Principal Cloud Engineer

First Citizens Bank; North Carolina; On-site; USD 170,000 - 199,000; Full time

Job summary

First Citizens Bank is seeking a senior cloud architect to set technical strategy, oversee complex cloud architectures, and drive innovation across the organization. You will lead cross‑functional teams to deliver scalable, secure, and cost‑efficient cloud solutions, with emphasis on governance, IaC, multi‑cloud, and compliance.

The role emphasizes strong leadership, deep cloud expertise, and collaboration to enable enterprise-scale platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related field or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of hands-on cloud leadership experience.
• Multi-cloud experience across AWS, Azure, GCP and on-premises.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement the overall cloud architecture and strategy.
• Guide best practices in design, scalability, resilience, and performance.
• Lead end-to-end cloud projects, coordinating with engineering, DevOps, security and operations.
• Develop strategies for efficient cloud resource management, cost optimization and performance.
• Establish and maintain high‑quality documentation and operational standards.
• Provide technical mentorship and 24/7 on‑call support for cloud infrastructure.

Skills

Cloud services

Infrastructure as Code

Policy as Code

Automation scripting

Container orchestration

Monitoring

Operating systems

Cloud security

Cloud architecture

Developer enablement

Agile DevOps

Security leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

High school diploma or GED

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Job description

Overview

This role is primarily responsible for setting technical strategy, overseeing complex cloud architectures, and driving innovation. Serve as a technical authority on cloud strategy, architecture, and operations, working closely with cross‐functional teams to deliver highly scalable, secure, and cost‑effective cloud solutions. The role requires deep technical expertise, strong leadership, and the ability to drive cloud innovation across the organization.

Overview

This role is primarily responsible for setting technical strategy, overseeing complex cloud architectures, and driving innovation. Serve as a technical authority on cloud strategy, architecture, and operations, working closely with cross‐functional teams to deliver highly scalable, secure, and cost‑effective cloud solutions. The role requires deep technical expertise, strong leadership, and the ability to drive cloud innovation across the organization.

Responsibilities & Qualifications

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Cloud Architecture Strategy – Define and implement the overall cloud architecture and strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and technology roadmaps.
• Technical Leadership and Innovation – Serve as the primary technical advisor for cloud infrastructure projects, guiding best practices in design, scalability, resilience, and performance. Identify and evaluate emerging cloud technologies and trends, recommending their application within the organization to drive efficiency and innovation.
• Project Oversight - Lead end‑to‑end cloud projects, from concept through deployment, by coordinating with engineering, DevOps, security, and operations teams.
• Optimization and Cost Management – Develop strategies for efficient cloud resource management, cost optimization, and performance enhancement, ensuring financial accountability.
• Documentation and Knowledge Sharing – Establish, review and maintain high‑quality documentation, architectural diagrams, and operational standards for cloud infrastructure.
• Support - Provide technical mentorship to cloud engineers at all levels, fostering an environment of continuous learning and technical growth. Provide 24/7 on‑call support to ensure the availability and reliability of cloud infrastructure.

Position Specific Skills

• Cloud Services (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Policy as Code & Governance
• Programming & Advanced Automation (e.g., JavaScript, Python)
• Container Orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes)
• Monitoring and Observability
• Operating Systems (Windows, Linux)
• Advanced Cloud and Network Security
• Cloud Architecture Expertise
• Developer Enablement
• Agile and DevOps Methodologies
• Security and Compliance Leadership

Qualifications

• Minimum Required Education and Experience: Bachelor's Degree and 10 years' experience OR High School Diploma or GED/Equivalent and 14 years' experience in Technical Hands‑On Leader of Cloud Teams
• Preferred Education:Bachelor’s or master’s degree
• Preferred Area of Study:Cloud
• Preferred Area of Experience:Multi‑Cloud

Required Licenses Or Certifications

Preferred Licenses or Certifications:AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional - IO;Azure Solutions Architect Expert - IO;HashiCorp Certified: Terraform - IO;Terraform Authoring and Operations Professional - IO;AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional - IO;Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) - IO;Azure DevOps Engineer Expert - IO

Additional Information

Bachelor's Degree and 10 years of experience in Technical Hands‑On Leader of Cloud Teams OR High School Diploma or GED and 14 years of experience in Technical Hands‑On Leader of Cloud Teams

Preferred Experience

• 10+ years of infrastructure engineering, systems administration, or platform engineering experience.
• 7+ years of Kubernetes/OpenShift administration experience.
• Experience managing large-scale production OpenShift environments.
• Proven experience supporting highly regulated, mission‑critical applications.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise platform initiatives.

Technical Skills

OpenShift & Kubernetes

• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), Kubernetes Administration, OpenShift Operators, OpenShift Service Mesh, OpenShift Pipelines, OpenShift GitOps, OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF)

Operating Systems

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Linux Administration, System Performance Tuning

Cloud Platforms

• One of the public Cloud, Hybrid Cloud Architectures

Automation & DevOps

• Terraform, Ansible, Helm, ArgoCD

Networking

• DNS, Load Balancers, TCP/IP, Ingress/Egress, VPN, Service Mesh, Istio

Storage Technologies

• Ceph, NFS, SAN/NAS, Persistent Volumes, CSI Drivers

Monitoring & Logging

• Prometheus, Grafana, Dynatrace/App Dynamics, Splunk, Open Telemetry

Preferred Certifications

• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration
• Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect
• Azure Administrator Associate
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert

This job posting is expected to remain active for 45 days from the initial posting date listed above. If it is necessary to extend this deadline, the posting will remain active as appropriate. Job postings may come down early due to business need or a high volume of applicants.

The base pay for this position is generally between $170,000 and $199,000. Actual starting base pay will be determined based on skills, experience, location, and other non‑discriminatory factors permitted by law. For some roles, total compensation may also include variable incentives, bonuses, benefits, and/or other awards as outlined in the offer of employment.

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits.