Director of Platform Engineering at Patreon

Job description

Patreon is a media and community platform where over 300,000 creators give their biggest fans access to exclusive work and experiences. We offer creators a variety of ways to engage with their fans and build a lasting business including: paid memberships, free memberships, community chats, live video, and selling to fans directly with one-time purchases. Ultimately our goal is simple: fund the creative class. And we're leaders in that space, with: - $10 billion+ generated by creators since Patreon's inception - 100 million+ free memberships for fans who may not be ready to pay just yet, and - 25 million+ paid memberships on Patreon today. We're continuing to invest heavily in building the best creator platform with the best team in the creator economy and are looking for a Director of Platform Engineering to support our mission. This role is based in New York or San Francisco and open to those who are able to be in-office 2 days per week on a hybrid work model. About the Team We’re looking for a Director of Platform Engineering to lead the teams responsible for the core infrastructure and platform services that power Patreon’s product and ecosystem. This role is ideal for a senior engineering leader who has: - Scaled a consumer, UGC, or marketplace platform to millions of users - Led infrastructure and/or platform teams supporting product engineering at scale - Operated in environments with high availability, bursty traffic, and complex distributed systems You’ll partner closely with Product, Security, Data, and Product Engineering leaders to ensure Patreon’s platform is reliable, scalable, and developer-friendly. About the Role - Lead and grow multiple Platform & Infrastructure Engineering teams, including backend services, APIs, developer platforms, reliability foundations and AI enablement - Own the technical strategy and roadmap for scaling Patreon’s platform as usage, content, and integrations grow - Drive platform initiatives across: - Core backend services & APIs - Service reliability, availability, and performance - Platform scalability and capacity planning - Internal developer tooling and productivity - Partner with product engineering teams to enable faster feature delivery while maintaining platform stability - Establish strong operational excellence (on-call, incident response, SLAs, SLOs) - Hire, develop, and mentor senior engineering managers and technical leaders - Communicate clearly with executives and cross-functional partners about risks, tradeoffs, and platform investments About You Required: - 10+ years of engineering experience with 5+ years in engineering management - Experience leading platform, infrastructure, or foundational backend teams - Proven track record scaling a consumer product, UGC platform, or marketplace to millions of users - Strong background in distributed systems, APIs, and service-oriented architectures - Experience operating production systems with high availability and performance requirements Preferred: - Background in developer platforms, internal tooling, or platform abstractions - Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), data pipelines, and event-driven systems - Experience leading through major architectural transitions or scale inflection points About Patreon Patreon powers creators to do what they love and get paid by the people who love what they do. Our team is passionate about making this mission and our core values come to life every day in our work. Through this work, our Patronauts: - Put Creators First | They’re the reason we’re here. When creators win, we win. - Build with Craft | We sign our name to every deliverable, just like the creators we serve. - Make it Happen | We don’t quit. We learn and deliver. - Win Together | We grow as individuals. We win as a team. We hire talented and passionate people from different backgrounds because workplace diversity and inclusion is critical to our ability to serve creators worldwide. If you’re excited about a role but your past experience doesn’t match with every bullet point outlined above, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re a creator at heart, are energized by our mission, and share our company values, we’d love to hear from you. Patreon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected class. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the interview process, please let us know via email at accommodations@patreon. Patreon offers a competitive benefits package including and not limited to salary, equity plans, healthcare, flexible time off, company holidays and recharge days, commuter benefits, lifestyle stipends, learning and development stipends, patronage, parental leave, and 401k plan with matching. Patreon operates under a hybrid work model, where employees based in office locations are expected to come into the office two days per week, excluding sick time and paid leave. The goal of this policy is to be intentional about the in-person time we spend together to strengthen the feeling of community at Patreon. Candidates hired into remote-eligible roles are not expected to meet the same requirements. At Patreon, we believe in fair and transparent pay. In compliance with New York and California pay transparency laws, we are sharing the expected salary range for this role. The posted salary range is dependent on the location and the level. This range may encompass multiple levels within the role’s job family. The final offer will be based on candidate’s experience, skills, competencies, and geographic location, aligning with the appropriate job level within Patreon’s leveling framework. For remote employees located outside CA and NY, salary may vary based on location and local market conditions. Patreon reserves the right to modify or update compensation and benefits at any time.

Requirements

Must-haves

Ultimately our goal is simple: fund the creative class. And we're leaders in that space, with:
$10 billion+ generated by creators since Patreon's inception
100 million+ free memberships for fans who may not be ready to pay just yet, and
25 million+ paid memberships on Patreon today.
We're continuing to invest heavily in building the best creator platform with the best team in the creator economy and are looking for a Director of Platform Engineering to support our mission.
About the Team
We’re looking for a Director of Platform Engineering to lead the teams responsible for the core infrastructure and platform services that power Patreon’s product and ecosystem.
This role is ideal for a senior engineering leader who has:
Scaled a consumer, UGC, or marketplace platform to millions of users
Led infrastructure and/or platform teams supporting product engineering at scale
Operated in environments with high availability, bursty traffic, and complex distributed systems
You’ll partner closely with Product, Security, Data, and Product Engineering leaders to ensure Patreon’s platform is reliable, scalable, and developer-friendly.
Lead and grow multiple Platform & Infrastructure Engineering teams, including backend services, APIs, developer platforms, reliability foundations and AI enablement
Own the technical strategy and roadmap for scaling Patreon’s platform as usage, content, and integrations grow
Core backend services & APIs
Service reliability, availability, and performance
Platform scalability and capacity planning
Internal developer tooling and productivity
Partner with product engineering teams to enable faster feature delivery while maintaining platform stability
Establish strong operational excellence (on-call, incident response, SLAs, SLOs)
Hire, develop, and mentor senior engineering managers and technical leaders

Nice-to-haves

Background in developer platforms, internal tooling, or platform abstractions
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), data pipelines, and event-driven systems
Experience leading through major architectural transitions or scale inflection points

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

aiawsgcp

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

401k

Parental Leave