Western Governors University · 1 day ago
Principal Cloud Engineer
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$157K/yr - $243K/yr
6+ years expWestern Governors University (WGU) is reimagining higher education through technology and innovation. We’re seeking a Principal Cloud Engineer to help design and build the next generation of cloud infrastructure that powers accessible, high-quality education for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide.
Higher Education
Responsibilities
Design, build, and optimize AWS-based infrastructure for scalability, performance, and reliability
Serve as WGU’s Kubernetes expert, leading cluster design, deployment automation, monitoring, and continuous improvement
Implement and manage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines using tools like Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation
Define and maintain High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies to meet RTO/RPO targets
Partner with engineering, product, and architecture teams to ensure cloud infrastructure supports academic and business objectives
Automate provisioning, monitoring, and deployments to accelerate delivery and reduce operational overhead
Mentor engineers and promote DevOps, security, and cloud architecture best practices across teams
Qualification
Required
Expert-level hands-on experience with AWS services and distributed systems design
Deep Kubernetes expertise, including cluster configuration, scaling, networking, and observability
Strong proficiency with automation and configuration management tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation
Scripting and programming skills in Python, Bash, or Node.js
Solid knowledge of cloud networking, security, and monitoring
Experience with observability tools like CloudWatch, New Relic, or Prometheus
Proven success implementing CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation at scale
Excellent communication, documentation, and collaboration skills
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology or related field (or equivalent relevant experience)
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (both required)
6+ years of experience managing production cloud or IT workloads
3+ years of hands-on experience with core AWS services (VPC, IAM, EC2, ELB, RDS, Route53, S3)
3+ years of experience building CI/CD pipelines using CodeBuild, CodePipeline, and/or CodeDeploy
3+ years of experience automating infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation
3+ years using AWS governance and compliance tools such as Config, Inspector, and Lambda
Preferred
Experience integrating AWS with on-prem or hybrid enterprise technologies
Expertise with serverless computing (Lambda, Step Functions) and cloud cost optimization
Familiarity with compliance frameworks (HIPAA, FERPA, PCI, SOX)
JSON/YAML fluency and API integration experience
Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives
Benefits
Bonuses
Medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
Health savings account and flexible spending account
Basic and voluntary life insurance
Disability coverage
Accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
Legal and identity theft coverage
Retirement savings plan
Wellbeing program
Discounted WGU tuition
Flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual
Flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual
11 paid holidays
Other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave
Company
Western Governors University
Western Governors University focuses on improving lives by creating pathways to opportunity for its students.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Western Governors University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (6)
2024 (4)
2023 (12)
2022 (30)
2021 (17)
2020 (37)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
unknownKey Investors
Kauffman Foundation
2025-05-08Grant
Leadership Team
Stephen Herzig
Vice President of Enterprise Solutions
Kacey Thorne
Senior Director, Academic Strategic Initiatives
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