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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Principal System Engineering - **Company:** AT&T Inc. - **Location:** Bedminster, NJ, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $155,400.0 - $261,100.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Application Release Automation, Systems Engineering, Cloud Computing, Cloud Engineering, Cyber Security, Continuous Integration, Disaster Recovery, Executive Information Systems, Identity and Access Management, Cloud Services, Migration Manager, Runbook, Systems Integration, Data Logging, Cloud Platform System, System Availability, Reliability of Systems, Event Driven Architecture, Containerization, Kubernetes, Infrastructure Automation Frameworks, Information Technology, Enterprise Integration, Real Time Data, Apache Kafka, Microservices - **Published:** September 4, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.disabledperson.com/jobs/74884785-principal-system-engineering ## About the Role * Deep experience designing, operating, and governing enterprise-scale platforms and cloud infrastructure. * 7+ years of cloud platforms, infrastructure services, platform engineering, and cloud governance practices. * Experience with containerized workloads, orchestration platforms, microservices architectures, and cloud-native deployment patterns. * Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines, release automation, artifact management, infrastructure automation, and deployment governance. * Experience with monitoring, alerting, observability, logging, service health, and operational telemetry strategies. * Strong knowledge of security controls, access governance, role-based access management, separation of duties, and compliance practices. * Experience leading platform upgrades, lifecycle management, migration planning, disaster recovery, and resiliency improvements. * Strong troubleshooting skills across infrastructure, application platforms, integrations, networking, and operational workflows. * Ability to define standards for SOPs, runbooks, operational playbooks, technical documentation, and support readiness. * Working knowledge of cost optimization, capacity planning, license management, and technology lifecycle planning. * Strategic thinker with strong business and technical judgment. * Proven ability to lead through influence across multiple teams and organizations. * Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and decision-framing skills. * Ability to mentor, coach, and develop engineering talent. * Strong ownership mindset with accountability for outcomes, reliability, governance, and customer impact. * Ability to drive alignment across technical, operational, security, and business priorities. * Calm, decisive leadership during incidents, escalations, and high-pressure situations. * Strong collaboration skills with Architecture, Development, Operations, Security, Product, and Support teams. * Ability to simplify complex problems and communicate clear recommendations. * Commitment to continuous improvement, operational excellence, innovation, and engineering discipline. Preferred Skills * Experience leading enterprise platform modernization or transformation initiatives. * Experience defining platform roadmaps, maturity models, service ownership models, or operational governance frameworks. * Experience applying AI or intelligent automation to improve support operations, engineering productivity, or customer experience. * Experience with large-scale compliance programs, cybersecurity scorecards, audit preparation, and remediation tracking. * Experience leading disaster recovery exercises, business continuity planning, and resiliency validation. * Experience influencing architecture review boards, technology standards, or enterprise engineering practices. * Experience managing vendor relationships, licensing strategy, or platform service contracts. * Experience developing metrics and executive dashboards for reliability, cost, risk, and operational performance. * Experience mentoring technical leads or senior engineers in a matrixed organization. * Experience driving cultural change toward automation, accountability, reliability, and self-service engineering. #LI-Onsite Full-time office role. ## Description This position requires office presence of a minimum of 5 days per week and is only located in the location(s) posted. No relocation is offered. AT&T will not hire any applicants for this position who require employer sponsorship now or in the future. Join AT&T and reimagine the communications and technologies that connect the world. The Technology Services organization is responsible for advancing information technology performance and delivering solutions with a focus on maximizing ROI, increasing efficiency, and enhancing the experience of end users. Guided by experienced leaders, Corporate Systems seamlessly integrates with advanced Technology and Operations to drive our enterprise forward. Our Systems Reliability and Software Delivery teams are unwavering in their commitment to excellence, ensuring every solution is robust and efficient. When you step into a career with AT&T, you won't just imagine the future, you'll create it. What you'll do: The Principal Systems Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for the reliability, security, scalability, governance, and strategic direction of critical enterprise platforms and cloud services. They will design, architect, and evolve enterprise-grade applications, platforms, and integration services by transforming business requirements into resilient technical solutions. Provide technical leadership for Kafka and IXBUS platforms, enabling event-driven architectures, real-time data exchange, and enterprise integration capabilities that deliver scalability, reliability, observability, and operational excellence across cloud and on-premises environments.This role influences engineering, operations, architecture, security, and support teams while driving automation, modernization, operational excellence, and continuous improvement. * Serve as the senior technical leader and primary platform steward for critical enterprise platforms and cloud services. * Define and influence platform strategy, technical direction, architecture alignment, and long-term modernization roadmaps. * Lead cross-functional initiatives across Engineering, Operations, Architecture, Cybersecurity, Support, and business stakeholders. * Establish and promote engineering standards, operational best practices, automation principles, and platform governance models. * Own platform reliability, scalability, resiliency, lifecycle planning, operational readiness, and business continuity posture. * Lead compliance, cybersecurity, access governance, risk-management, and audit-readiness initiatives. * Drive automation-first approaches across infrastructure, deployments, operational workflows, support processes, and self-service capabilities. * Provide strategic oversight for CI/CD pipeline governance, release standards, artifact management, infrastructure automation, and deployment maturity. * Lead observability, monitoring, alerting, logging, and service health strategies to improve operational visibility and reduce incident impact. * Act as the highest-level escalation point for complex technical issues, major incidents, and platform-impacting events. * Lead root cause analysis, problem management, corrective action planning, and prevention of recurring issues. * Guide capacity planning, cloud cost optimization, licensing strategy, technology lifecycle management, and platform sustainability. * Own disaster recovery strategy, planning, exercises, documentation, and continuous improvement. * Mentor senior engineers and technical leads, helping raise the engineering maturity of the broader organization. * Influence decisions without direct authority by building alignment, communicating tradeoffs, and driving consensus. ## Related Videos - [AI-Augmented DevOps with Platform Engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1614-ai-augmented-devops-with-platform-engineering) - [How to Benchmark Your Apache Kafka](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/76-how-to-benchmark-your-apache-kafka) - [Technical Documentation - How Can I Write Them Better and Why Should I Care?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/681-technical-documentation-how-can-i-write-them-better-and-why-should-i-care) - [Understanding Kubernetes in a visual way](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100085-understanding-kubernetes-in-a-visual-way) - [Shipping Faster with Less: Render on Cloud Hosting, AI Workloads, and the Future of DevOps](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1894-shipping-faster-with-less-render-on-cloud-hosting-ai-workloads-and-the-future-of-devops) - [Let's Get Started With Apache Kafka® for Python Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/565-let-s-get-started-with-apache-kafka-for-python-developers) ## Related Articles - [How We Built a Worry-Free System That Runs for 10+ Years – And What We’d Do Again](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/751-how-we-built-a-worry-free-system-that-runs-for-10-years-and-what-we-d-do-again) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift) - [What Are The Top Skills Required For Azure Developers?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/77-what-are-the-top-skills-required-for-azure-developers) - [Coffee with Developers - Maria Apazoglou - Making AI understandable for all in production](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/475-coffee-with-developers-maria-apazoglou-making-ai-understandable-for-all-in-production) - [Is Software Engineering Over-Saturated?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/418-is-software-engineering-over-saturated) - [What Makes WeAreDevelopers World Congress Different From Every Other Tech Event?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/701-what-makes-wearedevelopers-world-congress-different-from-every-other-tech-event)