Senior Principal Engineer, Kubernetes AI Platform

SmartRecruiters, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Open-source innovation

Professional development

Conferences and publications

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Mirantis, an IREN company, seeks a Senior Principal Engineer for k0rdent to set technical direction across core, AI Infrastructure, and AI Apps, ensuring a coherent platform at scale.

You will write code, prototype hard problems, mentor engineers, and represent Mirantis with customers and upstream communities, aligning product strategy with architectural decisions.

This role demands broad systems expertise, strong communication, and the ability to drive standards and collaboration across teams.

Qualifications

• Deep Technical Breadth across Kubernetes internals, distributed systems, AI/ML runtimes, and modern observability.
• Systems Architecture for large-scale, multi-tenant platforms spanning multiple subsystems.
• Technical Strategy with multi-year planning and scope.
• Influence Without Authority: drive direction across teams through clarity and credibility.
• Mentorship: grow Staff and Principal engineers and raise the bar.
• Communication: explain complex Trade-offs clearly to engineers, executives, customers.
• Business Judgment: translate engineering decisions into cost, revenue, and risk.
• Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: act in fast-moving AI infrastructure domains.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: partner with product, design, sales engineering.
• Education and Experience: 5+ years in technical leadership preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own Cross-Departmental Technical Strategy: define and evolve the multi-quarter roadmap for k0rdent as a whole.
• Architect Across Pillars: lead high-risk design across Core k0rdent, AI Infrastructure, AI Apps.
• Set Engineering Standards: establish API design, testing strategy, observability, performance, security.
• Mentor and Grow Engineers: coach Staff and Principal engineers across pillars.
• Drive Alignment with the Broader Ecosystem: collaborate with Kubernetes, CNCF, OpenTelemetry communities.
• Inform Product and Business Strategy: translate customer problems into technical options.
• Represent Mirantis Externally: engage with customers and upstream communities.
• Business Impact: ensure platform coherence and enable revenue through architectural decisions.
• Quality and Reliability: maintain production-ready standards across the platform.
• Risk Mitigation: identify and resolve risks before incidents.
• Talent Density: raise technical ceiling through mentoring and hiring.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent experience

Job description

Mirantis, an IREN company, seeks a Senior Principal Engineer for k0rdent to set technical direction across core, AI Infrastructure, and AI Apps, ensuring a coherent platform at scale.

You will write code, prototype hard problems, mentor engineers, and represent Mirantis with customers and upstream communities, aligning product strategy with architectural decisions.

This role demands broad systems expertise, strong communication, and the ability to drive standards and collaboration across teams.