Principal Engineer – Platform Engineering

Cisco

Principal Engineer focusing on Kubernetes platform strategy and implementation at Cisco. Leading cloud-native infrastructure projects and mentoring senior engineering teams.

Posted 7/11/2026full-timeRemote • California, Massachusetts, New York, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $231,400 - $331,800 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudDistributed SystemsGoGoogle Cloud PlatformKubernetesPythonTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Architect and drive the evolution of Kubernetes platform strategy across cloud and on-premises environments supporting mission-critical workloads at scale.
Lead the design and implementation of platform capabilities that improve reliability, security, scalability, and developer productivity for hundreds of engineering teams.
Partner with engineering, security, and product leaders to define multi-year platform roadmaps and drive execution of company-critical initiatives.
Provide technical leadership during major incidents, architecture reviews, platform transformations, and strategic infrastructure investments.
Mentor senior engineers and help raise the engineering bar through technical leadership, design reviews, operational excellence, and architectural guidance.

Requirements

What you’ll need

15+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in production environments
7+ years of hands-on experience operating Kubernetes platforms in production, including multi-cluster environments
Experience architecting and operating cloud-native infrastructure across AWS, Azure, GCP, or hybrid cloud environments
Experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting networking architectures for large-scale Kubernetes platforms
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and GitOps technologies, including Terraform and ArgoCD or equivalent platforms
Strong software engineering experience with Go, Python, or similar programming languages used for automation and platform development.

Benefits

Comp & perks

medical, dental and vision insurance
a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
paid parental leave
short and long-term disability coverage
basic life insurance
10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year
flexible vacation time off program
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

KubernetesGoPythonTerraformArgoCDNetworking ArchitectureCloud PlatformsDistributed SystemsAutomationPlatform Development

Soft Skills

MentoringCollaborationTechnical LeadershipOperational ExcellenceArchitectural Guidance