Principal Platform Engineer - Computing Services

Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Carnegie Mellon University seeks a Principal Platform Engineer to design and maintain automation and deployment solutions within hybrid cloud environments. The role involves managing CI/CD pipelines, enhancing infrastructure reliability, and collaborating with diverse teams to promote IT service delivery. Ideal candidates will have a Master's degree and extensive experience with IaC and container orchestration technologies.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years of experience in IaC or container CI/CD platforms.
• Experience in higher education IT environments.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and software development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and manage CI/CD pipelines for enterprise applications.
• Develop and maintain hybrid cloud and on-premise infrastructure.
• Integrate and automate major university administrative systems.

Skills

CI/CD pipelines

Infrastructure-as-Code

Container orchestration

Automation

Scripting

Troubleshooting

Education

Master's degree in Information Technology

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI/CD

Job description

Principal Platform Engineer - Computing Services

Join to apply for the Principal Platform Engineer - Computing Services role at Carnegie Mellon University

The Principal Platform Engineer - DevOps Engineering is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining automation, infrastructure, and deployment solutions to support administrative operations, academic and research computing. This role focuses on hybrid on-premise and public cloud environments, enabling Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), and Continuous Deployment (CDE) to facilitate seamless IT service delivery. The engineer will integrate platforms and systems via APIs and intermediate distributed components, optimize deployments, and enhance infrastructure reliability, security, and automation. This role includes managing server design and administration within a central group supporting enterprise-wide systems or within a college/division overseeing complex multi-user systems. Ensures long-term system operation requirements are included in overall planning and may serve as a project lead on systems administration projects, providing guidance and training to lower-level staff.

Your core responsibilities will include:

1. Design, implement, and manage CI/CD pipelines for enterprise applications using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI/CD.
2. Develop and maintain hybrid cloud and on-premise infrastructure leveraging infrastructure-as-code (IaC) frameworks like Terraform or Puppet.
3. Deploy and manage containerized applications and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes or OpenShift.
4. Integrate and automate major university administrative systems including student information systems and identity management solutions (e.g., Active Directory, Sailpoint, Microsoft Entra, LDAP, CyberArk).
5. Manage software and artifact repositories utilizing solutions like JFrog Artifactory, Nexus, or similar tools.
6. Enhance administrative automation through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and IaC methodologies using platforms like Power Automate or open-source alternatives.
7. Implement security best practices in deployment pipelines, including secure access management and secret storage tools such as CyberArk.
8. Lead monitoring and observability practices, optimizing system performance with tools like Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK Stack.
9. Collaborate with leadership, faculty, researchers, and IT teams to promote automation, cloud adoption, and continuous improvement of platform services.
10. Perform other duties as assigned.

We value flexibility, excellence, and passion within Computing Services. Inclusion, collaboration, and cultural sensitivity are essential. We seek a team member who interacts effectively with diverse internal and external partners, upholding high integrity. Share our values and support the university's mission through your work.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications:

• At least 3 years of experience designing, implementing, and maintaining IaC or container CI/CD platforms supporting hybrid infrastructure.
• Master's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field.
• Experience in higher education IT environments supporting administrative computing, student information systems, and academic applications.
• Expertise in hybrid cloud and on-premise infrastructure design, automation, and management.
• Proficiency with container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, or OpenShift.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, GitOps, and software development workflows using tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or AWS.
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or Puppet.
• Deep understanding of containerization technologies like Docker or Podman.
• Familiarity with compliance and security standards relevant to higher education, such as FERPA, HIPAA, and NIST.
• Strong scripting skills in Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Experience integrating IT services with identity and access management solutions like Shibboleth, LDAP, CAS, or SAML.
• Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills for large-scale distributed systems.

This role is ideal for engineers passionate about enabling innovation, improving IT efficiency, and advancing automation in a university setting.

Requirements:

• Successful background check

Interested in this opportunity? Apply today!