Principal Infrastructure Engineer

Principal Infrastructure EngineerSan Francisco, CA - HybridThe RoleAs a Principal Infrastructure Engineer, you will lead the design and automation of how Nextdata OS is provisioned and operated across environments—primarily managed Kubernetes, often in customer-owned cloud accounts.You will work on systems that directly shape how data mesh is adopted in practice.You will bring experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems, including data and ML infrastructure, to help deliver a secure, self-service platform for data product teams.You will:Design and implement deployment models for PaaS, SaaS, and customer-managed environmentsBuild scalable, modular infrastructure-as-code and maintain high code quality through reviewsWork closely with customers to understand real-world constraints and requirementsCollaborate with product and engineering to evolve the platformTake ownership of what you ship, including production reliabilityYou are the right fit if you have:Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field8+ years of experience in infrastructure engineeringExperience and willingness to work directly with customersExperience working in early-stage or growing startups, shaping infrastructure from the ground upStrong experience with Kubernetes-based systems and multi-cloud environmentsExperience building and maintaining CI/CD systems for cloud-native applicationsHands-on experience deploying and operating PaaS and SaaS platforms at scaleExperience with data and ML ecosystems across platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, or GCPA track record of managing infrastructure cost and performance trade-offsExperience contributing to or leading security reviews and auditsStrong troubleshooting skills and a focus on reliabilityTechnical depth in:Kubernetes (EKS, GKE, AKS) and containerization (Docker)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation)Cloud networking (AWS VPC, Azure VNet, GCP VPC)Observability tools (Prometheus, ELK or similar)Service meshes (Istio, Linkerd)