Marble is building an AI-powered tax assistant and preparation platform designed to transform how accounting firms handle taxes. The company is hiring a Platform Engineer based in Canada to help scale the infrastructure behind this AI-first product. This role sits at a rare intersection of infrastructure, DevOps, and site reliability engineering.
If you are considering applying, understanding exactly what Marble expects matters. The job posting signals a high-trust, high-ownership role at an early-stage company. Here is a breakdown of every skill area you need to know.
What Marble Does and Why This Role Matters
Marble targets mid-to-large accounting firms with intelligent tools that streamline complex tax workflows. The platform handles sensitive financial data, which means reliability and security are not optional extras. They are core requirements baked into everything the Platform Engineer builds.
The engineering team is described as highly collaborative and early-stage. That context matters for candidates. You will not inherit a fully built system. Instead, you will help design and operate the entire platform from the ground up.
This role covers cloud infrastructure, developer tooling, CI/CD pipelines, data platform support, and incident response. Candidates who prefer narrow, specialized work may find the breadth challenging. Those who enjoy variety and autonomy will likely thrive here.
Core Technical Skills Required
Cloud Infrastructure
Marble runs 100% infrastructure as code. Strong experience with cloud platforms, particularly AWS, is the foundation of this role. You need to go beyond knowing what AWS services exist. You need hands-on experience designing, deploying, and maintaining production cloud environments.
- EC2, EKS, RDS, S3, IAM, and VPC configuration
- Cost optimization strategies across cloud services
- Multi-environment setups for development, staging, and production
- Cloud security best practices, including least-privilege access controls
Experience with other major cloud providers like GCP or Azure can supplement AWS knowledge. However, the job posting specifically names AWS, so candidates should prioritize that expertise first.
Kubernetes, Terraform, and Helm
These three tools appear explicitly in the job posting. Marble expects hands-on experience with all three, not just surface-level familiarity. Kubernetes manages containerized workloads. Terraform handles infrastructure provisioning. Helm packages and deploys Kubernetes applications.
- Writing and managing Terraform modules across environments
- Deploying and scaling services inside Kubernetes clusters
- Managing Helm charts for complex multi-service deployments
- Debugging cluster-level issues including pod failures and networking problems
These tools form the backbone of modern platform engineering. Candidates without direct production experience using all three will face a steep learning curve in this role.
Observability and OpenTelemetry
Marble specifically calls out OTEL (OpenTelemetry) as part of the observability stack. Platform Engineers here own reliability and incident response across all systems. That means instrumenting services for traces, metrics, and logs using OpenTelemetry standards.
- Setting up distributed tracing across microservices
- Building and maintaining dashboards for system health monitoring
- Configuring alerting pipelines to detect and escalate incidents quickly
- Running post-incident reviews and implementing preventive measures
Observability is not a background task at Marble. It is a primary responsibility. Candidates should have real experience building observable systems, not just reading about the concept.
CI/CD Pipelines and Developer Tooling
Improving CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling is a core part of the job. The goal is enabling faster product development across the engineering team. This requires both technical depth and an understanding of developer experience.
- Building and maintaining automated build, test, and deploy pipelines
- Using tools like GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, or similar CI/CD platforms
- Reducing deployment friction for backend and product engineers
- Automating repetitive infrastructure tasks to improve team velocity
Backend Development with TypeScript
Marble expects Platform Engineers to be comfortable with backend web development using TypeScript. This is less common in pure infrastructure roles. It signals that this engineer will sometimes cross into backend systems to support or debug services directly.
- Reading and modifying TypeScript-based backend services
- Understanding API design patterns and service communication
- Debugging performance or reliability issues at the application layer
Candidates do not need to be senior TypeScript developers. Still, basic backend proficiency in this language is a stated requirement that candidates should not overlook.
Data Platform and Security
Because Marble processes sensitive tax data, data security practices are a high priority. The Platform Engineer plays a key role in shaping the data platform and enforcing security standards across the entire stack.
- Encryption at rest and in transit for sensitive financial data
- Secrets management using tools like Vault or AWS Secrets Manager
- Compliance-aware infrastructure design for financial data environments
- Data pipeline infrastructure support for product and data teams
Soft Skills That Matter at Marble
Technical depth alone will not make a candidate successful here. Marble is early-stage and highly collaborative. The soft skills required reflect that culture directly.
Ownership Mindset
Ownership is central to this role. You will design and operate the entire platform. That means making decisions independently and being accountable for outcomes. Engineers who prefer waiting for direction may struggle in this environment.
Cross-Functional Communication
This role requires partnering with product teams and data teams. Translating infrastructure decisions into terms non-engineers understand is a real part of the job. Clear, direct communication is essential.
Comfort with Ambiguity
Early-stage companies operate with incomplete information. Priorities shift. Systems evolve quickly. Candidates should be comfortable making sound technical decisions without having every answer in advance.
Automation-First Thinking
The job posting notes that candidates who enjoy automating infrastructure will be a great fit. This is not just a preference. It reflects how Marble approaches operational work. Manual processes should be the exception, not the default.
Experience Level Expected
Marble does not specify years of experience in the posting. The language used throughout, such as "strong experience" and "hands-on experience," points toward mid-to-senior level candidates. Someone with two to five years of focused platform or DevOps experience in production environments would likely meet the bar.
Experience at a startup or fast-moving environment is a practical advantage. The role demands someone who can context-switch, move quickly, and prioritize without heavy process overhead.
How to Build These Skills
For Cloud and Terraform
The AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification builds strong foundational cloud knowledge. Pairing that with the HashiCorp Terraform Associate certification demonstrates infrastructure-as-code proficiency. Building personal projects on AWS using Terraform is the most effective hands-on practice available.
For Kubernetes and Helm
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam is widely respected in the industry. Running a local Kubernetes cluster using tools like Kind or Minikube lets you practice without cloud costs. Deploying real applications using Helm charts builds the practical fluency this role requires.
For Observability
The OpenTelemetry documentation is detailed and practical. Instrumenting a personal project with OTEL traces and shipping data to a free-tier observability platform like Grafana Cloud provides real experience. Contributing to open source OTEL projects also builds credibility.
For TypeScript Backend Development
Building a simple REST API using Node.js and TypeScript covers the basics quickly. Frameworks like Fastify or NestJS are common in production environments. Understanding how services communicate through HTTP or message queues matters more than advanced language features at this level.
Candidates ready to apply for the Platform Engineer role at Marble can find the full job posting and application form at https://himalayas.app/companies/marble-technology-inc/jobs/platform-engineer-1453756294.
