Platform Engineering, Senior Specialist; Kong API

Position: Platform Engineering, Senior Specialist (Kong API)
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* Who We Are:

** Every transaction matters. Every Canadian matters. At Interac, we protect both — driving trust, security, and inclusion, so our digital economy thrives.
Founded in 1984, Interac connects Canadians through secure digital payments, advanced identity verification and industry-leading fraud protection. Connecting banks, businesses, and individuals, Interac enables millions to send, receive, and manage money safely and effortlessly every day — across both digital and physical environments.

As the backbone of Canada’s financial ecosystem, Interac facilitates over 20 million transactions daily, supported by trusted partnerships with government and financial institutions. Consistently ranked as Canada’s most reputable financial technology brand, Interac is deeply embedded in the daily lives of Canadians.
** Who You Will Work With:
** The vacant Platform Engineering, Senior Specialist role will report to the Leader, Infrastructure Engineering. The Platform Engineering, Senior Specialist will bring demonstrated experience operating enterprise API Gateway and Ingress platforms, with a focus on Kong Gateway deployed on Open Shift including support of the Platform layer that fronts API’s, enforces edge controls, moves messages and aggregates telemetry for real time operations.

They will be doing hands-on work and will have exposure to multiple infrastructure domains including compute, networking, storage, backup, and database platforms. They will work with internal and third-party vendors/service providers, ensuring seamless integration, effective service delivery, and alignment with strategic objectives.
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* What You Will Do:

** API Gateway & Ingress Platforms — Kong Gateway on Open Shift
* Deploy and operate Kong Gateway as an enterprise API gateway in front of services running on Open Shift.
* Manage gateway deployment models (traditional, hybrid, DB‑backed, or DB‑less) appropriate to enterprise on‑prem environments.
* Operate Kong as a shared ingress and API control plane, providing routing, authentication, authorization, and traffic policy enforcement for platform services.
* Support enterprise API policies (rate limiting, authentication, authorization, request transformation) implemented via gateway configuration and plugins.
* Manage gateway lifecycle (configuration updates, scaling, certificates, upgrades) using containerized deployment methods on Open Shift.
* Integrate gateway operations with enterprise identity providers and TLS certificate management.
* Troubleshoot north‑south traffic flows between external consumers and internal Open Shift services.

Open Shift Platform Build & Operations (On‑Prem)
* Build, maintain, and operate a production Open Shift platform on‑prem, including cluster/node lifecycle, operators, and platform stability responsibilities.
* Execute measured, low‑risk platform configuration changes in production (e.g., routing/ingress/TLS policy changes) with controlled rollouts.
* Manage platform configuration changes and upgrades using operator‑driven, controlled rollouts aligned with change‑management practices.
* Operate Open Shift Service Mesh (Istio‑based) to enable secure, observable service‑to‑service communication.
* Manage mesh control plane lifecycle via Operators and CRDs.
* Support traffic management (routing, canary releases, rate limiting), zero‑trust security (mTLS, workload identity), and observability (metrics, logs, tracing).
* Understand and operate sidecar and ambient (sidecar‑less) modes as appropriate to platform requirements.
* Understanding of cloud (AWS in particular) and SaaS platform services such as SES and IDAM/CIAM.
* OS & Host Foundations Supporting Container Platforms
* Senior capability administering RHEL (Windows Server, nice to have) underlying supporting components and adjacent services (patching, stability, software currency).
* Support minor/major upgrades, extensions to databases:
Cockroach

DB , EDB Postgres/PostgreSQL
* Facilitate patching activities and forward/rollback testing in lower environments to reduce production risk.

Observability, Alerts, and Operational Signal Quality
* Maintain platform dashboards and alerts, including tuning…