Application Guide

How to Apply for Sr. Platform Engineer, L3

at Citrine Informatics

🏢 About Citrine Informatics

Citrine Informatics is at the forefront of using AI to accelerate sustainable materials development, a mission with significant environmental impact. Their platform leverages data ecosystems and intelligent workflows to help materials companies innovate faster, making this a compelling place for engineers who want their work to contribute to a greener future.

About This Role

As a Sr. Platform Engineer, you'll own the cloud infrastructure that powers Citrine's AI-driven materials platform, ensuring it's scalable, reliable, and secure. Your work directly enables data scientists and engineers to build and deploy models that solve real-world materials challenges, making the role both technically challenging and impactful.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might start with monitoring dashboards in Datadog to check system health, followed by a stand-up with the engineering team to discuss upcoming deployments or infrastructure needs. You might spend the afternoon writing Terraform modules to automate a new service deployment or troubleshooting a Kubernetes cluster issue, then end the day by documenting a new architecture decision.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who Citrine Informatics Is Looking For

  • Has deep hands-on experience with AWS, Terraform, and Kubernetes in production, not just in labs or side projects.
  • Thrives in a collaborative environment, working closely with engineering teams to understand their needs and deliver practical infrastructure solutions.
  • Is comfortable with evolving priorities and can adapt quickly, as the startup environment requires flexibility.
  • Has a strong focus on automation and observability, using tools like Datadog to proactively monitor and improve system health.

📝 Tips for Applying to Citrine Informatics

1

Tailor your resume to highlight specific AWS services (e.g., EKS, RDS, VPC) and Terraform modules you've built, not just general cloud experience.

2

In your cover letter, mention your experience with Kubernetes cluster administration, especially scaling and security, as this is critical for the role.

3

Quantify your impact: e.g., 'Reduced deployment time by 40% with CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions' or 'Managed 10+ Kubernetes clusters serving 99.9% uptime'.

4

Show familiarity with Citrine's mission by mentioning how your infrastructure work can support sustainable materials development.

5

Prepare a portfolio or GitHub repo of your Infrastructure as Code projects, especially those involving Terraform and Kubernetes, to demonstrate hands-on expertise.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

['Emphasize your passion for sustainability and how your platform engineering skills can directly contribute to accelerating materials development.', 'Highlight specific achievements with AWS, Terraform, and Kubernetes in production, including scaling and reliability improvements.', "Demonstrate your collaborative communication style by describing how you've partnered with engineering teams to deliver infrastructure solutions.", 'Show comfort with evolving priorities by mentioning experience in fast-paced environments (e.g., startups, rapid growth phases).']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read Citrine's blog posts on materials informatics and their platform architecture to understand their technical stack.
  • → Learn about their customers (e.g., BASF, Corning) and how their platform helps these companies develop sustainable materials.
  • → Explore their open-source projects or contributions (e.g., on GitHub) to get a sense of their engineering culture and practices.
  • → Check recent news or press releases about partnerships or funding to understand the company's growth trajectory.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Design a scalable AWS architecture for a data-intensive application, considering cost, security, and performance.
2 How would you migrate a monolithic application to Kubernetes on EKS? Walk through the steps and challenges.
3 Describe a time you automated a manual process using Terraform or CloudFormation. What was the outcome?
4 How do you approach incident response and observability? Give an example of a production issue you resolved using Datadog.
5 How do you balance infrastructure improvements with feature delivery when working with engineering teams?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't focus solely on DevOps buzzwords without showing deep technical expertise in the specific tools (AWS, Terraform, Kubernetes, Datadog).
  • Avoid vague statements like 'I love automation' without concrete examples of how you've automated infrastructure at scale.
  • Don't ignore the sustainability angle; failing to connect your skills to their mission can make you seem uninterested in their core purpose.

📅 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 Citrine Informatics!

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