Associate Principal, Cloud Infrastructure Engineer (Chicago)

About the job

*Must be willing to work onsite 3 days each week*

*We are unable to sponsor for this permanent Full-time role*

*Position is bonus eligible*

The Lead Associate Principal, Infrastructure Innovation and Automation is a senior technical leader who defines and drives the organization’s enterprise infrastructure strategy across automation, virtualization, networking, and cloud transformation. This role drives the architecture and ongoing evolution of enterprise Kubernetes platforms, with deep focus on Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and GitOps practices that improve platform reliability, security, and delivery speed.

Responsibilities:

• Lead enterprise OpenShift architecture and platform strategy.
• Design, implement, and maintain highly available OpenShift/Kubernetes platforms.
• Define standards for RHEL, Kubernetes, and platform engineering.
• Lead automation using Ansible Automation Platform and Terraform.
• Design and maintain enterprise CI/CD platforms and GitOps workflows.
• Develop reusable automation for provisioning, configuration, patching, and compliance.
• Architect secure Kubernetes platforms with RBAC, secrets, certificates, and policy.
• Build standardized deployment patterns using Helm, Operators, and ArgoCD.
• Mentor senior engineers and lead complex troubleshooting and platform improvements.
• Partner across Development, Security, Networking, and Infrastructure teams.
• Own platform reliability and disaster recovery strategy, including capacity planning and infrastructure cost optimization.
• Communicate technical strategy, risk, and platform roadmaps to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• 7+ years infrastructure engineering.
• 7+ years Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• 5+ years Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift administration.
• Extensive experience leading automation initiatives.
• Proven technical leadership and mentoring.
• Expert: Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, RHEL.
• Expert: Ansible Automation Platform, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code.
• Expert: CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Tekton/OpenShift Pipelines).
• GitOps: ArgoCD, ApplicationSets.
• Python and Bash scripting.
• Helm, Operators, Kubernetes networking, storage, security.
• Observability (Prometheus, Grafana) and container registries.
• Deep understanding of modern infrastructure architecture, including compute, network, storage, and cloud-native platforms (preferably AWS).
• Strong experience with DevOps practices and ITSM tools (change, incident, and problem management).
• Sound knowledge of information security, compliance, and risk management as it relates to infrastructure.

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Master’s degree is a plus.

Certificates or Licenses:

• RHCA (Highly Preferred)
• RHCE
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift