As platform engineering has matured over the last few years, it has evolved into the foundational operating system of the modern enterprise and is fast becoming a board-level priority.
After launching the Practitioner and Professional certifications, many professionals asked for something deeper, more technical, and hands-on. That’s why the Architect certification was created.
This course is designed for architects, platform engineers, and DevSecOps professionals who want to move beyond running clusters or building pipelines. It focuses on designing scalable platform foundations, embedding security and compliance from day one, and enabling developers through automation and clear interfaces.
60% report salary growth or promotion within 6 months after getting certified
The certification includes eight modules combining self-paced lessons and live expert-led sessions. Across 15+ hours of content, participants move from mastering compliance and automation to building developer-facing components and a final capstone project.
Key Takeaways: Start by grounding your work in the core architectural framework. Explore the reference architecture, set up your environment with Coder, Kind, and Kubernetes, and verify your platform foundation using Kubernetes, Grafana, and Gatekeeper to ensure everything is ready for the modules ahead.
Key Takeaways: Learn how to enforce security and compliance automatically during development. This module covers implementing Policy-as-Code with OPA and Gatekeeper, building policies that block vulnerable images, and designing governance that provides instant developer feedback instead of manual reviews. By the end, you’ll have compliance integrated directly into your CI/CD pipeline.
Key Takeaways: This module focuses on building a zero-trust foundation for your platform. Deploy Falco with eBPF for runtime threat detection and set up secure service identity using SPIFFE and SPIRE. You’ll also integrate Gatekeeper for prevention and Falco for detection to create a layered security model.
Key Takeaways: Learn how to design platform APIs that act as clear, productized interfaces for developers. Create self-service onboarding workflows through a Teams API, apply design-first principles using OpenAPI and Swagger, and use progressive disclosure to balance simplicity with flexibility for advanced users.
Key Takeaways: Explore how CLIs accelerate platform operations through speed, scripting, and automation. Design CLIs as abstraction layers, build a Python-based Teams CLI (teams-cli), and enable automation across workflows using scripting and CI/CD integration.
Key Takeaways: Learn how to use the Operator pattern to automate complex platform tasks. Build a reconciliation loop, manage namespace lifecycles, and configure Operator security with RBAC and resource limits to create self-managing, scalable components.
Key Takeaways: Deploy the final Teams web interface using Angular and validate the complete platform flow from UI to API to Operator. Compare custom-built UIs with open-source and commercial portals like Backstage, and review the capstone project requirements that consolidate all architectural components into a cohesive platform solution.
Key Takeaways: Present and review the final capstone project, demonstrating end-to-end platform implementation. Verify security gates with Gatekeeper and Falco, reflect on key lessons and best practices, and discuss next steps such as extending the platform with GitOps and advanced authentication.
