-functionally
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple priorities
• Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation for production support

Nice to Have

• AWS certifications (e.g., AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Solutions Architect).
• Experience with other CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub actions or ArgoCD for K8s.
• Experience with Kubernetes networking (AWS VPC Lattice)

Benefits to Joining Propel

• Growth and opportunity – we pride ourselves on promoting from within
• Incredible company culture
• Competitive salary and health benefits
• Comprehensive vacation package
• Group health and dental benefits
• Group RRSP program
• Support for new parents
• Diverse and inclusive workplace

Should you require accommodation throughout any stage of the recruitment and selection process, please specify your requirements when submitting your application and we will work with you to accommodate your needs.

We welcome and encourage applications from individuals from all groups, including aboriginal, women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities, regardless of race, ethnicity, family status, national origin, age, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. No agencies or phone calls.