Application Guide

How to Apply for Senior Platform Engineer

at GFL Environmental

🏢 About GFL Environmental

GFL Environmental is a leading waste management and soil remediation company committed to sustainability and environmental stewardship. With a focus on driving a greener future, GFL offers a mission-driven work environment where your technical contributions directly impact environmental outcomes. Remote-first culture and a focus on innovation make it an attractive place for engineers who want their work to matter.

About This Role

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will architect and maintain the infrastructure backbone that powers GFL's digital transformation. You'll design reusable Terraform modules and CI/CD pipelines that enable developers to deploy securely and efficiently, reducing friction and accelerating time-to-market. Your work will ensure high availability, cost efficiency, and observability across critical environmental services.

💡 A Day in the Life

Start the day reviewing pull requests for Terraform modules and GitHub Actions workflows, ensuring they meet security and DRY standards. Mid-morning, collaborate with developers to understand their pain points and iterate on self-service tooling. Afternoon might involve designing a new cost-optimized AWS architecture for a critical service, then documenting best practices for the team.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who GFL Environmental Is Looking For

  • You have 5+ years of platform/DevOps experience with deep expertise in Terraform, writing modular, reusable, and secure infrastructure-as-code following best practices like DRY and least privilege.
  • You are an AWS power user, comfortable with IAM, VPC, ECS, EKS, EC2, KMS, and designing cost-optimized, resilient architectures.
  • You have proven experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, integrating automated testing, security scanning, and deployment workflows.
  • You are a developer advocate who enjoys creating standards, tooling, and self-service capabilities that make other engineers more productive and autonomous.

📝 Tips for Applying to GFL Environmental

1

Tailor your resume to highlight specific Terraform module design patterns (e.g., use of modules, remote state, workspaces) and include examples of how you've reduced infrastructure complexity.

2

Emphasize any experience with AWS services critical to GFL's stack (IAM, VPC, ECS/EKS, EC2, KMS) and quantify cost savings or reliability improvements.

3

Showcase your GitHub Actions expertise by linking to public repos or describing complex pipeline workflows you've built, especially those with security scanning and automated testing.

4

Mention any experience in the waste management or environmental sector, or demonstrate how your work has contributed to sustainability goals.

5

Prepare a short portfolio or write-up of a challenging infrastructure problem you solved, focusing on modularity, security, and developer experience.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

['Your passion for using technology to drive environmental sustainability and how this role aligns with your values.', "Specific examples of Terraform modules you've designed that improved reusability and security.", "Your experience with GitHub Actions and how you've automated CI/CD to reduce developer friction.", 'Your ability to balance reliability, cost, and performance in AWS architectures, with concrete metrics.']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Understand GFL's sustainability initiatives and how technology supports their environmental goals (e.g., waste tracking, route optimization).
  • → Review GFL's recent news or press releases about digital transformation or technology investments.
  • → Familiarize yourself with the AWS services GFL likely uses (ECS, EKS, S3, Lambda) and any industry-specific compliance requirements (e.g., environmental regulations).
  • → Check GFL's engineering blog or tech talks if available, to learn about their current platform challenges and culture.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Describe a complex Terraform module you built. How did you ensure it was reusable, secure, and followed DRY principles?
2 How would you design a CI/CD pipeline for a microservice on AWS ECS using GitHub Actions? Include security scanning steps.
3 Explain how you would architect a highly available and cost-effective infrastructure for a critical application on AWS.
4 How do you approach setting standards and tooling for developer self-service? Give an example of a friction point you reduced.
5 Walk us through a time you had to troubleshoot a production issue in a cloud environment. What tools and processes did you use?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Submitting a generic resume that doesn't highlight Terraform, AWS, or GitHub Actions specifically. This role requires deep expertise in these tools.
  • Overlooking security and compliance in your examples. GFL handles sensitive environmental data, so security is paramount.
  • Focusing only on technical skills without demonstrating a developer advocate mindset. The role is about reducing friction for others, not just building infrastructure.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to GFL Environmental!

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