Cloud Principal Engineer

About Centric Software

Centric Software® is a global leader, providing an innovative and AI-enabled product-concept-to-commercialization platform for retailers, brands and manufacturers of all sizes. We equip retail, fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor, home and consumer goods brands with pioneering best-of-breed solutions to plan, design, develop, source, comply, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products. Our technology powers brands to streamline processes, drive efficiency and operate with confidence in an ever-changing market. Our story is one of rapid growth, bold ideas and extraordinary opportunities. We’re here to challenge the status quo—and we’re looking for brilliant people who want to do the same. No matter where you are in the world, this is your chance to be part of something exceptional.

Job Summary

We are building a new Cloud Engineering function to modernize our platform, improve infrastructure economics, and increase delivery reliability across AWS, Azure, and limited GCP workloads. The Cloud Principal Engineer will work in defining the cloud strategy and execution model, building the initial team, and delivering measurable business outcomes across cost optimization, platform standardization, observability modernization, and application modernization.

Why This Role Exists

This role exists to create a single execution backbone that aligns engineering work with business priorities: Infrastructure cost reduction and waste elimination.Standardized, scalable Kubernetes-based platform foundations.Simplified and cost-aware observability strategy.Automation-first operations for non-production controls.Application modernization toward stateless, Linux-aligned deployment patterns.

Key Responsibilities

• Work in Defining the cloud engineering operating model and role boundaries across DevOps, Cloud Ops, and R&D teams.
• Build and mentor the initial cloud engineering team and hire pipeline.
• Prioritize roadmap initiatives into quarterly execution plans with clear owners and milestones.
• Establish platform and automation standards for infrastructure provisioning, CI/CD integration, security controls, and reliability.
• Lead cross-functional programs that require coordinated cloud, platform, and application changes.
• Ensure decisions are evidence-driven with transparent measurement and reporting.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years in cloud/platform engineering, SRE, or infrastructure leadership roles.
• 3+ years leading cross-functional technical programs with direct business impact.
• Strong hands-on depth in at least two of the following: Kubernetes platforms, cloud infrastructure automation, cost optimization, observability, CI/CD systems.
• Experience across AWS and Azure in production environments.
• Proven ability to translate business goals into technical roadmap execution.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Technical Skills

• Managed Kubernetes platforms: EKS and/or AKS architecture and operations.
• Infrastructure as Code: strong hands-on depth in Terraform or OpenTofu or Pulumi.
• Cloud automation and scripting: Python and/or TypeScript for workflow and operations automation.
• Ci/CD implementation: Git-based pipelines, environment promotion, release controls, rollback patterns.
• Cloud security foundations: IAM, secrets management, policy enforcement, and least-privilege design.
• Cost optimization engineering: rightsizing, idle resource remediation, schedule automation, and governance controls.
• Observability foundations: metrics, logs, traces, alert design, and SLO-oriented operating practices.

Preferred Technical Skills

• Configuration management and systems automation (Ansible or equivalent).
• Experience evaluating or migrating monitoring stacks (for example, Datadog alternatives).
• Experience with Kafka platform migrations, including Kafka-as-a-Service adoption.
• Experience enabling ARM64 migration and multi-arch build/deployment practices.
• Experience driving stateless architecture transitions and config externalization patterns.

Leadership Competencies

• Systems thinking with bias for execution.
• Strong ownership and accountability.
• Pragmatic decision-making under delivery constraints.
• Able to build alignment across engineering, operations, and business stakeholders.