Principal Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Kazakhstan, +1 more country.

📋 Description

• Set the technical vision for the entire k0rdent engineering department, which includes core k0rdent, AI Infrastructure, and AI Applications.

• Maintain end-to-end architectural consistency throughout the platform.

• Write code, design systems, prototype complex challenges, and make key architectural decisions.

• Collaborate with engineering directors, managers, product management, and executive leadership to turn strategy into technical execution.

• Act as the senior technical representative with customers, partners, upstream communities, and external forums.

• Define and advance the multi-quarter technical roadmap for k0rdent.

• Lead the design of high-risk, cross-cutting components and interfaces related to cluster/state management, GPU/AI runtimes, application serving, and observability.

• Establish department-wide standards for API design, testing, observability, performance, security, multi-tenancy, and operational readiness.

• Mentor Staff and Principal engineers while supporting their technical career growth and senior IC hiring.

• Collaborate with Kubernetes, CNCF, OpenTelemetry, AI/ML projects, and model-serving runtime communities.

• Represent Mirantis at customer engagements, upstream projects, conferences, standards bodies, and in technical publications.

• Identify and address architectural, security, scalability, and integration risks.

⛳️ Requirements

• Expert-level knowledge of Kubernetes internals and cluster lifecycle, distributed systems, AI/ML workload runtimes, model serving, GPU scheduling, autoscaling in bursty inference traffic, and modern observability.

• Capability to design large-scale, multi-tenant systems that span multiple subsystems and effectively communicate designs in writing.

• Ability to identify and prioritize essential architectural decisions across a wide surface area over a two- to three-year timeframe.

• Proven record of driving technical direction across multiple teams and organizations without formal authority.

• Demonstrated success in developing Staff, Principal, and Tech Lead-level engineers.

• Proficiency in articulating complex technical trade-offs clearly to engineers, executives, customers, and the broader community.

• Understanding of how engineering choices impact cost, revenue, and risk.

• Strong judgment in rapidly evolving areas, particularly AI infrastructure.

• Effective collaboration with product management, design, sales engineering, and customer-facing teams.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or 10 years of relevant experience.

• Preferred: At least five years in a technical leadership role.

🏝️ Benefits

• Professional development and training opportunities.

• Participation in conferences and working groups.

• Company outings, happy hours, hackathons, and tech talks.

• Competitive compensation package along with a robust benefits plan.

• Work alongside exceptionally passionate, talented, and engaging colleagues.

• Contribute to cutting-edge, open-source innovation.

• Thrive in a high-energy environment that values openness, collaboration, risk-taking, and continuous growth.