Battle Card · Director of Platform EngineeringMeridian SoftwarePrepared September 30, 2026 · Confidential
Interview Battle Card
September 30, 2026
Target Role
Director of Platform Engineering
Meridian Software
2 interview stages covered
Read the Snapshot and Evidence Map first, then rehearse the 3 STAR stories out loud until each lands in 90 seconds. Every likely question maps to one of those stories. Use Self-Test to hide the model answers and quiz yourself the night before.
Snapshot
Grant Killian is a strong match for the Director of Platform Engineering role at Meridian Software: 12+ years scaling cloud platforms and SRE organizations, deep Kubernetes/Terraform/PostgreSQL experience, and a completed SOC 2 Type II / ISO 27001 program that lines up directly with the JD's compliance ask.
Evidence Map
Each job requirement, the evidence that answers it, and how hard you can push on it.
| Requirement | Your Evidence | Strength |
|---|
| Scale a 30-engineer organization across platform, SRE, and DevEx | Led a 45-engineer platform organization spanning compute, networking, and developer experience across four product lines at Northwind Cloud. | Strong |
| Deep experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, and PostgreSQL | Cut infrastructure spend 38% ($2.1M annually) by consolidating three regional Kubernetes fleets onto a single multi-tenant platform; standardized CI/CD on GitHub Actions and Argo CD. | Strong |
| Partner with security on SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance | Drove SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification programs to completion in under nine months with zero major findings. | Strong |
| Fluency in Python or Go for platform tooling | Built streaming ETL pipelines in Python and Kafka ingesting 2TB of telemetry daily with sub-minute latency earlier in career; recent roles are management-track rather than hands-on coding. | Moderate |
STAR Stories
Consolidating three Kubernetes fleets
SituationNorthwind Cloud ran three regional Kubernetes fleets with duplicated tooling and no shared capacity pool.
TaskCut infrastructure spend without degrading reliability across four product lines.
ActionDesigned and led the migration to a single multi-tenant platform, standardizing CI/CD on GitHub Actions and Argo CD along the way.
ResultReduced infrastructure spend 38% ($2.1M annually) and cut deployment lead time from 3 days to 40 minutes.
38% infrastructure cost reduction$2.1M annual savingsDeployment lead time: 3 days -> 40 minutes
Tags: kubernetes, cost, ci/cd
SOC 2 / ISO 27001 in under nine months
SituationFabrikam Systems' payments platform needed SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification to unlock enterprise deals.
TaskDeliver both certifications with zero major findings on an aggressive timeline.
ActionDrove the compliance program end to end, partnering with security and coordinating three SRE squads through the control implementation.
ResultBoth certifications completed in under nine months with zero major findings.
Under 9 monthsZero major findings
Tags: compliance, soc2, iso27001
AI-assisted incident response
SituationMean time to resolution on a payments platform serving 40M transactions monthly was too slow for the org's growth.
TaskCut incident response time without growing headcount.
ActionChampioned and rolled out an AI-assisted incident-response workflow across the SRE organization.
ResultReduced mean time to resolution from 94 to 31 minutes.
MTTR: 94 -> 31 minutes
Tags: reliability, incident response, ai
01Tell me about your platform engineering background.
12+ years scaling cloud platforms and SRE orgs from 5 to 60 engineers across three continents; most recently Director, Platform Engineering at Northwind Cloud.
→ Story: Consolidating three Kubernetes fleets
02Why Meridian Software?
The role's mix of reliability ownership, org scaling, and compliance partnership maps directly onto the last two roles.
Questions to ask them
What does success look like in the first 90 days for this role?
How is the platform org currently structured relative to SRE and DevEx?
Talking points
12+ years scaling cloud platforms and SRE orgs
Completed SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 programs
01Walk me through how you cut infrastructure spend by 38%.
Consolidated three regional Kubernetes fleets onto one multi-tenant platform and standardized CI/CD.
→ Story: Consolidating three Kubernetes fleets
02How do you approach a compliance program like SOC 2 without slowing the org down?
Partnered with security early and built controls into existing workflows rather than bolting them on.
→ Story: SOC 2 / ISO 27001 in under nine months
03How did you improve incident response?
Rolled out an AI-assisted incident-response workflow that cut MTTR from 94 to 31 minutes.
→ Story: AI-assisted incident response
Questions to ask them
What's the biggest reliability risk the platform org is carrying right now?
Talking points
Track record improving deployment frequency and MTTR at scale
Comfortable owning SLOs and error budgets for a 9M-user SaaS platform
Key Metrics
Numbers to have ready
Cut infrastructure spend 38% ($2.1M annually)
Reduced deployment lead time from 3 days to 40 minutes
SOC 2 Type II + ISO 27001 in under 9 months, zero major findings
Reduced MTTR from 94 to 31 minutes
Scaled engineering org from 5 to 60 engineers across three continents