Staff Devops Engineer - Platform Operations

Kin is redesigning insurance to be smarter, faster, and centered on the customer. We use intelligent pricing, offer seamless bundling, and make every step (from purchasing, servicing to claims) simple and friction-free, especially in the places traditional insurers often ignore.

We empower people to protect what matters most, starting with their homes and expanding to all they value, in a world where climate risks, rising costs, and outdated systems leave too many behind. Our approach has fostered amazing growth, attracted marquee investors, and earned us accolades, including being named to:

• Built In Chicago's Best Places to Work, Midsize Companies (2021-2025).

• Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers (2021- 2024, Ranked #37 in 2024).

• Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

• Forbes’ Fintech 50.

Simply put, our people are what make us great – we need forward-thinking, inspired game-changers like you to join us in our mission.

So, what’s the role?

As Staff DevOps Engineer on Kin’s Platform Operations team, you’ll be a key part of building the technology and culture that empowers our engineers to innovate securely at speed. Our primary tech stack is Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL databases, with Terraform for IaC and delivery supported by GitHub Actions and Spacelift stacks that take code live to AWS many times a day.

In your highly cross-functional role, you’ll be working with people across the tech org and beyond, bringing our infrastructure and development platform up to new standards and building out solutions for secure self-service and a delightful - but not insulated - developer experience.

A day in the life could include:

• Continuously improving automation and tooling to streamline deployment processes and increase efficiency and self-service functionality

• Supporting a positive and proactive culture of collaboration across Kin

• Utilizing your understanding of AWS services and working with peers to optimize infrastructure performance, scalability, resilience, and cost-efficiency

• Designing and implementing solutions to ensure system changes continuously adhere to regulatory compliance and support Kin’s security posture

• Respond to issues, incidents and problems in real time

• Working with engineers to build their understanding and skills for good citizenship of their infrastructure and pipelines

• Diving deep with internal stakeholders to make sure our infrastructure and development platform are mutually beneficial to our application and data architecture

• Implementing, monitoring, logging, and alerting in Datadog to ensure high availability and performance of our systems

• Collaborating with IT and Security on RBAC

• Mentoring and supporting teammates

• Updating documentation

• Staying up to date with industry trends and emerging technologies

I’ve got the skills… but do I have the necessary ones?

• Extensive experience in DevOps or related roles, with a strong focus on CI/CD automation and infrastructure management

• Strong communication and collaboration skills, including thoughtful pushback

• Proven success mentoring engineers

• Demonstrated success in creating compliant, self-service delivery pipelines

• Proficiency in GitHub Workflows and Actions for orchestrating CI/CD pipelines

• Strong skills with Terraform/OpenTofu for infrastructure as code (IaC) development

• Deep knowledge of AWS services, including EC2, ECS, ECR, S3, RDS, Redis, Lambda, and IAM

• Strong shell scripting skills, Docker, and YAML

• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment while finding ways to preempt firedrills

• A fast learner, ready to bring previous knowledge to this position and continue developing along the way

Bonus Points:

• Ruby on Rails

• Sidekiq

• Datadog

• Tonic

• Spacelift

• Decoupling monoliths
  

We offer a comprehensive benefits program, allowing you to choose the

benefits that are best for you and your family including: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short and Long Term Disability Insurance options, Employee Assistance Program, as well as elective voluntary benefits such as accident insurance, hospital indemnity, critical illness, legal assistance and pet insurance. Kinfolk become eligible for benefits on the first day of the month following their start date.

In addition to these benefits, we also are excited to offer the following:

• Competitive salary and company equity through Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), granted as part of our standard compensation package and based on role and level.

• 401K with company match of up to 4% of eligible earnings

• Flexible PTO for exempt employees (employees typically take 15-20 days annually), along with 8 company-observed holidays

• A paid parental leave program that provides 100% salary continuation of up to 14 weeks for birthing parents and 8 weeks for non birthing parents

• Continuing education and professional development opportunities

Kin will accept applications for the role until November 7th, 2025

For Sales Agents and Customer Service Agents: These roles sit in any of the following 30 states: AL, AZ, CO, FL, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WI.

For all other positions, these roles can sit in any of the following 40 states: AL, AR, AZ, CA (exempt only), CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WI. Please only apply if you are able to live and work full-time in one of the states listed above.

State locations and specifics are subject to change as our hiring requirements shift.

Kin is the only pure-play, direct-to-consumer digital insurer focused on the growing home insurance market. We make policies convenient and affordable through a technology platform that delivers a seamless user experience, customized options for coverage, and fast, high-quality claims service. Kin is a fully licensed carrier that offers coverage through its reciprocal exchanges which are owned by its policyholders. To learn more, visit www.kin.com.

Kin is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We don't just accept difference – we honor it, nurture it, and celebrate it. We don’t discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.