Principal Cloud Engineer

Western Governors University • Salt Lake City, UT

4d

About The Position

Western Governors University (WGU) is reimagining higher education through technology and innovation. We’re seeking a Principal Cloud Engineer to help design and build the next generation of cloud infrastructure that powers accessible, high-quality education for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide. This is a hands-on engineering and leadership role — ideal for someone who can both architect and implement cloud-native solutions, drive Kubernetes platform innovation, and lead DevOps automation at scale.

Requirements

• Expert-level hands-on experience with AWS services and distributed systems design.
• Deep Kubernetes expertise, including cluster configuration, scaling, networking, and observability.
• Strong proficiency with automation and configuration management tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation.
• Scripting and programming skills in Python, Bash, or Node.js.
• Solid knowledge of cloud networking, security, and monitoring.
• Experience with observability tools like CloudWatch, New Relic, or Prometheus.
• Proven success implementing CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation at scale.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and collaboration skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or related field (or equivalent relevant experience).
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (both required).
• 6+ years of experience managing production cloud or IT workloads.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with core AWS services (VPC, IAM, EC2, ELB, RDS, Route53, S3).
• 3+ years of experience building CI/CD pipelines using CodeBuild, CodePipeline, and/or CodeDeploy.
• 3+ years of experience automating infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation.
• 3+ years using AWS governance and compliance tools such as Config, Inspector, and Lambda.

Nice To Haves

• Experience integrating AWS with on-prem or hybrid enterprise technologies.
• Expertise with serverless computing (Lambda, Step Functions) and cloud cost optimization.
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (HIPAA, FERPA, PCI, SOX).
• JSON/YAML fluency and API integration experience.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize AWS-based infrastructure for scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Serve as WGU’s Kubernetes expert, leading cluster design, deployment automation, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
• Implement and manage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines using tools like Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation.
• Define and maintain High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies to meet RTO/RPO targets.
• Partner with engineering, product, and architecture teams to ensure cloud infrastructure supports academic and business objectives.
• Automate provisioning, monitoring, and deployments to accelerate delivery and reduce operational overhead.
• Mentor engineers and promote DevOps, security, and cloud architecture best practices across teams.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
• health savings account and flexible spending account
• basic and voluntary life insurance
• disability coverage
• accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
• legal and identity theft coverage
• retirement savings plan
• wellbeing program
• discounted WGU tuition
• flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual
• flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual
• 11 paid holidays
• other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level