Data Center – Automation Sr Principal Engineer

ViaPath Technologies • Houston, TX

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled Data Center Automation Sr Principal Engineer to design, build, and maintain scalable, automated solutions for managing both physical and virtual infrastructure. In this role, you will be instrumental in applying modern DevOps practices to streamline the provisioning, configuration, and monitoring of data center resources. Leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and advanced automation tools, you will help drive operational efficiency, consistency, and reliability across our infrastructure environment.
This role is ideal for someone who is passionate about automating everything—eliminating manual processes, improving system reliability, and accelerating deployment speed across both colocation and cloud environments.
This is a hybrid position based out of one of the following ViaPath offices: Dallas, TX or Houston, TX

Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of (combined) experience in data center operations, systems engineering, or infrastructure automation.
• Strong expertise with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, or Cinc.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification or equivalent experience (3+ years) in cloud architecture and automation.
• Experience with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.
• Hands-on experience automating provisioning for both physical and virtual infrastructure (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V, bare-metal).
• Proficient scripting skills in Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Solid understanding of networking, storage, and virtualization concepts within data center environments.
• Experience working with REST APIs and integrating automation workflows with ITSM tools is advantageous.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams.

Nice To Haves

• Certifications in DevOps and automation tools, such as HashiCorp, Red Hat, or equivalent.
• Experience working with virtualization technologies like Proxmox, QEMU, and/or KVM is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and the ELK stack.
• Exposure to hybrid cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and VMware Cloud Foundation.
• Experience with hardware management automation protocols and tools like IPMI and Redfish is a plus.
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement automated workflows to manage data center infrastructure, including physical servers, networking, storage, and virtualization platforms.
• Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or Puppet to enable consistent and scalable infrastructure provisioning.
• Integrate and maintain CI/CD pipelines to automate provisioning, configuration management, and deployment processes.
• Collaborate closely with Systems, Network, and DevOps teams to deliver reliable, repeatable, and scalable infrastructure environments.
• Monitor infrastructure performance and availability through automated alerting, reporting, and remediation solutions.
• Standardize and document procedures for infrastructure provisioning, scaling, updates, and lifecycle management.
• Identify opportunities to eliminate manual tasks by leveraging scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python, PowerShell) and automation frameworks.
• Ensure all infrastructure and automation solutions comply with security, compliance, and governance policies.
• Participate in on-call rotation and incident response to troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure-related issues.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance – Multiple plan options designed to support a variety of coverage needs.
• Health Saving Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) – Employer provided contribution to the HSA for eligible medical plans. Healthcare and dependent care spending accounts available.
• Flexible Time Off (FTO) – Including vacation and sick time
• Company Holidays
• Retirement Plan (401(k)) – Traditional and Roth 401(k) options available including employer matching contributions.
• Life & Disability Insurance – Company-paid basic life insurance and short-term disability; additional voluntary coverage available.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – Free, confidential support for personal, financial, and family matters.
• Additional Well-Being Resources – Includes access to Care.com, Calm, Active&Fit, Telavet, LegalShield, and other lifestyle resources and discounted services.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees