Platform Engineer

Founded in 2008, Hightower is a wealth management firm that provides investment, financial and retirement planning services to individuals, foundations and family offices, as well as 401(k) consulting and cash management services to corporations. Hightower’s capital solutions, operational support services, size and scale empower its vibrant community of independent-minded wealth advisors to grow their businesses and help their clients achieve their financial vision. Based in Chicago with advisors across the U.S., we operate as a registered investment advisor (RIA).

About the role

The Platform Engineer owns the connective tissue across Hightower's technology platform ecosystem. Fluent in code and hands-on when it counts, you'll translate business workflows, integration needs, and ambiguous operating problems into clear specs and practical systems. You will connect cloud services, internal tools, APIs, Salesforce data flows, and user-facing experiences. Reporting to the Managing Director, Software Engineering, you'll partner with Product, Operations, Data Engineering, Infrastructure Engineering, and IT Operations to move ideas from prototype to reliable production.

Responsibilities

• Create integration designs across AWS, Salesforce, Snowflake, and third-party platforms, turning business requirements into specs clear enough for anyone on the team, yourself, or AI agents to build against.
• Identify workflow automation opportunities, scope solutions, and direct their end-to-end implementation, including prompt-driven and agent-assisted approaches where appropriate.
• Define UX and functional requirements for internal tools and operational dashboards, and review delivered work against design standards, accessibility, and reliability expectations.
• Design event-driven solutions using AWS primitives (EventBridge, SQS/SNS, Lambda, ECS/Fargate, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, CDK) and hold the team accountable to the design.
• Partner with stakeholders to map end-to-end processes, turn ambiguous problems into clear technical specs, and define acceptance criteria before implementation begins.
• Set quality standards for agent-generated and peer output through code review, testing oversight, and production readiness gates. You are accountable for what ships, not just what you write.

Requirements

• 3-5 years of experience building integrations, internal tools, automations, or full-stack applications in a professional engineering environment.
• Proficiency with TypeScript/JavaScript and React/Next.js, plus working knowledge of Python, SQL, and API integration patterns.
• A product-focused approach to building solutions that are robust, scalable, and easy to use.
• Experience designing reliable data and event flows across APIs, queues, databases, and external platforms; Salesforce, Snowflake, or financial-services integrations are a plus.
• Practical comfort with prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, tool/workflow design, or agent-assisted automation, with sound judgment around guardrails, approvals, and secure handling of data.
• Spec-oriented, self-directed, design-minded approach; able to clarify ambiguous workflows, define acceptance criteria, document implementation plans, and deliver polished, maintainable solutions.

Benefits

• Coverage on the first day of employment for medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid parental leave (16 weeks for primary caregiver and 8 weeks for secondary caregiver)
• Mother’s lounge onsite
• Flexible PTO plan
• In-office Monday through Thursday and work from home on Fridays
• Free brand-new gym in the Chicago office
• 401k matching plan
• HSA employer contributions
• Student loan assistance
• Pet insurance

Pay

Base salary of $140,000-$150,000 plus discretionary bonus (exact base salary amount will be dependent on experience).