Principal Infrastructure Architect – Cloud & SaaS Platforms

Mcafee; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 172,000 - 283,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus Program

401k Retirement

Medical, Dental, Vision

Parental Leave

Unlimited PTO

Sick/Vacation accrual

Job summary

McAfee seeks a Principal Infrastructure Architect to lead cloud-native migration efforts from EC2 to Amazon EKS and Kubernetes, with a focus on multi-region design and auto-scaling. Hybrid work model with on‑site 2–3 days weekly at San Jose or Newport Beach, CA, and commuting distance required.

You will architect real-time data platforms, API and LLM gateways, and advanced observability using OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Datadog, and Graylog while mentoring engineers and driving security and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional experience in infrastructure engineering and architecture.
• Kubernetes expert with hands-on mastery and EKS experience.
• Strong experience with high‑scale data systems and real‑time stores.
• Security and compliance expertise including Zero Trust, WAFs, and secret management.
• Experience building observability pipelines with OpenTelemetry and visualization tools.
• Proficient in Go, Python, or Bash; strong CI/CD experience (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD).
• Deep knowledge of cloud networking (VPCs, Direct Connect) and protocols.

Responsibilities

• Lead migration of legacy EC2 workloads to Amazon EKS and Kubernetes.
• Design and deploy high-performance API Gateways and LLM Gateways for Generative AI workloads.
• Implement service mesh for traffic management, mTLS, and observability.
• Architect real-time data infrastructure with Aerospike, DynamoDB, Aurora, Druid, ClickHouse.
• Build event-driven architectures with Kafka, SNS/SQS, Pulsar and Pub/Sub systems.
• Define open telemetry standards and integrating Grafana, Datadog, Graylog for unified observability.
• Mentor senior engineers and lead Well-Architected reviews.

Skills

10+ years

Kubernetes

Security & compliance

Observability

Automation & scripting

Networking fundamentals

Go

Python

CI/CD

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Tools

Terraform

Crossplane

Pulumi

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Grafana

Datadog

Job description

Role Summary

We are a global leader in online protection, dedicated to making the digital world a safer place. We are seeking a highly experienced and hands‑on Principal Infrastructure Architect with a deep background in large‑scale multi‑cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure) and modern SaaS delivery. This is a unique opportunity to lead the architectural evolution of our platform, driving a critical migration from legacy EC2 topologies to cloud‑native EKS/Kubernetes clusters, and designing the backbone for our next‑generation AI and real‑time data services. We highly value experience gained at FAANG or other leading Big Tech companies.

This is a Hybrid position located at either or San Jose or Newport Beach, CA offices. You will be required to be on‑site 2 to 3 days per week. When you are not working on‑site, you will be working from your home office. We are only considering candidates within a commutable distance to either San Jose or Newport Beach, CA offices and are not offering relocation assistance at this time.

Position Details

About the Role:

• Cloud Native Strategy & Migration: Lead the architectural design and execution of migrating legacy EC2-based workloads to Amazon EKS and Kubernetes. Define standards for multi‑region availability, auto‑scaling, and spot instance orchestration.


• Advanced Traffic Management: Architect and deploy high‑performance API Gateways and specialized LLM Gateways to manage traffic for Generative AI workloads. Implement Service Mesh (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) for advanced traffic splitting, mTLS, and observability.


• Real‑Time Data Infrastructure: Design robust infrastructure for diverse storage engines, including AWS‑native databases (DynamoDB, Aurora), OLAP systems, and real‑time databases like Aerospike and Druid to support sub‑millisecond latency requirements.


• Event-Driven Backbone: Architect scalable Pub/Sub messaging systems (Kafka, SNS/SQS, Pulsar) to decouple microservices and enable event‑driven architectures at internet scale.


• Comprehensive Observability: Define and implement a unified observability strategy based on OpenTelemetry (OTLP) standards. Integrate platforms like Grafana, Datadog, and Graylog to provide "single pane of glass" visibility into logs, metrics, and traces.


• Identity & Security Engineering: Modernize Authentication and Authorization systems (OIDC, OAuth2, SPIFFE/SPIRE). Deploy and manage centralized Secret Stores (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager), security gateways, and automated certificate management systems.


• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Champion a "GitOps" culture by treating infrastructure as software. Enforce best practices using Terraform, Crossplane, or Pulumi, ensuring all environments are reproducible and audit‑compliant.


• Technical Leadership: Mentor senior infrastructure engineers, drive "Well‑Architected" reviews, and collaborate with software teams to ensure infrastructure supports rapid product iteration.

About You:

• 10+ years of professional experience in infrastructure engineering and architecture, with a proven track record of managing large‑scale cloud deployments in AWS (primary), GCP, or Azure.


• Kubernetes Expert: Deep, hands‑on mastery of Kubernetes and EKS, including experience with custom controllers, operators, and migrating stateful/stateless workloads from VMs to containers.


• Database Reliability: Strong experience architecting infrastructure for high‑scale data systems, specifically real‑time stores (Aerospike, Redis) and analytics engines (Druid, ClickHouse).


• Security & Compliance: Extensive experience designing secure infrastructure, including implementation of Zero Trust networks, WAFs, and secret management systems. Familiarity with compliance standards (SOC2, PCI‑DSS) is a plus.


• Observability Stack: Proven ability to build observability pipelines from scratch using OpenTelemetry collectors and backend visualization tools (Prometheus/Grafana/Datadog).


• Automation & Scripting: Expert‑level proficiency in Go, Python, or Bash. You automate toil relentlessly and have deep experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD).


• Networking Fundamentals: Deep understanding of cloud networking (VPC, Transit Gateways, Direct Connect) and protocols (gRPC, HTTP/2, WebSocket, QUIC).

#LI‑Hybrid

Company Overview

McAfee is a leader in personal security for consumers. Focused on protecting people, not just devices, McAfee consumer solutions adapt to users’ needs in an always online world, empowering them to live securely through integrated, intuitive solutions that protects their families and communities with the right security at the right moment.

Company Benefits and Perks

We work hard to embrace diversity and inclusion and encourage everyone at McAfee to bring their authentic selves to work every day. We offer a variety of social programs, flexible work hours and family‑friendly benefits to all of our employees.

• Bonus Program


• 401k Retirement


• Medical, Dental, Vision, Basic Life, Short Term Disability and Long‑Term Disability Coverage


• Paid Parental Leave


• Support and Community Involvement


• 14 Paid Company Holidays


• Unlimited Paid Time Off for Exempt Employees


• 96 Hours of Sick Time and 120 Hours of Vacation for Non‑Exempt Employees Accrued Each Year

We're serious about our commitment to diversity which is why McAfee prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other legally protected status.

Pay Range

The anticipated compensation for this position is USD $171,960.00/Yr. - USD $282,510.00/Yr. depending on experience and qualifications.