Head of Platform Infrastructure; m​/f​/d

ABOUT US

Pliant is a European fintech specializing in B2B payment solutions. Our modular, API‑first platform helps businesses streamline spending, improve cash flow, and integrate payments into their financial workflows. Designed for industries with complex payment needs, such as travel and fleet, Pliant enables greater efficiency, control, and profitability.

We serve two primary customer segments:

• Companies looking to optimize operational processes through intuitive apps and APIs, gaining control, automation, and financial flexibility through extended credit lines.
• Businesses such as financial software platforms, ERP providers, and banks that want to launch or enhance their credit card offerings using Pliant’s embedded finance and white‑label solutions.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Pliant supports over 4,000 businesses and more than 20 partners globally. As a licensed e‑money institution (EMI), we issue Visa‑powered credit cards in 11 currencies across more than 30 countries, helping companies streamline and simplify payments.

Learn more at

We're seeking an experienced Head of Platform Infrastructure (m/f/d) to take ownership of today's Platform Infrastructure team and evolve it into a department that provides cloud infrastructure, reliability engineering, developer productivity, security engineering, and cost management capabilities for all of Pliant Engineering. You will lead the existing team and scale it into a multi‑team department with focused ownership areas. The goal is to make infrastructure a competitive advantage: enabling product teams to ship safely and quickly, operate reliably, and meet security and compliance requirements with minimal friction.

This is a unique opportunity arising from our growth. You will partner closely with engineering leadership and stakeholders across the company to set priorities, define operating mechanisms, and deliver measurable outcomes.

Platform Infrastructure exists to provide a reliable, secure, and scalable infrastructure platform so that Pliant can innovate rapidly and scale seamlessly, with infrastructure becoming a competitive advantage.

Today, Platform Infrastructure is operated as a single team (with broad ownership). The department structure is intended to be built incrementally into multiple teams, such as:

• Cloud Infrastructure & Kubernetes (including cell‑based architecture and “Cell Factory” automation)
• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
• Developer Productivity & Experience
• Security Engineering
• Fin Ops & Cost Management
• Data Platform Engineering

A core focus for the Head of Platform Infrastructure will be to design and drive this evolution, ensuring no gaps in ownership while responsibilities transition from “one broad team” to “multiple specialized teams with clear charters.”

Our Tech Stack:
Java, Spring Boot, Postgre

SQL, Kafka, AWS, Docker, Terraform

• Lead and Develop the Existing Platform Infrastructure Team:
  Take ownership of the current team’s delivery, reliability posture, and roadmap, while providing clear direction, coaching, and a psychologically safe environment.
• Scale the Team into a Department:
  Define the target department structure, establish team charters, and hire and develop engineering managers and senior ICs to form multiple focused teams over time (e.g., Cloud Infra, SRE, Dev Productivity, Security, Fin Ops, Data Platform).
• Drive Platform Strategy and
  
  Roadmap:
  
  Set and communicate a multi‑quarter roadmap that balances developer velocity, reliability, security/compliance, and cost efficiency.
• Own Reliability and Operational Excellence:
  Strengthen incident management, on‑call health, observability, and SLO/SLI practices across platform and critical services.
• Enable Developer Velocity:
  Build and evolve self‑service “Golden Path” workflows (tooling, CI/CD, templates, automation) so product teams can ship frequently and safely.
• Embed Security and Compliance by Default:
  Ensure security and compliance are automated into platform workflows (guardrails, secrets, scanning, policy enforcement, audit readiness) without slowing teams down.
• Make Cost a First‑Class Engineering Input:
  Increase cost…