Platform Specialist

Platform Specialist – Data Platform Governance

Location: Toronto, Canada

Duration: Long Term Contract

HM Notes:

We are seeking a hands-on Platform Specialist to provide governance, control, and operational leadership across a modern data platform environment. This role is focused on technology governance, audit, risk, compliance, and platform operations and is not a traditional project management position.

The successful candidate will develop strong knowledge of the organization's technology ecosystem and work closely with engineers, architects, platform SMEs, and support teams to drive governance activities, resolve issues, improve controls, and deliver operational outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a platform governance and operational lead across enterprise data platforms.
• Develop and maintain strong knowledge of platform architecture, technology assets, dependencies, controls, and operational processes.
• Own technology audit, risk, regulatory, and compliance requirements.
• Prepare and deliver audit evidence, remediation plans, control documentation, attestations, inventories, and audit responses.
• Analyze audit and risk findings, determine required actions, engage technical SMEs, and drive issues through closure.
• Manage governance activities including vulnerability management, access reviews, software currency, control testing, attestations, and operational controls.
• Create executive-level reporting, dashboards, metrics, and status updates covering platform health, risks, audit findings, and compliance.
• Partner with engineering and architecture teams to strengthen platform controls, operational maturity, and automation.
• Support platform modernization initiatives involving Kubernetes, cloud transformation, Databricks, Kafka, and platform automation.
• Identify manual governance and reporting processes and implement scalable, automated solutions.
• Take ownership of deliverables and outcomes rather than simply coordinating activities or meetings.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong experience in technology/platform governance, risk, audit, compliance, or technology operations.
• Hands-on understanding of cloud platforms such as Azure or AWS.
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes, Databricks, and Kafka.
• Experience working with data platforms, cloud infrastructure, or platform engineering environments.
• Strong understanding of technology controls, audit processes, risk management, and remediation.
• Experience preparing audit evidence, control documentation, attestations, inventories, and compliance reports.
• Ability to analyze technical issues and work directly with engineers and architects to determine solutions.
• Strong reporting and documentation skills.
• Experience driving issues and remediation activities through completion.
• Strong ownership, accountability, and ability to work independently.