Senior Principal Software Engineer, Upbound

• 12+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in technical leadership roles
• Proven track record designing, building, and scaling container workload management platforms (e.g. EKS, GKE, AKS, Heroku, Digital Ocean, or similar) for large organizations
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes internals, container runtimes, and cloud-native architectures with understanding of enterprise deployment patterns
• Experience building or supporting infrastructure platforms used by large enterprise organizations with complex requirements
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-year technical initiatives from concept through production deployment at scale
• History of technical leadership including mentoring senior engineers and influencing architectural decisions across organizations
• Strong understanding of control plane design patterns, including reconciliation loops, declarative APIs, and eventual consistency models
• Familiarity with Crossplane architecture and concepts, or strong interest in rapidly developing deep expertise
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and GitOps methodologies in enterprise environments
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages (Go, Python, or similar) with emphasis on building reliable distributed systems
• Deep knowledge of cloud infrastructure primitives across major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Understanding of policy-as-code frameworks and policy enforcement patterns, particularly in regulated industries
• Experience with multi-tenancy patterns, RBAC, and security models for platform infrastructure
• Exceptional technical judgment with the ability to navigate ambiguity and make sound decisions with incomplete information
• Demonstrate a positive attitude and foster an environment of encouragement, experimentation, learning, and accountability
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences including enterprise stakeholders
• Track record of building consensus and driving alignment across engineering teams and organizational boundaries
• Passion for building leverage through platforms, tooling, and developer experience improvements
• Bias toward action balanced with thoughtful consideration of long-term implications and enterprise adoption patterns
• Deep empathy for platform users and understanding of what makes infrastructure platforms successful in large organizations
• Have direct experience with Crossplane, Upbound, or other Kubernetes-based control plane frameworks
• Experience in service mesh, observability platforms, or security tooling in enterprise contexts
• Experience building internal developer platforms or platform-as-a-service offerings that scaled to thousands of users

Desirable

• We're seeking an exceptional Senior Principal Engineer to serve as the technical leader to develop the future of autonomous infrastructure platforms for the enterprise
• In this role, you'll architect and drive the development of a sophisticated multi-control plane system powered by AI that unifies infrastructure management, workload orchestration, and policy governance at scale. We call this the Control Fabric
• Building on the innovations Upbound has pioneered with Crossplane, Spaces, and the AI-Native Intelligent Control Plane, you'll design solutions that enable enterprise organizations to deploy and manage infrastructure platforms at massive scale
• This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of cloud-native infrastructure, solving complex challenges for the world's most demanding environments
• Define and drive the technical vision for our multi-control plane architecture, leveraging Crossplane's control plane framework and extending Upbound Spaces concepts to solve enterprise-scale infrastructure challenges
• Lead the design and implementation of control plane abstractions that elegantly separate concerns across infrastructure provisioning, workload lifecycle management, and policy enforcement
• Architect solutions for enterprise organizations managing thousands of workloads across multi-cloud, on premises, and hybrid environments, balancing complexity with usability
• Establish technical standards and decision-making frameworks that guide the organization through complex architectural trade-offs in large-scale deployments
• Build upon your deep experience with container orchestration platforms to design workload management capabilities that meet the demanding requirements of enterprise application portfolios
• Extend and enhance Kubernetes-based architectures to address real-world enterprise challenges including multi-tenancy, compliance, security, and operational governance at scale
• Create robust integration patterns between control planes, ensuring seamless coordination while maintaining clear separation of concerns across infrastructure, workload, and policy domains
• Drive decisions around technology selection, vendor partnerships, and build-vs-buy trade-offs for critical platform components, with deep consideration for enterprise requirements
• Design for enterprise realities: complex organizational structures, stringent compliance requirements, legacy system integration, and the need for gradual migration paths
• Architect solutions that support diverse deployment models including on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and edge environments
• Create frameworks for platform teams to deliver self-service capabilities while maintaining centralized governance and security controls
• Champion engineering excellence through code reviews, design reviews, and mentorship of senior engineers
• Partner with product and go-to-market teams to translate enterprise organizational requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, building alignment across the organization and with enterprise customers
• Influence engineering culture and practices across multiple teams, establishing patterns for documentation, testing, and operational readiness that meet enterprise standards