Principal DevOps Engineer

Socket.dev; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 339,000; Full time

Job summary

Zoom is seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer who combines deep technical leadership with hands-on expertise in Linux systems, networking, and distributed architectures. You will dive into a wide range of services to identify systemic issues and drive reliability and modernization across CI/CD, containers, and cloud infrastructure.

You’ll mentor DevOps engineers, collaborate with product and service teams, and help implement observability, SRE practices, and resilient design.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in DevOps/SRE with production systems.
• Experience operating low-latency, high-throughput backend services at global scale.
• Knowledge of TCP/IP, routing, DNS, load balancing and colocation data center ops.
• Proficient with Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker and modern CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Lead deep-dive investigations across diverse services and environments.
• Design and implement improvements in deployment pipelines, orchestration, and CI/CD.
• Collaborate with product and service owners to enhance containerization and efficiency.
• Modernize hybrid infrastructures across data centers and cloud providers.
• Drive observability, fault isolation, and resilience engineering for SLAs.
• Mentor DevOps engineers and promote data-driven reliability via postmortems and SLOs.

Skills

DevOps leadership

Linux systems

Networking

Distributed systems

CI/CD pipelines

Containerization

Observability/SRE

Mentorship

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

We are seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer who combines deep technical expertise with broad system understanding. This engineer should be capable of diving into a wide range of services and identifying systemic issues across architecture, CI/CD flow, and containerization environments. This role requires technical leadership, analytical skill, and cross-team collaboration to drive reliability, scalability, and modernization.

About the Team

At Zoom, we’re building the next generation of Cloud and Colocation (Colo) infrastructure that powers seamless communication and collaboration for millions of users worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Leading deep-dive investigations across diverse services and environments. Working on real time media systems to web, team chat and AI to uncover architectural or operational bottlenecks.
• Designing and implementing improvements in deployment pipelines, orchestration frameworks, and CI/CD automation to increase reliability and release velocity.
• Working closely with product and service owners to enhance containerization strategy, improve resource efficiency, and reduce operational friction.
• Partnering with the Meeting DevOps and Cloud Infra teams to modernize hybrid infrastructures panning colocation data centers, AWS, OCI, and other cloud providers.
• Driving system observability, fault isolation, and resilience engineering, ensuring services meet strict availability and latency SLAs.
• Providing technical mentorship to DevOps engineers and influence best practices in automation, monitoring, and release engineering. Champion a culture of data-driven reliability through postmortems, SLIs/ SLO's, and continuous performance optimization.

What we’re looking for

• 15+ years in DevOps, SRE for large-scale, production systems. successful hands-on background in Linux systems, networking, and distributed systems.
• Possess experience operating and design low-latency, high-throughput backend services at global scale. Knowledge of media or real-time communication systems (e.g., MMR, WebRTC).
• Recognize knowledge of TCP/IP, routing, DNS, load balancing, and packet capture tools. Familiarity with colocation data center operations, including hardware provisioning and troubleshooting.
• Demonstrate experience with Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker, and modern CI/CD pipelines. successful problem-solving, debugging, and systems-level design skills
• Occasional weekend work may be required
• Ability to work across the globe or multiple time zones

Salary Range or On Target Earnings:

Minimum: $146,700.00

Maximum: $339,300.00

In addition to the base salary and/or OTE listed Zoom has a Total Direct Compensation philosophy that takes into consideration; base salary, bonus and equity value.

Note: Starting pay will be based on a number of factors and commensurate with qualifications & experience.

We also have a location based compensation structure; there may be a different range for candidates in this and other locations

Anticipated Position Close Date:

08/25/26

Ways of Working

Our structured hybrid approach is centered around our offices and remote work environments. The work style of each role, Hybrid, Remote, or In-Person is indicated in the job description/posting.

Benefits

As part of our award-winning workplace culture and commitment to delivering happiness, our benefits program offers a variety of perks, benefits, and options to help employees maintain their physical, mental, emotional, and financial health; support work-life balance; and contribute to their community in meaningful ways. Click Learn for more information.

About Us

Zoomies help people stay connected so they can get more done together. We set out to build the best collaboration platform for the enterprise, and today help people communicate better with products like Zoom Contact Center, Zoom Phone, Zoom Events, Zoom Apps, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Webinars. We’re problem-solvers, working at a fast pace to design solutions with our customers and users in mind. Find room to grow with opportunities to stretch your skills and advance your career in a collaborative, growth-focused environment.

Our Commitment

At Zoom, we believe great work happens when people feel supported and empowered. We’re committed to fair hiring practices that ensure every candidate is evaluated based on skills, experience, and potential. If you require an accommodation during the hiring process, let us know—we’re here to support you at every step.

If you need assistance navigating the interview process due to a medical disability, please submit an Accommodations Request Form and someone from our team will reach out soon. This form is solely for applicants who require an accommodation due to a qualifying medical disability. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed.

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